White feminism tells us we are strong. White feminism tells us we are fierce. We are fighters. We are winners. Our world adores women who are tenacious, powerful, brave. When you’re a girlboss, doors open for you, the world is yours.
As long as you are white and cisgender, that is. Because when Olympian Imane Khelif entered the ring on Friday, to compete in a sport she’s been playing her whole life, to show the world how strong and fierce of a fighter she is, she was relentlessly bullied. She was questioned. She was discredited. The world weaponised its vile transphobia to shut the door on her.
Our world hates women of colour and trans people. If that statement makes you uncomfortable, I beg you to read it again.
Or perhaps see for yourself. Read the hateful messages targeted at Khelif. Hear what conservatives have to say about a successful athlete, a woman of colour. A strong, fierce, tenacious, powerful, brave woman of colour.
Misinformation
There are three things that have been made abundantly clear from the bullying of Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer who has now made it to the semi-finals in the women’s 66kg division at Paris.
Firstly, misinformation spreads. Fast. At the 2023 World Boxing Championships, organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA), Khelif, as well as Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, were disqualified from competing. In a statement last week, the IBA said the boxers failed to “meet the eligibility requirements”.
The IBA, run by Russian national President Umar Kremlev, said several tests were conducted to determine Yu-ting and Khelif’s eligibility, which they reportedly failed. The IBA have refused to go into details on these tests, stating the “specifics remain confidential”, but the pair were “found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors”. This is where misinformation on Khelif’s gender began.
In fact, Khelif is a cisgender woman, assigned female at birth. She was born in a country where it is illegal to be a trans person and to be LGBTQIA+.
Khelif has been competing as a boxer since she was a teenager. She’s won several tournaments and championships. She was named Best Algerian Athlete in 2021/2022.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said the IBA’s decision to disqualify Khelif and Yu-ting from competing at the 2023 World Championships was “sudden” and “arbitrary” and warned people about “misleading” reports that have been circulating on the Internet.
“The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years,” the IOC statement said.
The IOC said Khelif and Yu-ting met all eligibility and entry requirements for competing at the Olympics, based on the gender and age of the athletes according to their passports. The same rules applied during the qualification period. The same rules applied during the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Khelif earned her spot in the ring. And that’s that.
Can't sit back and say nothing!
— IrishWomensRugbySupportersClub (@IrishWomens) August 2, 2024
Imane Khalif is being accused of being a man from high profile sources like a bigoted children's author and the village thug, but what's the truth.
The truth is, they're lying to you.
🧵to cut through the BS gender police hate fest
Transphobia
So, why is the misinformation spreading in the first place?
This brings me to the second thing we’ve learned from this situation: transphobia and homophobia exists. And conservatives weaponise it for their own agenda.
We saw this from the get go, the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, when Christians accused drag queens, a transgender model and a half naked performer of “mocking” Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper (the artist later said the performance was in fact a re-creation of the Feast of Dionysus painting).
Conservatives were furious. Wendy Francis, the national director of politics for the Australian Christian Lobby, described the scene as “sexualised men pretending to be women”, “ridiculing the greatest event in history – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper”.
Right-leaning media expressed their disgust towards the performance, in the name of protecting the sanctity of the Christian religion. Piers Morgan called it a “drag queen mockery” and questioned if any other religion would have been “mocked like this”. Owner of X and billionaire Elon Musk said it was “extremely disrespectful to Christians”.
But beneath their seemingly holy outrage was transphobia and homophobia, plain and simple. The performance from the drag queens was recreating an artwork, not a religion (which, by the way, has systemically excluded women and queer people since its institutionalisation. Also, I’m pretty sure Leonardo da Vinci was gay.)
As journalist Matt Beirnstein wrote: “What’s the harm? Why is it a ‘parody’ and not a tribute? Can drag queens not be Christian too?”
Misogynoir
And now, the third, final and disappointing truth of the story: this is nothing new for women like Imane Khelif.
The truth is, sportswomen of colour have been criticised for being “too masculine” for decades. Athletes like Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Brittney Griner, have faced misogynoir – compounded discrimination of misogyny and racism targeted towards women of colour – throughout their entire career.
And more often than not, this criticism rears its ugly head when women of colour start winning against their white competitors.
Social media influencer and activist Kissy Duerre said the “narrow views of womanhood” and the “masculinisation of Black women” in sport, while “nothing new” is extremely harmful to the athletes.
“They exist outside the narrow views of womanhood, which is not uncommon within the Black and POC communities,” Duerre said in an Instagram video.
“But also, they are black/POC and are phenomenal at their sport. And because of that, they are faced with racism, misogynoir and transphobia.”
The best and the worst
The Olympics usually brings out the best in us. But this week, it has brought out the worst.
Transphobic remarks are casually thrown around on social media. Lies and rumours to discredit a successful woman of colour in sport are emerging from the darkest corners of the Internet into mainstream media.
A woman, an Algerian boxer, is brought to tears because she is being humiliated and discredited in real time.
All the while, a convicted child rapist is competing in the Dutch men’s volleyball team. Where is our humanity?
I have seen a lot of people stand up for Imane Khelif and speak out against the misinformed, racist and transphobic rhetoric targeted at the athlete. I hope this advocacy is not just a moment in time. I hope these people continue to stand up and speak out.
When we tell girls they are strong and fierce, we must speak to all girls. We must celebrate all women who fight and win. Because this world is ours, and we have the power to change it.
UPDATE 9/8/24: The performance at the Olympic Ceremony was a re-creation of the Feast of Dionysus, the artist confirmed.