14 DAY TRIAL // Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old athlete from South Africa who now holds the 800m champion title since August, continues to be at the center of a huge controversy regarding her true gender – and will remain so until the results for all tests she’s to undertake will return. In the meantime, Semenya, now turned national hero, has agreed to pose for the national glossy magazine YOU, which even deemed necessary that she undergo a complete makeover, as Times Online can confirm.
The cover of YOU has Semenya in a black designer gown, arm laden with oversized bracelets, nails painted and hair done in curls, and includes the caption “Wow, look at Caster now!” The pages of the mag include even more photos – a four-page spread actually –, which show the athlete trying on several looks, such as jeans and sparkly tops and other dresses. As expected, there is also an interview with Caster herself, who says just what any other 18-year-old girl in the world would say: that she likes to wear dresses and play dress-up, but doesn’t have enough time, and that she’d like to learn to do her own makeup instead of having people do it for her.
“I am who I am and I am proud of myself. I’d like to dress up more often and wear dresses but I never get the chance. I’d also like to learn to do my own makeup.” Caster explains. At the same time, the magazine editor reveals how Caster was so happy about the outfits YOU picked for her she bought them all once the photoshoot was over. Moreover, it also mentions that, while she remains somewhat indifferent to the ongoing gender controversy, she is not a complete stranger to it, since she was asked before to submit herself to gender testing – only she didn’t know and thought she was being tested for drugs.
While most of the international media has embraced Caster’s makeover, saying it only goes to reveal to the whole world the fabulous woman she is inside, not everyone is convinced. Owen Slot of the Times Online, for instance, says choosing a glossy magazine to affirm her femininity was by far the smartest choice. Not that Slot states his belief that Caster may have indeed lied about her gender to take part in the competition or anything: he just thinks the athlete is being used as a pawn by forces that are much stronger than her and to which she cannot resist.
“The chances are that Semenya felt pretty good about herself when this photoshoot was done. You have to hope so. But you have to know, too, that she has become more than just an unwitting athlete dealing with horribly degrading public exposure, she has become a political figure. It started with the politicians in her own home athletics federation, but then it simply escalated. […] Why such a public statement about her femininity now when a team of scientists are simultaneously drawing conclusions that may not agree with it. It is indecently hasty when she could easily have waited until the science had been completed.” Slot writes.