When you’re a 15-year-old girl, having people question your gender would have to be just about the worst thing imaginable. But it pales in comparison to being forced to undergo a gender test, only to go back to school the next day and told to act like everything is normal.
Fast forward eleven years? And suddenly you’re being asked to do it all again.
That has been reality for Korean soccer player Park Eun-Seon.
Park Eun-Seon is ridiculously good at playing soccer. She’s so talented, in fact, that when she was 15 she had to physically prove her femaleness in order to establish that she was not, in fact, a man.
Park, who is 5’9″ and weighs around 74 kilograms, passed that test and went on represent her country at the 2003 World Cup, 2004 Olympics and 2005 Asian Games. And she continued to excel.
Last season, playing for the Seoul City Hall Amazones, Park scored 19 goals in the 22 games she played.
Some people would call Park Eun-Seon incredibly talented. But others believe she’s cheating. That if her talent and strength are not the result of drugs, then she must be a he.
Recent reports out of South Korea suggest an entire league worth of women is now threatening to boycott the upcoming season unless Park Eun-Seon takes another gender test.
According to news reports, coaches from the league’s six other clubs have said their teams wouldn’t play unless Park Eun-Seon undergoes the same test she went through almost to 11 years ago.
Top Comments
I'm sorry but I have to agree with anon here, they look like dudes! And I have to think that the whole idea of a category for women, is by definition because we're weaker. Or somehow inferior to men in sport. Physically. I'm a feminist, but I know they swim, run and play faster and harder. We can't gain the muscle mass demonstrated by semenya above. I've never seen it, anyway.
It must be disheartening to be questioned over and over, sounds humiliating, unless we're talking a swab or blood sample for "xx"? but it's understandable.
Oh and I do think there should be height ranges for relevant sports, just like there's bantam and heavy weight. There should be higher baskets for taller categories. It really is a clear, unfair advantage.
The term "hermaphrodite" is no longer used. It's intersex.
Thank you for that. I had wondered what intersex meant but never looked it up. My husband was no use; I asked him if he knew what intersex was, and he responded, "I'm into sex!". Dork.