5th Genre Project - Timeline/ History of Gender Testing

Timeline/ History of Gender Testing

Timeline/ History of Gender Testing

Megan Ervin

4/6/14

1932- Germany won 21 total medals at the Los Angeles Games.
 

1936- Nazi Germany competed in the Berlin Olympics. They planned on surpassing their 21 total medals that Germany won in 1932. The plan was to sneak the 'supermen' into the women’s events. The Nazis forced a young man named Hermann Ratjen to live and compete for three years as Dora Ratjen. Dora was busted while traveling in Germany after the European championships. While wearing women's clothing, Ratjen was spotted with a five o'clock shadow on his face. After summoning a doctor to check things out, Dora's real genitalia were revealed. Ratjen was expelled from competing, so he went back to living as Hermann.

1937- An article was written on the sex changes of Zdenek, Czechoslovakian runner, and Weston, British shot putter and javelin thrower. Zdenek underwent an operation that the Czecho-Slovakian government verified. The Berlin Games was the start of the "she's a man" slur. The case between sprinters Helen Stephens and Stella Walsh proves that this is still useful today:
Stella Walsh was angry about being beaten by her rival, Helen Stephens, so she hurled the line 'that's a man' at Stephens. Walsh protested that Stephens was really a man posing as a female runner, claiming that no woman could run that fast. German officials checked her out and pronounced Stephens as a female. The lead was dropped.

 

 1960- Men passing themselves off as females led to the idea of gender verification testing.
 

1967- Klobukowska won a gold medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. She took a test in 1967. The test registered she had one chromosome too many. She ended her career as a runner.

1968- Klobukowska became pregnant and bore a son. She believed the test was mis-administered or misinterpreted.

1980- Walsh was shot while at a grocery store. The autopsy revealed Walsh had mosaicism, which meant that, chromosomally; she was mostly, but not all, male but had androgynous looks. Walsh looked like a woman. She was also raised as a woman.

 

1985- Maria Patino forgot her 'Certificate of Femininity,’ which was an actual piece of paper claimimg she was a woman, but when she forgot the certificate she couldn't prove she was a woman; therefore, she couldn't race. She failed the retest. She was stripped of her medal, her records were eliminated, her scholarship revoked, her fiancé left, and she was kicked off the National team.

1988- Patino was ineligible for the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.

2012- Caster Semenya had high levels of testosterone but a new policy would allow women with partial or complete androgen insensitivity to pass without trouble.

 

Source Cited

Guilford, Gwynn. "The Long, Strange History Of Gender Testing." The Dish. The Dish, 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.