Talk:Santhi Soundarajan

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Really i am confused about the Gender Test.

• How can a panel judge the gender of an athlete ?

• In biological terms is a womb necessary to identify a person as female? Even if the person is unable conceive?

• Is a visible sex organ necessary?

• is Gender changing is a Game of Hormones?

• Is it possible to identify a Third gender person before puberty, by using such technology?

• Can technology be used to prevent the incidence of third gender? Hormone therapy? Genetic engineering ?

(ismail_ngr 18:53, 19 December 2006 (UTC))

I must agree with part of the above. The misuse of the grammatical term gender to mean sex has become widespread but the dubious argument used to justify this is that gender is a social construct. This athlete appears to have self-identified as a female, and if we are to accept the absurd argument that biological sex has no meaning, would thus pass a gender test. Accordingly, the usage on the article page has been corrected.ER^Talk 12:01, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

What has been neglected in this Wikipedia article is the fact that Santhi actually has a condition called 'Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome' (or AIS). In short, she IS a woman and doesn't just simply identify as such. Her condition means that her body doesn't have the ability to respond to testosterone, which is the main contributing factor in males having greater muscle mass and strength etc. than women. With Santhi having no testosterone, she is not different to any other female athlete. In fact, she probably has less testosterone effect than most women. 'Sex' is a very complex issue and not easily identified or categorised. That is why the IOC stopped doing gender testing at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

In the last Olympic Games it has been reported that 7 athletes with AIS competed without issue or concern. It is because the sporting world knows of the variations that exist in gender. The greatest concern with the Asian Games and Santhi, is the fact that someone was able to leak information from a 'confidential' sex test before the results were complete.

Santhi has not failed a sex test! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Beintelligent (talk • contribs)

In the context of this entry the use of the term "Sex Test" is incorrect in all occurances regardless of grammatical considerations. The term used by the IOC and IAAF is "Gender Verification". IAAF Policy on Gender Verification --Timetrial 11:22, 5 February 2007 (UTC)