News broke this week that Genoveva Anenma, former African Woman Footballer of the Year, was forced to strip naked in front of officials from her own country and the Confederation of African Football, in order to prove her gender. She was forced to undergo this degrading test after she scored the goal that won Equatorial Guinea the 2008 African Women’s Championship. Her performance had caused the other teams in the tournament to accuse her of being a man.
This “test” turned her greatest triumphs into her ultimate humiliation.
The fact that such a “test” had to take place is undoubtedly shocking, but the reasons why such a test would even be contemplated is the real issue at hand.
We live in an age when the voice of the minority can be heard by more ears than ever before. In the past year, social issues such as racism, sexism, and homophobia have gotten more coverage than they have at arguably any point in time.
Internet institutions such as Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter have brought the public’s attention to the both day-to-day injustices and timeless tragedies caused by discrimination. This is a breakthrough in the fight against discrimination, but it is not without its side effects.
For every person that uses social to bring attention to those affected issue of discrimination, there is another that dismisses them out of annoyance or frustration. Those frustrated see those victimized as deserving of their plight, as if the minorities in question have made some kind of life choice to be the way they are. They cannot understand the victims do not just change.
Those annoyed believe that plenty of attention has already been paid to the issue of discrimination. They think those drawing attention to it now are overzealous drama chasers trumpeting the issue not because they care, but because they want to be seen as caring. The frustrated empathize with the plight of the victims, but either can no longer be bothered with trying to solve it, or believe it already solved.
It is this kind of dismissal, negligence, and ignorance that allows the parasite of discrimination to live on. Both the frustrated and annoyed create a culture in which the subhuman treatment of an individual whose gender is uncertain is permitted.
It is not Anenma’s burden to tell the world of this trauma, it is the world’s duty to make sure she does not experience it at all. Such a test should have never even been thought of, and it definitely should not have been allowed to fly under the radar for 6 years.
As ridiculous as is it for a person who identifies as a woman to have to prove that they actually are one in order to pursue a career as a woman, this is the world of sports. Sports are segregated because men and women are physically different. So when Ghana defender Diana Amkomah accuses Anenma of being a man, saying “You only need to have physical contact with [her] on the pitch to know this,” her suspicions carry weight. Unfair and unscientific as they may be.
Amkomah made those accusations back in 2010. Two years after Anemia’s humiliating test had already confirmed her gender. Apparently, the mere results were not enough to persuade Amkomah.
Hopefully now she knows better.
Anenma’s courage to tell the public about the lengths she has had to go to in order to prove her gender shows the accusations against her for what they are: wounded pride. It is easier for people to say that Anenma is a man than it is for them to accept that a woman is that much faster, stronger, and just plain better than themselves or their teams.
In order to make sure that Anemia’s trauma is never experience by anyone else, the urge to be annoyed and/or frustrated with the struggle against discrimination needs to be fought.
“These accusations come because I am fast and strong, but I know that I am definitely a woman,” said Anenma in the face of Amkomah’s accusations. We owe it to Anenma to support her as strongly as she has supported herself.
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