The most recent controversy in the Rio Olympics, aside from Ryan Lochte's fabricated gas station story, involves the participation of the Women's 800m gold medal favorite.

Caster Semenya is a South African runner who came under controversy several years ago when an Australian newspaper reported that the athlete is a potential hermaphrodite with internal testes. Consequently, Semenya's testosterone levels are rumored to be three times higher than the average female, which provide her a significant competitive advantage against female runners.

Regardless of Semenya's biological sex, the article composed by Deadspin writer Diana Moskovitz screams of progressive lunacy and a flat-out denial of modern science.

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What is it, exactly, that makes me a woman? Is it my breasts? If so, is it because they are a certain size? Is it that I have a womb? Does it matter that I have no idea if my womb works because I’ve never tried to get pregnant? Is it my two X chromosomes or my level of testosterone? I have no idea the status of either my chromosomes or testosterone for the simple reason there’s never been a good medical reason to test them. Asked to prove that I am a woman, I’d probably come up with this—everyone says I’m one.

I find myself returning to that thought exercise as Caster Semenya competes in the 800 meters this week. Semenya was told her entire life that she was a woman. Until she wasn’t.

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As Kate Fagan passed along on Twitter: “I know Semenya is a woman because people are trying to control her body.”

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One tactic, used by SI among others, is warning that this could be the end of women’s sports, as if this and not underfunding, sexual violence, and harassment were what kept women out of sports.

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I think about all the times my life has been defined for me by my womanhood: The thousands of dollars and countless hours spent turning my dark, frizzy hair into shiny, straight auburn locks because I think that’s what men find more attractive. The dance I do in my head during meetings making sure that I come across as assertive but not bitchy. The time I didn’t get a job that I thought I had locked up only to get passed over and, at a loss as to why, an older journalist told me, “The problem was you don’t have a penis.”

Sounds like this gal needs to stop seeking validation through the approval of men and find some self-confidence rather than blaming all of her troubles on the Feminist boogeyman (a.k.a. "the Patriarchy").

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How would I feel if suddenly a defining characteristic of my entire life, my womanhood, was taken away from me? Wiping away all the times I was told I was a woman, treated like a woman, discriminated against because I am a woman all due to the reasoning that my existence made things unfair for other women? I cannot imagine such horror, but I know what my response would be. What do you mean I’m not a woman? Everyone treats me like one.

The Debate About Caster Semenya Isn't About Fairness

This post was edited on 8/18/16 at 5:48 pm