Caitlin Parker
There has been an emergence of harmful transphobia online following Imane Khelif’s fight against Angela Carini at the 2024 Paris Olympics. With both Khelif and Carini being cis women, it demonstrates that transphobia thrives on sensationalism and misinformation. This is the true epidemic. Not the transgender corruption of sporting integrity, as anti-LGBT+ conservatives might claim it to be.
This controversy quickly twisted into a debate around transgender identities. Such discrimination has been simmering at the corners of the internet since the Olympics began. It begs the question – when will transphobes ever face the facts? Do they even want to?
Controversy Surrounds Imane Khelif’s Olympics Victory
Controversy began after the Algerian boxer defeated her Italian opponent, Carini, in a match that lasted just 46 seconds. Carini’s decision to end the fight was as a result of a painful blow to the face, and she refused to shake the Algerian’s hand afterwards. Tensions were high between the two women at the early termination of the match. However, Carini later apologised to her opponent, stating that if she met her again she would “embrace her”. Since then, it has been impossible to extract this match from the sensationalist questioning around the gender of Khelif. Debate has revolved around whether she should have been allowed to compete in the Olympics as a woman at all.
“At the slightest hint that real-life experiences of gender do not conform to simple binaries or stereotypes, the online attacks begin”
It is almost impossible to find this match online without encountering opposing arguments from the IBA (International Boxing Association) and the IOC (International Olympic Committee). The former suggests that Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 Women’s World Championships due to the result of an unspecified eligibility test. Meanwhile, the IOC states that they recognise Khelif as a female athlete, as she was “born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport”. They also clarified: “This is not a transgender case… scientifically this is not a man fighting a woman”. With two official bodies opposing each other, how are the the transgender community supposed to fight against misinformation and transphobia?
Online Abuse and Misinformation Fuel Misplaced Gender Controversy Beyond The Olympics
Of course, the specifics of how exactly gender is defined have been a constant debate of the contemporary moment. Yet, much of the online abuse towards Khelif takes no account of such nuances, even though Khelif is a cis-gender woman. Grey areas do not seem to exist online. At the slightest hint that real-life experiences of gender do not conform to simple binaries or stereotypes, the online attacks begin.
“Misinformation, transphobia, hate speech has no monopoly on the truth”
Almost predictably, at the frontline of such transphobic misinformation is JK Rowling, whose incessant tweets since the controversy began have included misgendering Khelif as a male, and claiming that the match was a representation of men revelling in their power over women.
The idea that those objecting to a male punching a female in the name of sport are objecting because they believe Khelif to be ‘trans’ is a joke. We object because we saw a male punching a female. https://t.co/KSAM5RCl1S
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 2, 2024
Other public figures who have supported this transphobic view are Donald Trump, Elon Musk and, crawling out of the cyber-woodwork, Logan Paul. In a since-deleted tweet, Paul stated that the match ‘represented the purest form of evil’.He afterwards admitted he ‘might’ have been guilty of spreading misinformation. This match has become an excuse for right-wing conservatives to vocalise their hatred and lack of understanding of any view of gender that does not conform to their tightly policed binaries.
Olympic Level Mental Gymnastics: The Flaws of Transphobic Logic and the Complexity of Gender
I just wish that some of them had done their research. According to GLAAD, Khelif is a woman, does not identify as transgender or intersex, and there has been no evidence that Khelif has a variation in sex traits. Whilst she might have high levels of testosterone, this is not representative of one side of a gender binary, but evidence that gender can not be reduced to a simplistic cause-and-effect explanation. Furthermore, sport is inherently linked to biological advantages, and if the IOC were to exclude all athletes who might have such advantages, most of the world’s favourite medal winners would be excluded. Essentially, transphobic logic never stands to inspection. It is based on a non-existent structure of gender that remains to privilege patriarchal standards for women. Rowling suggested that we should be able to know through sight that Khelif is trans.
How to Move Forward?
Rowling has tried to present this boxing match as a symbol of glorified male violence. But she is ignorant if she believes cis men need to pretend to be women to enact violence. That kind of violence happens around us every day, without consequence. Those who are speaking out against Khelif on the grounds of defending women against abuse, are silent in real-life examples of such. Where was the outrage when convicted rapist Steven Van De Velde was allowed to compete in the same Olympics?
That’s because misinformation, transphobia, hate speech – or whatever you might want to call it – has no monopoly on the truth. It does nothing but lie to the few and endanger the many. As soon as its patriarchal agenda is exposed, the better.
Until then, I hope that we can at least allow people of all genders to finally speak for themselves.
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Featured image courtesy of Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.
