This kerfuffle over the woman track star from South Africa? The one who may be a hermaphrodite. It brought to mind an extraordinary woman. She did something years ago that caused millions to heave sighs of relief.

There was something extraordinary about that: None of the reports of the event dared mention the very thing that prompted that collective sigh.

More about her later.

I feel sympathy for the South African woman. Some reports suggest she is half-man, physically. Critics say she probably has a flow of hormones and whatever that we normally find in men. That is why she is so strong and muscular and leaves other women athletes in the dust.

I feel more sympathy for millions of men and women who are in similar situations. We all know girls and women who look and sound like boys and men. Their limbs bristle with hair and bulge with muscles. Their voices may be deep. Their gestures and movements may look mannish.

We all know boys and men who look and sound like girls and women. They mince about, flutter fingers, throw like girls. And all that. Many of them tell us they feel they are women trapped in men’s bodies.