At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif sparked controversy…
Backstory: In a preliminary women’s under 66kg boxing match at the Paris Olympics between Algerian Imane Khelif and Italian Angela Carini, a powerful punch to the face resulted in Carini withdrawing after 46 seconds.
Carini dissolved into tears, crying “This is unfair”, and “I have never been hit so hard in my life”.
Almost immediately, journalists and commentators jumped to Carini’s defence, raising questions about International Olympic Committee (IOC) policies and making many false assertions about Khelif’s gender identity.
Here are a few basics to note:
- Khelif has identified as female since birth and has lived her entire life as a woman, including throughout her sporting career.
- She is not transgender. She did not go through puberty as a male and then transitioned later.
- Her passport marks her identity as female, thus meeting the IOC criteria for the gender classification of boxers.
- In her first international boxing competition in 2018, she lost five of six elite-level bouts.
Can women Be so good at something?
Women’s bodies have been policed and regulated for a long time. For instance, ‘what you are wearing or not wearing’, how ‘delicate’ you look or how athletically built you are, have over and over resulted in extreme levels of online abuse and endless bullying. Underpinning such abuses are a set of annoying assumptions that a woman who is good at sport could perhaps be a man masquerading as a female.
But why can’t women be so good at something? Why not? Opponents succumbing in less than a minute isn’t even new, and weepy Carini’s case is no exception. No one tried to ban Mike Tyson from boxing, for example. He knocked people out in seconds and was undefeated in his initial run.
While many question Imane Khelif’s gender because of the boxing competition held in Russia in 2023, where the International Boxing Association (IBA) questioned the gender identity, the International Olympic Committee in same 2023 permanently banned the IBA from the Olympics following years of concerns about its governance, competitive fairness and financial transparency. The tests imposed on Khelif and Ling of Taiwan were also said to be irretrievably flawed.
On Women’s Activism and the Gatekeepers
I’ve been in many rooms with faux activists and faux gender equality advocates and I can tell you for free, that many of them are driven by hunger (how much they can profit from it), trauma (childhood traumas plus heartbreaks that were caused by their bad decisions), bandwagon effects and the popularity it affords.
But let’s also be real. I’ve met women who genuinely care about gender equality—women who walk the talk, who advocate for women, and not just the ones who look like them, are educated like them, or fit neatly into their little boxes. But for every one of these gems, there’s a slew of others whose activism is so narrow-minded and laughable. How are you a gender equality activist, and you’re so myopic in your little world to think that only women who mirror your experience deserve respect? What about disabled women? Women who are built differently? Or women who suffer medical issues that your little mind cannot comprehend?
It’s giving “I only care about my bubble” vibes, and that’s not the move.
Seeing so many women attempting to gatekeep what it means to be a woman at the detriment of really stomping on one of our own is so irritating.
Many of you don’t even display enough intelligence to qualify you to be a woman yet we accept you, but not looking feminine enough should get you deported to the men’s camp? Y’all tripping.
Who crowned you the judges of femininity? And the worst part? All of it is done at the expense of real, meaningful progress. It’s petty, it’s exclusionary, and it’s counterproductive.
On Serena, the Troubles and ‘Our Bones
I first started watching Serena Williams as a little girl, thanks to my dad, who made me fall in love with her and her sister Venus. I enjoyed watching her play and never was there a time I was not in awe of her grace and unapologetic presence on the court. But let’s not pretend we didn’t all see it—Serena being tagged as “too masculine,”, dragged and subjected to all the abuse in this world for daring to look different from the ‘delicate’ tennis star people expected.
Biologically, people are born with heavier bones. I know because I am. As a skinny girl in university, I weighed 56kg when people randomly assumed I was less. Even now, at 70kg, people are still surprised, and I never cease to add, “It’s the bones.”
Simone Biles and the ‘Man Tag’
Simone Biles danced, flipped, and somersaulted her way into our hearts a little over a decade ago, and redefined what athleticism looks like for women. But what many didn’t see were the smirks, the side comments, and the ridicule she’s had to endure because her muscles don’t align with someone’s idea of what a woman should look like. This isn’t new, though.
If America’s Florence Griffith Joyner—FloJo—were alive and competing today, can you imagine the onslaught she’d face? Misogynists would be out in droves, falsely accusing her of being a man.
So I Ask…
What is femininity to you? Go on, define it. I’ll wait. But while you’re at it, think about how we’ve boxed women and excluded so many. And I’m talking about biologically born women. There’s advocacy for all the other “gender tags,” but this is not the article that addresses that. Right now, I’m speaking for the women who just don’t look like the Disney princesses.
When You Find Yourself Agreeing with Piers Morgan…
The moment you find yourself nodding in agreement with Piers Morgan on anything, you should immediately know you’re on the wrong side of history. Not to mention Elon Musk or Logan Paul, it was at the time the veil should immediately clear.
The shocker in this mess however is J.K. Rowling, the glass ceiling-shattering icon who’s captivated the world with her words, now tangled in controversy that’s as unnecessary as it is harmful. See, even the most intelligent people get caught up in their pride unable to see beyond their own biases. My mother would often say “The hallmark of intelligence is being able to shift your stand with new information” but that’s obviously too much to ask of people who are more absorbed in their own narratives than the reality of the world around them.
So let this be a little tip moving on, if you ever find yourself on the same side as the MAGA boys, step back and reassess. How did you get here? C’mon now! I’m giving you the side-eye for even getting swayed in the first place. Don’t let misplaced allegiance lead you to cheer the world’s biggest villains.
Over Imane, Bullies Be Damned!
Imane Khelif went on to gag her haters and stomp on them with her victory. And with her win, she delivered a message:
“I was born a girl, I grew up a girl, I studied as a girl, and I fought like a girl. Those who attacked me? Of course, they were enemies of glory. But without them, my victory would not have been so satisfying.”
Mic. Drop.
As for the media outlets that fueled these controversies with half-baked reports, let’s hope next time we all learn to get the full picture before leaping to conclusions.
In Conclusions…
True gender equality isn’t about gatekeeping— It’s about lifting every woman, not just the ones who fit a certain aesthetic. It’s about recognizing that women come in all shapes, sizes, abilities, and experiences and that every single one of them deserves respect and dignity.
Gender equality advocacy is bigger than anyone’s personal hang-ups, unresolved traumas, or biases. So if you’re not here for all women, then what are you really here for?
Woman: Born as a Female
P.S Transgender is simply transgender and they don’t have a place in women’s sports. If anything, we could create a trans category in sports. But again, that’s not the point of this article.
So, if your advocacy isn’t catering to women who do not look like Barbies or the blondies in telenovelas, then what are you about? I think you might want to take several seats.