Man, woman, both?

         An undefeated season are what most teams can only dream about. Last night, this dream came true for the Baylor lady bears as they beat Notre Dame in the National Championship to finish their season 40-0. One of the key reasons for their victory last night and their success this season was the play of the all American, Brittney Griner. Watching her yesterday, she was literally head and shoulders above the competition. She stands a whopping 6'8", has a 88 inch wingspan, and more athleticism than majority of the girls in the game. Being a Notre Dame fan, it was both fascinating and frustrating to watch dissect the Notre Dame defense time and time again all the while not allowing Notre Dame anything inside. In no other sport have I seen a player become that dominant and vital in a game then Brittney Griner was in this game. After the game, I looked up some youtube clips, only to be shocked and a little apauled. There were many times when she spoke, dunked, or looked at the camera with her adam's apple bulging, where I mistook her for a man. Immediately I thought back to the story of Caster Semenya, the South African sprinter who after reaching great success in the sport, in the form of a few gold models, she was tested and discovered to lack ovaries and have three times the amount of testosterone in her body than the average female. Both Semenya and Griner are clearly dominant in their respective sports but also continue to show some very manly qualities. The difficult part is what we should decide to do.

          Putting Griner in a women's league gives her a severe advantage over her competition. It would be like if a baseball player took a large amount of steroids, but had no side effects. Though this is something that Griner can't change nor control, having such high testosterone levels is simply unfair to the other girls in the league. Just like with steroids in baseball, if you want to compete with the other players that are steroid users, you have to level the playing field by taking steroids yourself. Only thing here is, no girl in the WNBA or WNCAA can make this change. For now, most sports officials seem to not want to address the issue and are allowing the girls to play on.

        What Griner and Semenya have both taught us is that gender isn't as black and white as it seems. Not only is Griner bringing in great audiences with her play, but she is paving the way for those of mixed gender worldwide.  Many people today still view gender switches and hermaphrodites as abnormal, freaks, and something that should be frowned upon. They believe that gender is something that can't be ambiguous or changed, it is simply something that is given to you and a part of your identity. However, for a few, gender isn't as straight forward as it seems and is often something that can confuse an individual As society becomes more accepting of sexual orientation, seeing as it no longer is labeled a mental illness, I challenge it to become more accepting of the transgendered and hermaphrodites as well.