ABSTRACT

Black masculinity and femininity have been read outside the normative gender sphere since plantation slavery. The construction of Black femininity, is apparent in the treatment of Caster Semenya, whose treatment is reminiscent to that of ‘the so-called’ Hottentot Venus, Sarah Bartmann. This comparison has been made due to the voyeurism they have been subjected to and the spectacle that has been made of their bodies. Semenya’s treatment is reflective of the legacy of plantation slavery which created material conditions that were used to dominate and dehumanize African men and women. In this paper, we will examine how Caster Semenya’s femininity has been constructed through a racist, Western lens and the different ways in which race has been used to construct Black femininity, and the divergent discourses of Black women’s sexuality and femininity. Furthermore, we will show how the process of gender verification testing is a means of forcing Semenya to assimilate to a white, Western standard of beauty and ensure the continued exclusion of racialized, particularly, Black (female) athletes in sport.

摘要

自从种植园被奴役以来，黑人男性气质和女性气质已在规范的性别领域之外被阅读。黑人女性气质的构造在施塔曼·塞梅尼亚（Caster Semenya）的治疗中很明显，这种治疗让人联想到所谓的“霍滕托特·维纳斯（Hottentot Venus）”萨拉·巴特曼（Sarah Bartmann）的治疗。之所以进行这种比较，是因为他们遭受了偷窥狂，并且视其身体为奇观。Semenya的待遇反映了人工林奴隶制的遗产，这种遗产创造了物质条件，这些条件被用来支配和削弱非洲男女的人性化。在本文中，我们将研究如何通过种族主义，西方视角来建构卡斯特·塞梅尼亚的女性气质，以及种族被用来构建黑人女性气质的不同方式，以及黑人女性的性与女性气质的不同论述。