she's the man

Wonders, and disguise, will never
cease! From when Portia dressed
as a man of laws in
Shakespearean literature to
when some lady defended a
controversial Presidential election winner in a man-like manner,
there has been doubt of just
how manly women can get. Just
the other day a couple was
arguing. They were on the
verge of breaking up, when the husband released one last straw.
“Semenya wewe!” With that, he broke the camel’ s back. That got me thinking, what
defines a woman, an African
woman at that? Where does
femininity end and masculinity
begin? Is crying exclusively
female? Is there a limit for what is male and what is female any
more? Apart from the obvious
differences in physical features,
where does nature, or humanity,
draw the line? Or perhaps there
is no line…maybe. After Semenya crossed the line in the
(wo)men’ s 800m final, questions were asked. And still, there are
no clear answers! Is it the hair? Definitely no. Walk
along the streets of some tows
in Kenya and you will know that
there is more market for the
kinyozi than the salon. Walk in
Nairobi and you will be shocked at how much plastic is worn in
place of hair. I do not know
whether this is weird, right or
wrong, it is after all, a matter
of choice and one can weave
and barber their hair, or scalp, as they please. Is it the physique? The physical
features? Certainly not. I have a
tendency of being too
conservative and appending
unnecessary benefits of doubt
to people. Some few months back when a friend of mine told
me of fake hips, I laughed it off
until I actually saw hips on sale. I
could not believe my eyes.
Seeing is believing and hips
don’ t lie. What with wearing a padding of foam, or whatever
material they wear, and
flaunting it out and about?
Again, it is just a matter of
choice. If you were not born
with it, buy it, some claim. But what brought me to awe
and shock was Semenya’ s story. Whether or not she is
male or female is yet to be
proven and apparently the
results take weeks to be
confirmed. As we all wait for the
X versus Y lab results, it is just but with speculation that we
can live. But seriously, that
girl’ s abbes, or that man’ s abbes, can put most of you to
shame, and that is one of the
key factors that made the
complainants mad! How does a
girl get to have such a rusty
masculine voice? With sculptured arms and an extremely flat
chest? It is possible to achieve
some of those but all of them?
Really? Our female Kenyan athletes look
feminine, sound feminine and run
in a quaint lady like manner. Not
the Usain Bolt styled run that
shocked us all! Worse, this so
called “lady”, gestured in a most masculine manner after her
huge victory which got the
critics thinking. What lady
gesticulates like a hip-hop idiot
after her races? Is it wrong for
a woman to gesture in a “manly” way? Certainly not. But it is certainly not the wisest of
ideas for someone who is
controversially female to gesture
in a man-like manner in front of
other real ladies! But wait a second; are we being
too judgmental by demanding for
“sex tests”? or do we really just need to know the
controversy surrounding
Semenya? Whether or not (s)he
turns out to be truly (fe)male, I
think the media has blown the
issue out of proportion and maybe (s)he will be affected for
the rest of his/her career. But
women have almost replaced
men as the trouser wearers in
the society and jobs are no
longer based on gender. Guys, now that the women-folk is
doubting Semenya, let us accept
her into the easy world and life
of men. Man up Semen-ya,
welcome to the other side! "There is a thin line between
truth and fiction. This is that
line."