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How Society Judges People

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Society judges everyone by how well they follow preset characteristics for each gender. Each gender has preset characteristics, and when one doesn’t meet these certain “preset” characteristics of their gender, they are often judged and looked upon by society, and this leads to people questioning their own identity. In Peggy Orenstein's “What Makes a Woman a Woman,” society questioned Caster Semenya after she annihilated her competition in a running match. Orenstein later questions herself asking if she really is a woman because she had surgery which removed her organs that mainly described her true gender because in society’s eyes one is not a certain sex if their organs that define their sex are removed. In Michael Chabon’s “Faking It” Chabon’s father acted like he had the situation under control when really he had no idea what he was doing, and later Chabon lets this stereotype judge how he handles a similar situation himself. In Orenstein's “What Makes a Woman a Woman” Caster Semenya annihilates her competition in a race. However, according to society this isn’t natural for a woman to completely shutout her competition in running, and because of this Semenya was looked upon by society. Orenstein says “”Semenya’s saga was made for the news media. A girl who may not be a girl!” Because Semenya didn’t meet the preset characteristics of a normal woman in her times, her gender was questioned. As a result of her being questioned this raises a lot of questions within society, such as should all female athletes be gender-verified and should the entire practice of sex-segregating sports be abandoned. This can also lead to other women within that society questioning their own identities, if they don’t meet society’s standards for a woman. As a result of Semenya being overlooked upon by society, Orenstein also starts questioning her identity purely because of society’s stereotype. Orenstein states

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