My jaw is literally dropped as I look at this picture of Caster Semenya. It doesn't shock me that a magazine is trying to primp a female athlete in order to sell magazines (nothing sells like the word makeover in the Western world, but it seems like the magazine that gave her the makeover must be completely blind to any of the criticism of Semenya -- that some of the gender testing of Semenya was intrusive, that, hey, we shouldn't be making such a big deal about a female athlete's looks, because it's sexist. Where has You magazine of South Africa been? Perhaps because the magazine represents the country that Semenya is from, they feel the need to bolster the image of the country (See, our women are not tomboys!) I find it utterly ridiculous, and as Chris Chase of Yahoo Sports said, forced:

Let's hope this is what she wants though.

Nothing Semenya has done in the past month has suggested that she likes to wear dresses, get manicures and let down her hair. After the controversy broke, she kept her cornrows, wore baggy clothes and pounded her chest in victory like a college football cornerback. When she returned to her hometown, she was dressed the same way. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. That seemed to be Semenya's natural inclination. This feels forced.

Yes. If Semenya wanted to present herself this way, I think she would have no problem dressing like this on her own. No makeover necessary. I could be totally wrong. She does say in the article that "I'd like to dress up more often and wear dresses" but something tells me that this is all the idea of a magazine and country... and world... that feels anxious when it confronts a human it can't easily categorize. I hope that Semenya might embrace her true identity and presentation, whatever that might be, so that young female athletes find a little less pressure to conform to their society's definition of femininity and beauty.

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