#‘accusing’ Imane Khelif of being trans

[blodeuweddschild]

Slightly more moderate terfs in shock that there’s bigotry in their bigot group

[saphirus]

Terfs will rage when they read this, but it wasn't them and their transphobic discourse that made me feel like a woman (I'm afab), but trans people.

When you have a discourse that centers a woman's existence in her body image and only in what's supposed to be her body image, you alienate all those other women who do not fit in that definition into thinking they must be something else.

Which is why, for a long time, I though I might be a trans man. How could I be a woman, if I don't fit any of these people's definition of womanhood, besides the fact I have the genitals they deem correct? But trans people? Trans people made me feel correct in my body. Made me feel accepted and seen.

[joannechocolat]

Two Boxers Walk Into the Ring...

No-one can have missed the absolute scenes on social media, both before and after the boxing match between Imane Khelife and Angela Carini, from which Carini withdrew after just 46 seconds, having received a blow to the face.

Social media had already been abuzz with unfounded claims that Khelife was a man, largely based on her athletic (and to Westerners, “masculine”) body type. (The same rumours had also been spread about Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting; also a woman, assigned female at birth, who got into boxing to protect her mother from domestic violence.) From this explosion of misinformation came increasingly wild claims from all the usual suspects: that she was trans (in spite of coming from a Muslim country where transitioning isn’t allowed); that she had “self-identified” as a woman in order to win (again, not possible in Algeria) plus some quite ghoulish speculation about her sex organs, her medical history and the type of puberty she might have undergone.

But here’s the thing.

Khelife is not trans. There is one trans boxer at the Olympics, a trans man called Hergie Bacyadan, who for some reason has gone almost unnoticed in this desperate attempt to prove a conspiracy that just isn’t happening. Imane Khelife was assigned female at birth, has a passport confirming it, and has spent her life as a woman, fighting against her country’s patriarchal ideas of what women are supposed to do. Not only this, but she is an ambassador for women and girls, who originally took up boxing to protect herself from those who disapproved of her interest in sports.

She was disqualified from the 2023 women’s world championships because (according to a Russian source that becomes less and less trustworthy the more you look into it) tests apparently showed some kind of unspecified anomaly, which may have been either elevated testosterone (quite possible in a woman) or the presence of XY chromosomes, once more altogether possible for a cis woman.

Nor does her condition (if she even has one) mean she is automatically likely to win against her opponents. In 2020, she made it to the quarter-finals of the Olympics, where she was defeated by Kellie Harrington, and she has been boxing on the international circuit for years without any of her wins or defeats gaining much attention.

Until now.

But her fight against Angela Carini on Thursday made her a magnet for some truly disgusting hate, largely, it seems, from the kind of men who enjoy threatening women, whatever the reason or excuse. In fact, there were distinct parallels with this and the recent anti-Muslim riots in Southport after the murderer of three little girls was falsely rumoured by agents of the far-right to be a Muslim immigrant.

Let’s be clear. Even if the attacker had been a Muslim immigrant, this violence would have been completely unacceptable. But the mob just wanted the opportunity to scapegoat and attack a community, in exactly the same way that the people attacking, threatening and objectifying Imane Khelife wanted the chance to attack a woman for not conforming to their idea of what a woman should be like.

In this context, it’s hard to see the rage and violence levelled against her for this victory as anything other than misogynistic - and racist.

It’s also hard to understand why in a sport like boxing – where the whole point is to hit your opponent – a person should be criticized for following the rules of the sport. It’s almost as if excellence is allowed in men’s sports, but in women’s sports, it’s automatically viewed as suspicious. And Imane Khelife isn’t the only athlete of colour accused of “being a man” because she defeated a white woman. Serena Williams has spent her career fending off accusations that she “was born a man” both because of her muscular physique and her excellence in her field. Caster Semenya, who has naturally elevated levels of testosterone, has been likewise demonized. It’s almost as if the people driving this toxic narrative believe that only men can excel in sport.   

And as for the argument that claims that elevated natural testosterone levels in a woman is “an unfair advantage,” don’t all elite athletes have some kind of physical advantage? Do we dismiss basketball players for being unusually tall, or weight-lifters for being unusually muscular, or runners for being lean and light? Why do we celebrate Michael Phelps for his genetic advantage, but penalize Caster Semenya for hers? Women have fought so very hard for the chance to participate in sports that were once seen as the sole province of men. Now, when they dare to excel in them, they are accused of secretly being men, or of not being “proper women.”

This isn’t any kind of feminism I recognize. The feminism I believe in is about breaking down barriers, not setting them. I personally dislike boxing (both for men and for women), but I respect any individual’s choice to compete. And attacking a woman boxer for winning a boxing match is as misogynistic as claiming to “defend” her opponent by painting her as a victim. Both athletes chose to compete. Both accepted the risks. Both have had their Olympic moment ruined by people who don’t care about sports, or the facts, or even women. This isn’t feminism. This is the worst and most patronizing kind of prejudice, and it actively hurts women – all women, but especially women of colour and those who do not conform to traditional ideas of what a woman should look like, what sports she should enjoy, or how she should behave.

Women fought for years for the right to make their own choices, to have their own identities outside of the stereotypes set by the patriarchy. Questioning those choices - those identities - isn’t progress.

 Supporting women doesn’t mean protecting them from themselves.

It means not setting limits on who a woman wants to be.

[missmisandrytabletalk]

Just came on here to say that Imane Khelif IS a woman. You can be gender critical and still have some common sense that the Olympics doesn't permit trans individuals to take part in this category of sports. All athletes are subjected to a few gender tests before they even apply to compete in boxing. And it's literally Algeria we're talking about here lol.

Moids accusing a woman of being a man just because she doesn't have a physique and features of a woman that aligns with their fantasized conventional standards. Though the white crocodile tears were definitely a cherry on top.

The general public loves to jump on the bandwagon without doing any research about the chances of what might that person be suffering from. There has been some claims that she suffers from DSD (Disorder/Differences of Sex Development) in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definitions of female or male. They can have unusual chromosome patterns, atypical genitalia size or difference in the development of testes or ovaries. In her case, she has testosterone levels higher for an average woman but then again it also depends on how much responsive your body is to that particular hormone. She might be an intersex individual but certainly NOT a trans person. Even if you look at her childhood pictures, it was quite apparent that she was born a girl.

Honestly speaking, gender testing system itself shouldn't be really relied upon. Human anatomy is complex and I reckon a simple blood sample doesn't really give us the bigger picture. This situation is a clear embodiment of it, and the Olympics team & IBA is to be solely blamed for this controversy. Anyway, congratulations to her for this glorious feat!

[vavuska]

Imane Khelif.

In 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships, Khelif participated for the first time, where she ranked 17th after being eliminated from the first round.

In the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships held in Russia, where she ranked 33rd after being eliminated from the first round against Natalia Shadrina.

Khelif represented Algeria in the lightweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She was defeated by Ireland's Kellie Harrington in the quarterfinals.

Khelif participated in the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships, she faced Ireland's Amy Broadhurst in the final and was defeated.

She is not a warmachine. Khelif is a biological woman. Khelif is NOT transgender or transsexual. In Algeria, the country that Khelif represents, transgender identity is prohibited, changing sex or gender is not allowed in official documents, nor are medical or hormonal treatments allowed to transition to another sex. If she was transgender, Khelif would not be able to rapresent her country at all nor travel with an official passport with a female identity!

However, pop up this rumor she was disqualified from 2023 IBA's Women's World Boxing Championships due to high levels of testosterone. Later this was debunked by the same organization. Potentially, could be doping and it was all covered up by sport industry.

Edit: This disqualification happened three days after Khelif defeated Azalia Amineva, a previously unbeaten Russian athlete. The disqualification restored the Russian boxer's undefeated record and IBA has huge ties with the Russian government: the president Kremlev is a Putin supporter and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed concerns about the IBA under Kremlev's leadership. The IOC has also been alarmed by the fact that the IBA's only sponsor was a Russian state-owned energy company (Gazprom) that supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Imane Khelif is a UNICEF ambassador, which could again have been seen as a problem by Russian-led IBA, since UNICEF condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine. IBA's allegations that Khelif had failed unspecified eligibility tests are suspicious, expecially because no medical evidence that Khelif has XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone has been published.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), cleared Khelif to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, confirming that she complied with all necessary eligibility and medical regulations for the event. The IOC noted that Khelif was a woman according to her passport and that this was not a "transgender issue".

She defeated Angela Carini in 42 seconds at the 2024 Olympics, after Carini decided to withdraw citing intense pain in her nose.

This remember me the 'Caster Semenya' case: after Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was made to undergo sex testing, and cleared to return to competition the following year. The decision to perform sex testing sparked controversy in the sporting world and in Semenya's home country of South Africa. Later reports disclosed that Semenya has the intersex condition 5α-reductase 2 deficiency and natural testosterone levels in the typical male range.

In 2019, new World Athletics rules came into force preventing athletes like Semenya with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) from participating in 400m, 800m, and 1500m events in the female classification, unless they take medication to suppress their testosterone levels. Semenya has filed a series of legal cases to restore her ability to compete in these events without testosterone suppression, arguing that the World Athletics rules are discriminatory.

As Khelif, Semenya is cis and has been accused by many people to be trans. Her story has, again, been used and abused to support the anti-trans agenda, claiming that two ciswomen are trans and are unfairly competing with women due to their superior "men strength".

I think Angela Carini was anxious and scared by days of reporter and far-right rumors about how Khelif is incredibly strong and unbeatable, even if Carini has better statistics and more victories in her career than Khelif herself (who was already a Olympics athlete), she was strumentalized by far-right propaganda and made a scene during the match due to anti-trans panic.

J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk, as always, had their small moment of shaming athletes. Most of people think that Carini has been strumentalized by anti-trans Italian propaganda and after being called out for harassing a cisgender woman, she claimed to be sorry for not having respected her adversary during the match.

Edit: more important thoughts on the matter in a detailed political perspective in Italy - A New York Times article develops more extensively what I wrote here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/world/olympics/boxer-quits-gender-angela-carini-imane-khelif.html?smid=threads-nytimes

Edit 2: Imane Khelif spoke against cyberbullism.

Edit 3: Since in those past days we talked a lot about cis women being called men for not meeting western TERFs standard, I should resurface this old post about how a group of Chinese cis runners were wrongfully called "men" by TERFs.

Edit 4: Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling have been named in the cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Olympic champion Imane Khelif.

Edit 5 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif interview

Edit 6 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif won gold medal in boxing. Appreciation post.

[theboy-thebitch-thelegend]

i haven't said anything on the topic but i been seeing a lot about it and ykw bothers me about some (a lot) of the posts about Imane Khelif rn?

a lot of posts seem to be phrased like "it's so unfair because she's actually cis!!! nooo she's not trans and this is all Not Okay because we can prove she's not!"

and the implicit statement seems to be that "well yes, if she was trans then of course this would be unforgivable"

people are acting like this is more tragic because she's a cis woman being unjustly "accused" of the "crime" of being trans. not because she's been subject to ridiculous racism, transmisogyny, and public scrutiny.

even if you're of the latter opinion, it's not great when the two positions look almost identical. transphobes WILL turn it around and use your own words to say "see?? even YOU agree it would've been Wrong if she was *actually* trans"

i understand it's pretty hilarious and satisfying to see TERFs/transphobes getting it wrong and getting called out. but we need to be careful with how we respond about this. if your response is the same argument as that of a racist or transphobe, that's bad.

this is what we mean when we say that "support trans women" is more important than "f*ck TERFs"

"see, transmisogyny affects cis women too!!" yes, it absolutely does. but why is that the only time you care so loudly?

[doberbutts]

about your TME/Imane Khelif post, i believe i can provide some answers (im not transfem myself but im very interested in transfeminism)

first of all, no oppressed/oppressor binary is going to be perfect. POC/white is a useful distinction, but last summer a white man was killed after being mistaken for being arab. a straight man may be harassed for hugging his male friend and being seen as gay, etc. TME/TMA are useful terms to describe the way transmisogyny operates in society, even though like all oppressions, things can occasionally get muddled IRL. it doesn't make those terms useless or incorrect. to go back to the harassed straight man example, that man would certainly be a VICTIM of homophobia, but that doesn't make him gay, or mean that he doesn't have any heterosexual privilege at all.

(you said imane khelif may be sent to jail IF she's ruled not to be enough of a woman. horrifying prospect of course, but that IF is doing a lot! a trans woman would not have that IF!)

just wanted to provide that perspective since you asked very genuinely and thoughtfully. have a nice day

I appreciate the good faith response!!! This is exactly the sort of discussion I was looking for.

I am mostly on board - I have discussed at length how these social categories are muddy at best and do not operate on strict lines, and that people in general are impossible to place into neatly sorted boxes. Similar to your first example, I reference frequently a past love of mine who was white but often mistaken for mixed asian (usually chinese/white) due to his monolids, facial structure, and facial hair pattern. Despite being a white guy, he had numerous encounters with racists that ended quite violently for him, and as a result was probably one of the most sensitive white guys I've ever dated regarding race.

Being mistaken for being chinese, while not actually being chinese himself, is not at all the same as actually being chinese. I certainly agree. However, I think it is wrong to say that sinophobia does not affect him or that he is exempt from sinophobia because he has the ability to say "hey wait a second I'm not chinese I'm white". Mostly because any time he tried to do that, it didn't work, and he still got beaten up anyway.

And I also don't think it means he has no white privilege at all- certainly, we experienced it as a couple in real time because while he could be mistaken as a man of color, I absolutely am one without question. And, furthermore, I'm visibly black, not just "of color", which makes people really double down on the racism. Case in point, any time I parked my car in the visitor spot next to his apartment door, the landlord would run out of their office to chase me away stating the spot was only for approved visitors. Even though she saw me entering and exiting his residence in her pursuit to make me move my car. The town he lived in is less than 2% black, and these were luxury apartments that did not have a single black person in the building he specifically lived in. He could live there, but I couldn't even visit without being harassed.

Similarly, as I said in my post, I can see the logic of stating that there is privilege there even though Khelif is in a difficult situation currently, because yes, she can provide a birth certificate and a blood test and a genital check and be cleared of all accusations. I just think that being forced to submit to embarrassing and invasive testing, as well as being forced to provide personal documents, and having the world weigh in on the judgement of your gender, is not really a good literal get-out-of-jail-free card. It is certainly a leg up that she has the ability to do so. I do not think it is right that she should have to- but then I don't see the problem with trans women competing alongside cis women. I think it's stupid that sports are divided by gender and not by weight/height/proficiency.

And I think that forcing specifically women of color who oddly enough seem to be the vast majority of these cases (esp black women and esp esp black intersex women who didn't even know they were intersex before but w/e) to prove that they're woman enough to be qualified as women is racial violence with interphobia and transphobia as the weapon. Intersectionality and all that.

[yourlocalbadgerscales]

”If I could draw I’d draw fanarts!”

“If I could draw I’d draw my OCs”

“If I could paint I’d paint all the ideas in my head and become rich!”

If I could draw and paint I would completely erase this portrait of J.K Rowling in a book from my childhood, and draw a picture of Imane Khelif there instead.

This is my copy and it’s in Swedish, btw.

The original title of this book is Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls 2. It’s the second book out of two. This is the first one.

These two books were my childhood. Do you have any idea how empowering it is for a young girl like me, feeling alone in a world that seems to become crueller by the day, a girl who feels unheard by adults, to read these kind of books? I have plenty other books like these, too! These were my two favourites.

Two books filled with strong, powerful and cool women who have changed the world in one way or another! Reading these books inspired me so, so much as a little girl. I couldn’t get enough of these two-page stories about women who were brave and stood up for what was right. Women from so many different countries and backgrounds. It was beautiful. These books were how I found out about most of my biggest idols today: Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, Anne Frank, Emma Watson etc.

As I said, these books are my childhood. Another series of books that played a huge part of my childhood are the Harry Potter books.

As a little kid, I had no idea about who Joanne truly was. All I knew was that she was an author, and I dreamed about becoming an author one day. And Joanne had written one of my favourite series of all time. Of course I looked up to her! I especially remember looking at the drawing of her in Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls 2, admiring it very much.

I have grown up. I still love Harry Potter, the series played a massive role in my childhood and it’s been there to comfort me in my hardest times. But I do not support the author, now that I’ve heard about and read the tweets she has made about trans women. It’s disgusting, what she’s said about trans women in the past, what she still says, and what she’s tweeted about Imane Khelif recently… I’ve knows for years now what she’s all about.

It hurts, you know. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, it hurts to know that the series I love so dearly, the series that always makes me feel better, is written by a person who has no respect whatsoever towards half of my friend group and other trans people. None. She is a horrible human being, and it hurts to know that.

Knowing that her face, her name and her story is written in yet another book in my bookshelf, that her presence is constant in my room, makes me sick to my stomach and has done so for a long time now. Ever since I remembered a while back that she’s in this book, this wonderful book about women who have made the world a better place and continue fighting daily, women I look up to so much… I’ve had this sick feeling in my stomach, because she does not belong in this book. She isn’t a feminist. She excludes trans women from womanhood and accuses cis women of being trans or intersex based on their strength and talent in sports. Based on a supposed high level of testosterone? Joanne is cruel, and she’s rude, and she is not a person kids should be taught to look up to. Not after all she’s done.

Earlier today, I was thinking about this again. And as so many times before, I wished that I myself was a talented artist. This is something I’ve thought about before, but for different reasons. I’ve always wished I could draw portraits and pretty paintings. Fanarts for my favourite ships that I can only picture in my head but not transfer to paper. I’ve always loved drawing, but I’ve never been too good at it. Now I desperately wish that I was.

Because if I was a talented artist, I would grab my pens and paint and brushes, and I would cover up the portrait of J. K Rowling in my book. I would make a whole new portrait in its place, a portrait of another woman I look up to, a strong and beautiful and brave woman. A women called Imane Khelif.

And I’d get rid of the page full of facts and stories about Rowling, I’d tear it apart and throw it away and replace it with the story of Imane Khelif, the one woman Rowling cannot tolerate because of her talent for boxing. I can write. I can’t draw, but I can write. I so wish I could do both right now, because if I truly could trust myself with fully remaking two book pages, I would do it without hesitation.

Imane Khelif’s story deserves to be told. J.K Rowling’s story deserves to be told with seriousness, and grief because of what she has become. This woman could have been a successful author and a beloved feminist, and she could have left it at that. Sadly, she chose a path of hatred and cyber bullying. She chose this journey for herself, and I am sorry for everyone who got their childhood ruined because of it. Heck, I’m sorry for her even, but I still know in my heart that she has no excuses for what she has done. I despise her.

Kids need to be warned about TERFs, not trans women.

Collage made by @thingsmk1120sayz (I will delete it immediately if you ask me to, love <3)

I stand by Imane Khelif. I stand by the girls who grew up to be strong and wonderful women, the women who made their childhood dreams reality and won medals in the Olympics, the women who became successful artists, the women who reached their goals and ended up writing bestseller books loved by generations.

I stand by them, and I love them. But I feel nothing but hatred and pity towards J. K Rowling. Fuck her twisted beliefs. Much love to Imane Khelif!

Edit: I would like to clarify, Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls 2 was released 2017. I have no idea when Joanne started spreading her transphobic views on social media. Feel free to educate me on reblogs and comments! Anyways, I don’t think that the authors of this book, Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, meant to cause any harm by putting Rowling in their book. Either this was before Rowling started tweeting transphobic things, or the authors didn’t know about her being a TERF (I doubt the latter). So please don’t send any hate to these wonderful authors! If you want to send them questions regarding their books, I’m pretty sure you’re free to do so! xx

[gauntletqueen]

the italian boxer isn't a cop, isn't 100% white, and was crying because of her dead dad. she's come out in support of the other boxer people are using her as a weapon against to be racist. the way the olympics and the media is treating both boxers is really fucked up, i do not think the italian woman did anything wrong, she's just a useful tool of oppression people are utilizing against her will

Okay you're part right, part wrong. I've done some more looking into it and I'm glad I did cause it's Nuanced~ Not here to prove you wrong, just gonna list it all out clearly so we can all understand the situation better.

I haven't personally seen any racism coming into the controversy so I don't understand why you're bringing that up, or that Angela Carini isn't fully white. The most I can see is a few mentions of Italian politicians using the situation to try and earn some brownie points by standing behind Angela Carini, but even then they're also latching onto the narrative that Imane Khelif had an unfair advantage, due to her being transgender. She isn't, btw. She's a cis woman,another case of transphobes jumping at any opportunity to try to push their bullshit, even when the target isn't trans, and nobody had even accused them of being trans before that point.

While I can't find definitive proof that Angela herself is a cop, she was raised by cops and is a member of the boxing division of one of Italy's police forces. I can't figure out if that means that she is also an actual cop but that's probably where the assumption comes from.

"she was crying because of her dead dad" is true, but oversimplifying it. Specifically, she's said that her brother and late father were boxers before her, and taught her the sport. She wanted to honor them in the olympics, but the tension, stress and expectations got too much for her in the match against Imane, who it seems fought much harder than Angela was used to. This caused her to have an emotional breakdown. That's all extremely reasonable honestly I can't imagine having to handle to pressure of representing your country At The Olympics, especially not when there are also such big personal stakes. Supposedly she was cited as shouting "it's not fair!" as she left the ring. This is what got transphobes like JK Rowling and Musk to co-opt the story into their bigotted narrative that Imane must be transgender, as transphobic women in the past have blamed their losses on the fact that a transgender woman Was Involved.

It's likely that they might also have used Imane's disqualification from participating in the 2023 IBA Women's World Boxing championship. The organization had declared her testosterone levels to be too high, which supposedly "proved they had XY chromosomes". Since then, the International Olympic Committee has removed the IBA as the organizers of boxing at the olympics due to "continuing irregularity issues in the areas of finance, governance, ethics, refereeing, and judging" So. Perhaps they are a bad judge of chromosomes. Because again, Imane is a cis woman.

Anyway. Angela has stated (translation taken from Wikipedia, the original italian article is behind a paywall) "I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don't have anything against Khelif. If I were to meet her again, I would embrace her"

So yeah, she's done nothing wrong, she just cracked under immense pressure, and might be a cop or cop-sympathetic, but that doesn't seem to really have anything to do with the situation. The important thing is that rightwing bigots jumped at the chance to make her a martyr against her will, as you said.

[brokentoasterrr]

i think it’s important to point out that all the shit imane khelif is dealing with literally only exposes people like jk rowling, logan paul and elon musk as racists and misogynists because while their arguments are transphobic as all hell, it really only goes to show that they cannot comprehend that women can be strong and tall and look like anything other than the western view of femininity and women.

they’re accusing her of being a beastly man who infiltrated women’s sports to punch them in the head in the Punch Each Other sport because the iba released a dogshit and false statement about her gender test and then never gave any proof of elevated testosterone levels or xy chromosomes—because she beat a previously undefeated russian boxer. it has nothing to do with trans people competing in sports and everything to do with the fact that people can’t comprehend that women can Look Different.

[anileesstupidlilblog]

I don't watch the Olympics and I never have, but I just read an article and a few Google results about Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. If you don't know, they're two female boxers in the Olympics. People have been accusing them of being transfem, despite Imane Khelif showing her birth certificate on live TV, saying she's always been a girl. I don't know anything about Lin Yu-ting, but I believe these two aren't the only people who've been accused of being transfem when they aren't. The accusations are basically: "This woman beat this other woman, she must be trans!"

[stupidstrawberrystars]

Real quick, I know basically nothing about this, but Imane Khelif? Accusing her of being trans, even just rumours or jokes, could put her in PHYSICAL danger back home. So yes, she is absolutely 100% completely right to be filing a lawsuit. Not only would it have fucked with her mental state while competing but it was genuinely dangerous, to her life. Being queer is prohibited by law in Algeria. This has put her in danger, even if it’s all been proved to be bullshit, people will ignore that. This MATTERS.

[rollerska8er]

On Transphobia as Cultural Imperialism

On 1 August 2024, Imane Khelif, an Algerian, and Angela Carini, an Italian, two Olympic women's boxers, fought a second-round boxing match. 46 seconds into the match, after two powerful blows from Khelif, the Italian withdrew from the match, reportedly exclaiming "It's not fair!" and complaining that she had never been hit so hard in her life.

Khelif is a cisgender woman with a build that reads, to many, as masculine. The international governing body for boxing, a corrupt organisation run by a Putin-backed wannabe Russian oligarch, had previously banned Khelif from participating in matches on the basis that genetic testing found that Khelif had XY chromosomes, indicating a possible intersex condition. To be intersex is a distinct thing from being transgender, but most people don't know or don't care to learn the difference.

What this precipitated has been well-documented. British right-wing television channel TalkTV called the fight "Domestic violence turning into spectator sport", while disgraced YouTuber Logan Paul called it "the purest form of evil". J. K. Rowling, posting a picture of Khelif placing a hand on Carini's shoulder in a show of good sportsmanship, accused Khelif of smirking and misgendered her as "a male who knows he's protected by a misogynist sporting establishment".

Khelif's father stated "My child is a girl. She was raised as a girl. She's a strong girl. I raised her to be hard-working and brave. She has a strong will to work and to train." After the end of the Olympic Games, Khelif immediately launched legal action against her critics.

Imane Khelif comes from Algeria, a former French colonial possession. It is pointed that she managed to win a gold medal in the heart of France.

Algeria is one of 63 countries around the world in which homosexuality is illegal, punishable by imprisonment and fines. Algerian law does not recognise the possibility of changing one's gender.

The accusations levelled against her by predominantly white Western commentators who hail from Britain and the United States, therefore, have a certain colonial edge to them. This is not to suggest that Algerian legal attitudes to homosexuality and transsexuality are morally defensible, far from it. But this debacle constitutes the projection of a specifically Western hatred - that is, transphobia in the guise of feminism and protecting lesbians - on to a person from a country that criminalises homosexuality and does not recognise transsexuality.

Transphobia of this kind is becoming a kind of colonial cudgel. The idea of men "dressing up as women" to overtake "real" women is a specifically Western concern, a reaction to increased visibility and accommodation for transgender and non-binary people. This anxiety operates within a specific cultural and political context, and one that is by no means global.

While it may apply in Italy, where homosexuality and transsexuality are recognised, It does not apply at all in Algeria, for example.

Rowling, Paul, and various other blustering commentators saw a woman with a masculine build fight another woman, and concluded that this woman was a male infiltrator who had somehow made it to the Olympics.

This is not to say that the treatment of Khelif would have been acceptable if she had been transgender. Far from it. But this mass-libelling was both transmisogynist and colonialist: transmisogynist because it relied on hateful tropes about trans women, and colonialist because it removed Khelif from her ethnocultural context and placed her in a Western context that did not and could not apply to her. She was expected to fit the norms of Western society, and she was publically harangued for it.

This has happened before, of course. Caster Semenya, a South African middle-distance runner found to have the intersex condition 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency, was banned from many athletics events due to the "unfair advantage" conferred upon her by her naturally higher testosterone levels, and continues to fight court battles to let her run.

(The argument has become cliché at this point, but Michael Phelps, a man with various bodily mutations which happen to make him an exceptionally good swimmer, has never been asked to return even one of his twenty-eight Olympic medals.)

Transphobia of the kind that is now popular across the political spectrum in the Western world has become a tool for a pernicious kind of cultural imperialism that is, quite simply, fascist. It stems from a colonial, white supremacist, hegemonic mindset, which insists that the Western world has the purest ethics, and everyone in the world must be held to such standards.

I am not a moral relativist. I do not believe that queer, trans and intersex liberation only works for some cultures. I believe in and support queer, trans and intersex liberation worldwide.

But by the same token, I do not believe that Americans and Britons should be allowed to demand that everyone in the world is an American or a Briton, to be treated like an American or a Briton. I do not believe that the collective white saviour complex of Western liberal democracy and capitalism will liberate queers, trans and intersex people.

And I certainly believe that the mass-crybullying of athletes who happen to excel at what they do on the basis of pseudo-feminist white woman pearlclutching can and should be called out for what it is: cultural imperialism.

It is the white Western world demanding that the entire world be brought to heel.

We must reject this, and we must not fool ourselves into believing this is mere idiocy. Mere idiocy is one thing. Trying to ruin a person's life because you assume every muscular, square-jawed woman is a secret man in disguise, because you're Oh So Fucking Feminist And Just Trying To Protect Women And Girls From Disgusting Violent Men is, quite simply, fascist crybullying.

Accept no excuses or apologies from these wheedling maggots. They want everyone who is not like them dead.

[justinssportscorner]

Mira Lazine at LGBTQ Nation:

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif opened up about the hate she’s received from the far-right during their “transvestigations” of her, focusing particularly on Elon Musk’s role in the hate mobs. [...] Khelif has been the victim of intense hate mobs directed at her solely on the basis of transphobia and racism. It started when she defeated her opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, in the first round of boxing at the Olympics. Carini dropped out after being punched in the face and anti-trans bigots began to accuse Khelif of being either a trans woman or a cis man, using an accusation made by an ally of Vladimir Putin on Telegram earlier this year. Algeria does not allow individuals to transition, and Khelif’s entire family has said that she was assigned female at birth. The International Olympics Committee has also confirmed her as cisgender.

Things only began to escalate when reference was made to when the Russia-based International Boxing Association disqualified Khelif after she defeated a Russian boxer, claiming she did not pass unspecified gender testing. However, the International Boxing Association has given no proof of the testing and has been banned from recognition by the International Olympic Committee due to instances of corruption and scandal.

Imane Khelif, the female Algerian boxer that was falsely accused of being a “male”, opens up about the experience of being a cyberbullying victim by anti-trans scum such as Elon Musk, JK Rowling, and Riley Gaines.

See Also:

The Advocate: Imane Khelif calls out Elon Musk for all the transphobic hate he sent her way

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

one thing i havent seen about the Imane Khelif/JKR/Elon Musk lawsuit thing is that it's the Algerian Olympics committee who's pressed her to sue.

Which flavours the whole thing a slightly different way:

Imane Khelif was "accused" of being transgender by transphobes on Twitter. In Algeria, it's illegal to be transgender. This woman is an Algerian national hero: She's just won Gold at the Olympics. Algeria, as a country, is bound to be taking it personally if people are accusing her of breaking the (Algerian anti-trans) law.

So this is transphobes vs transphobes, really. I don't know how far this lawsuit will actually go - it's been filed in France, on behalf of someone not French, naming people who are also not French, accusing them of something done on an online platform not based in France - but it's just this kinda energy:

And even though it means that whoever wins will be a transphobe winning a lawsuit based in transphobia, it also means that the losing party will also be transphobes. And it will make transphobes afraid to be vocal about their transphobia, no matter the outcome.

It sends a clear message:

Shut the fuck up about your transphobia; because you might be wrong, and get sued for it (by other transphobes).

Obviously the thing we want is "Stop being transphobic, because transphobia is bad and wrong (not just cus you might be accidentally targeting someone cis)" but this is a decent first step, I reckon. Cus either way, transphobes will be more likely to shut the fuck up about being transphobes. I wouldn't be surprised if it drastically reduces the amount of bullshit "transvestigation" nonsense.

And yeah I hope JKR learns something. Mostly that her crusade "to protect women" actually harms women. And that she would do well to shut up about trans people forever.

[the-psudo]

Algeria's Imane Khelif won the gold medal in women's boxing at the Olympics. She was subsequently accused of being a transwoman (assigned male at birth), but she has been a girl since birth. There are public pictures of her living as a girl in her early childhood. It's a ridiculous accusation, born of jealousy rather than evidence.

But there is an Olympic boxer who really is trans, and openly so.

Patricio "Pat" Manuel, also known by the stage name "Cacahuate," was assigned female at birth, became a champion amateur boxer in the women's division, then came out as a transman and announced he would be transitioning to male. After his transition and sporting a stylish beard, he once again rose in the boxing world to win his first male division bout in 2016, and was officially inducted to the US men's professional boxing league in 2018.

It's a myth that transitioning to female gives one an advantage in sports. But it is true that trans people, including transmen, can be sports stars.