The Nazis had many victims, but Hermann Ratjen is one of the most bizarre.
With all eyes on the 1936 Berlin Olympics, it was important for the Nazis that Germany perform well. Not surprisingly where fair play wouldn’t work … they resorted to cheating.
Hence German male Hermann was made to compete as a “Dora” in the women’s athletics.
Looking at her picture, what’s shocking isn’t that she was discovered, but that it took until 1938 for her secret to be unearthed. Mind you this is Germany we’re talking about, and you don’t here the words “German Beauty Queen” bandied about too often.
It could also put an entire new spin on World War Two. With perhaps German men so keen to occupy France and surrounding countries in search of better looking women. And why they pulled out of Russia so messily.
The legacy of this and several other incidents was a physical gender identification test as part of athletics. Basically this involved women competitors being forced to submit to a gynaecological examination to confirm their gender. In the 1976 Montreal Olympics, all competitors had to have this done, with the exception of Princess Anne as she was Royalty, and might take offense at the proceedure. However have you seen Princess Anne? Haven’t you felt just a bit suspicious?
Meanwhile the examination was a humiliation that female athletes had to endure, until it was abandoned in the 1990s. One problem was some women can have partially developed male genitalia as a birth defect, and this automatically causes them to be banned from competition – such as Poles Ewa Kłobukowska and Stella Walsh.
Today there are some tests which can be performed along with the mandatory drug tests, but there is no black-and-white litmus test to say male/female with assurity.
But the accusation is easily made against successful athletes who perform well but are no great beauties. Hence there were once rumours Martina Navratilova was really a man, but no one has ever levelled this against Anna Kournikova.
So now step forward South African runner Caster Semenya, a runner who has performed well, but isn’t going to be getting a call any time soon from Hugh Hefner to front the next edition of Playboy. Speculation is rife – is Caster too good to be a woman? Hence they’ve been made to submit to a gender identity test International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) the results of which are yet to be published.
History has shown that athletes can’t be trusted, men have pretended to be women in the past, athletes have used all forms of steroids and thought they’d get aware with it. However should testing allow athletes to retain some dignity?
Time and tests have shown that indeed this individual has a body with male and female traits. Many areas of society have moved on to try and treat such individuals always as people first. Alas not so in sports it seems, where the issue of gender and questionable gender will always rear something ugly.
With all eyes on the 1936 Berlin Olympics, it was important for the Nazis that Germany perform well. Not surprisingly where fair play wouldn’t work … they resorted to cheating.
Hence German male Hermann was made to compete as a “Dora” in the women’s athletics.
Looking at her picture, what’s shocking isn’t that she was discovered, but that it took until 1938 for her secret to be unearthed. Mind you this is Germany we’re talking about, and you don’t here the words “German Beauty Queen” bandied about too often.
It could also put an entire new spin on World War Two. With perhaps German men so keen to occupy France and surrounding countries in search of better looking women. And why they pulled out of Russia so messily.
The legacy of this and several other incidents was a physical gender identification test as part of athletics. Basically this involved women competitors being forced to submit to a gynaecological examination to confirm their gender. In the 1976 Montreal Olympics, all competitors had to have this done, with the exception of Princess Anne as she was Royalty, and might take offense at the proceedure. However have you seen Princess Anne? Haven’t you felt just a bit suspicious?
Meanwhile the examination was a humiliation that female athletes had to endure, until it was abandoned in the 1990s. One problem was some women can have partially developed male genitalia as a birth defect, and this automatically causes them to be banned from competition – such as Poles Ewa Kłobukowska and Stella Walsh.
Today there are some tests which can be performed along with the mandatory drug tests, but there is no black-and-white litmus test to say male/female with assurity.
But the accusation is easily made against successful athletes who perform well but are no great beauties. Hence there were once rumours Martina Navratilova was really a man, but no one has ever levelled this against Anna Kournikova.
So now step forward South African runner Caster Semenya, a runner who has performed well, but isn’t going to be getting a call any time soon from Hugh Hefner to front the next edition of Playboy. Speculation is rife – is Caster too good to be a woman? Hence they’ve been made to submit to a gender identity test International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) the results of which are yet to be published.
History has shown that athletes can’t be trusted, men have pretended to be women in the past, athletes have used all forms of steroids and thought they’d get aware with it. However should testing allow athletes to retain some dignity?
Time and tests have shown that indeed this individual has a body with male and female traits. Many areas of society have moved on to try and treat such individuals always as people first. Alas not so in sports it seems, where the issue of gender and questionable gender will always rear something ugly.
posted by WhiteCrowUK at 9:41 am
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