Olympic boxer Imane Khalif, and the curse of the ‘transvestigators’

The kind of bullying and abuse that Olympic boxer Imane Khalif has endured makes one thing clear: In the age of social media, it’s easiest to spread misinformation when it’s rooted in misogyny, transphobia and racism, and verified, blue-tick X’s accounts are amplified. . It also made it clear that trans-hate would eventually persecute women who don’t fit traditional, conservative definitions of femininity.

Now that Imane Khalif has refused to accept online abuse in silence and is suing the main boosters – JK Rowling and Elon Musk – let’s revisit the brutal online hate campaign against the Olympic gold medalist, all for being an ‘un-feminine’ woman. of color

Prime Purveyors of Hate

On August 1, after facing Khalif for 45 seconds of fighting, Italian boxer Angela Carini lost the match. Later, he would tell the press, “I’ve never been punched so hard” and tear up in front of the camera, anyone who could have been in his position. However, seeing a white woman cry on television was, of course, too much for champions of women’s rights like author JK Rowling, who has a history of making transphobic comments, to bear. Rowling fouled X about a “man” punching a woman and taking men’s rights activism too far. Even X’s owner, Elon Musk, couldn’t resist chiming in. It’s another story that Musk’s own views on transgender people deserve some scrutiny and is best described by his estranged daughter, who he refuses to acknowledge.

The Imane Khalif case highlights a difficult but surprising truth: We are not as progressive in 2024 as we would like to believe. Of course, there are more people today who generally recognize queer rights, gender equality and fair human rights, but this population is very small in the land of the Internet.

Trans hate is misogyny

When two men with a combined following of over 200 million people post such derogatory posts against a woman, their legions of followers are bound to share the same misinformation, often in vile language. But Rowling and Musk’s comments also stoked the fires of deep-rooted transphobia and misogyny that still burn across all levels of human class, race, and nationality.

Trans hate is another catalyst for overall misogyny. There are plenty of groups on Reddit and Facebook where people affiliated with Rowling’s ideology simply attack any female celebrity they deem not “woman enough” and therefore must be a transsexual or transgender; There is a term for this group, “Transvestigators”. For example, if you like to lift weights and be muscular, you are not feminine, and therefore make a perfect target for these ‘transvestigators’. Like sports? Big car? Not enough of delicious, petite, blonde, and light eyes? Wear too much makeup to hide a manly look? Wear very little makeup because you’re trying to pass as a masculine ‘sporty woman’? Well, according to transvestigators women who exhibit such characteristics are “not women”.

Returning to the hate campaign against the Caliph. Soon after her win in Paris, conservative-leaning media outlets and social media handles started talking about her 2023 disqualification by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing the ‘gender eligibility test’. Never mind that the IBA itself has been questioned and accused of corruption for its ‘approach’ to the Olympics. The International Olympic Association (IOC) banned the IBA last year due to its governance and financial problems, allowing the Olympic body to hold boxing competitions in Paris. But alas, this grain of truth was buried deep beneath the rubble of misinformation flooding the internet.

Several questions have arisen in this storm. “How can ‘she’ be a woman?”, “The IBA must have banned ‘her’ for a reason!”, “XY is a man! Only men have testosterone!”, “She obviously looks like a man. Like a man.”

Let’s try to answer them.

Men, women, other?

The story of Khalif is very Riot– like Indian audiences, if they read her entire interview with UNICEF, can relate to the story of a young girl joining a sport that is dominated by men. But unlike RiotHis father was not ready to fight the world. He struggled mostly alone as a child, while his family struggled with poverty to feed their children and sustain the family.

Algeria is also a deeply religious Islamic country, where being trans can invite many legal challenges. If any of the ‘transvestigators’ like Rowling or the Musk followers had bothered to do a simple Google search, they would know that Algeria probably won’t be sending a ‘trans’ person to represent their country at the Olympics.

XX or XY?

Doesn’t matter, honest. Anyone who has studied genetics and chromosomes can answer this: the set of chromosomes that define sex (not sex) are named based on their shape. Zoya Fatima, a teacher at Jamia Senior Secondary School, explained that females have two chromosomes shaped like an ‘X’, while males have one shaped like a ‘Y’. “An embryo with an XX can have a Y-shaped chromosome because of a genetic mutation,” he explains, “They can have all the female genitalia, and even a uterus in some cases, but in almost all cases the ovaries are non-functional. But they can be. Through IVF, the mothers and Normal conception occurs so it is incorrect to say that all XY are automatically classified as male and female.”

If we followed the definitions proposed by conservative social media, millions of women would immediately lose their right to be called women for having high testosterone levels. Although testosterone is considered a ‘male hormone’, women also produce it – many with hormonal disorders such as PCOS produce too much of it. Will these conditions invalidate a woman’s right to call herself a ‘woman’?

If we consider science for our definition, most women with XY or XXY or XXYY chromosomal structure have one common denominator: a non-functioning ovary. So the question arises, is a fully functioning ovary fundamental to being classified as ‘female’? If yes, what about the hundreds of thousands of women who have ovarian insufficiency? Will they stop identifying as women?

The race question

Women of color who don’t fit the conservative definition of femininity have always had it worse. Just a day before his match, Khalif’s Hungarian opponent, Luca Hamory, posted a fiery photo on Instagram depicting Khalif as a ‘beast’. For centuries, black women have been ridiculed for their ‘masculinity’. Not far away in India, sprinter Dutti Chand took part in a primitive gender experiment. “In 2014, I challenged the IOC’s rule that a person with elevated testosterone levels should not participate at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. It was pointed out that hormone levels do not enhance athletic performance. I suffered a lot at the time. I have my Faced with a lot of controversies about gender,” says Chand PTI After the Imane Khilif controversy began.

The abuse and attacks Imane Khalif faced online will be remembered for years to come. The key takeaway is this: Misinformation driven by racist, misogynist ideology often travels much, much faster than the truth.

(Anviti Singh Assistant Producer, NDTV)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author