eVideo
Kanopy
Category: Woman
Summary
After then 18-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, her personal medical records were leaked to the international media. The public scrutiny of her body, driven by racism and sexism, brought into question her identity as a woman and as a a great champion. The International Amateur Athletics Federation (now World Athletics) ruled that certain female athletes must medically alter their healthy bodies in order to compete, and their naturally high androgen levels were deemed a performance advantage. CATEGORY: WOMAN follows four athletes forced out of competition by regulations that profile and target women athletes, and the subsequent devastation to their bodies, and livelihoods. But these individuals are emboldened by a conviction to stand up against this violation of their human rights. Following up on her award-winning film Toxic Beauty, Phyllis Ellis exposes an industry controlled by men putting women’s lives at risk while this policing of women’s bodies in sport remains, in a more nefarious way, under the guise of fair play.