Which slur is worse?

[malmo]

"Nappy headed hos" by a radio talk show buffoon whose audience is a bunch of cretins, or "we're going to make her prove she's a woman" by the head of the IAAF, whose audience is the world?

It's time for Lamine Diack to offer proof he is a man. Judging by the circumstantial evidence thus far, he's not. The IAAF is in dire need of adult supervision.

"The 18-year-old runner's father, Jacob, told the Sowetan newspaper: "She is my little girl. ... I raised her ..."

http://www.philly.com/philly/phillywome ... proar.html

[Marlow]

Re: Which slur is worse?

"we're going to make her prove she's a woman"

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and presume what he MEANT to say was, "We're going to prove she's a woman (so as she shut up all the doubters)." That is still a little insulting (are they going to prove the other 'females' are too?), but given the circumstances, it probably is best if they do.

[malmo]

Re: Which slur is worse?

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt .

Benefit of the doubt is afforded to those who deserve it. This young woman did nothing wrong. She does not deserve such a public humiliation. This is disgraceful and there is no excuse for it.

"The 18-year-old runner's father, Jacob, told the Sowetan newspaper: "She is my little girl. ... I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times."

Incredible restraint for a man who has every right to say "Fuck you all!"

As far as I'm concerned, Caster Semenya is my sister, too.

[TrackDaddy]

Umm..."we're going to make her prove she's a woman" isn't a slur.

At least he didn't say "we're going to make HIM prove he's a woman" or "we're going to make this nappy headed ho prove she's not a man" or something like that. I could see your point then.

Why are yall pretending that she doesnt look like a man?

Isnt that one of the reasons she's being asked to confirm her gender (as unfortunate as it may be)?

[malmo]

Why are yall pretending that she doesnt look like a man?

I can name dozens of American women over the years who (your words not mine) "look like a man."

Wanna name them all right now or would you rather just burn them at the stake?

[Speedfirst]

Why are yall pretending that she doesnt look like a man?

I can name dozens of American women over the years who (your words not mine) "look like a man."

Wanna name them all right now or would you rather just burn them at the stake?

Why Americans only?

[robert5744]

Umm..."we're going to make her prove she's a woman" isn't a slur.

At least he didn't say "we're going to make HIM prove he's a woman" or "we're going to make this nappy headed ho prove she's not a man" or something like that. I could see your point then.

Why are yall pretending that she doesnt look like a man?

Isnt that one of the reasons she's being asked to confirm her gender (as unfortunate as it may be)?

PREACH :!: :!: :!:

[elcaballo]

I can name dozens of American women over the years who (your words not mine) "look like a man."

Wanna name them all right now or would you rather just burn them at the stake?

Good to see the moderation in this debate is continuing :roll:

[SQUACKEE]

However this plays out we are talking about an 18 year old human being with real feelings. Everything publicly said by anyone should keep that in mind.

[Zat0pek]

I completely agree with malmo that it is completely shameful how publicly this young woman is being humiliated. Totally agree.

However...

Based on a couple of things I've read (that don't need repeating), I think there may be a legitimate, though highly complex, issue here.

What is horrible is the headlines. This could have been done very discreetly without the press releases and headlines unless and until there was some decision worthy of reporting. What is being done now is rank speculation being treated as "news". It is shameful and embarrasing.

I walked in to the office this morning and was immediately hit with the question, "Hey, do you think that track star in Berlin is a girl or a guy?" by people who know little or nothing about track.

[Powell]

What is horrible is the headlines. This could have been done very discreetly without the press releases and headlines unless and until there was some decision worthy of reporting.

Hardly. When she appears out of nowhere and wins the world title by a large margin before there is time to answer all the questions, there was no way this wasn't going to become a major story.

[skiboo]

It hardly helps to have journalists [from South Africa if I recall correctly] telling us Semenya was born a hermaphrodite; this was discussed on another thread. Pego pointed out he didn't believe there are hermaphrodites by birth, though I have a friend who claims she was born hermaphroditic. At any rate, a complex issue and like Powell states it was the perfect media storm waiting to happen, with Caster coming out of nowhere to win the biggest meet, all the while being an outlier physically.

[Zat0pek]

. . .it was the perfect media storm waiting to happen, with Caster coming out of nowhere to win the biggest meet, all the while being an outlier physically.

It was only the perfect media storm because the media sells to the lowest common denominator and people are fascinated by anything sexual.

Not that it matters; folks should be able to write whatever purely speculative, slanderous questions they want, right?

[Powell]

It was only the perfect media storm because the media sells to the lowest common denominator and people are fascinated by anything sexual.

The story isn't sexual in the way you mean. It just appeals to the public because it's so controversial and unusual (without a real precedent). Someone on these forums compared it to the Pretorius case, and I agree there are similarities.

[Zat0pek]

Food for thought: http://www.switched.com/2009/08/19/judg ... ?icid=main