Trying to punch everyone in the head
J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk have both been named in a criminal complaint filed to French authorities over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” against Algerian boxer and newly crowned Olympic champion Imane Khelif.
Is it harassment to point out that a man is cheating by competing against women and/or that he is putting women in danger by competing against them? What are we supposed to do, just silently watch him do it?
Khelif — who on Saturday won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s 66 kilogram boxing competition — spent much of the 2024 Olympics in Paris at the center of a noisy and unpleasant dispute about her gender eligibility that reverberated around the world. Despite being born female and not identifying as transgender or intersex — and being backed by the International Olympic Committee, who asserted “scientifically, this is not a man fighting a woman” — Khelif faced a torrent of accusations and abuse over her gender.
So here’s Variety buying into the absurd claim that Khelif is a woman, and trying to convince us that he is.
Most of the attacks came via social media, particularly on X/Twitter, and the controversy was escalated when high-profile figures stepped into the fray. In one message to her 14.2 million followers, Rowling posted a picture from Khelif’s fight with Italian boxer Angela Carini, accusing the former of being a man who was “enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.”
So here’s Variety expressing disapproval that Rowling pointed out a man enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, rather than expressing disapproval of a man enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head. Why is Variety doing that? Why would anyone do that? Why are so many people delighted to see a man punching a woman in the head?
Despite being born female…
Allegedly.
Being disqualified by the IBA following genetic testing would suggest otherwise.
Facts in dispute are acceptable for some, not for others?
No, we’re supposed to cheer him on. Just sitting silently could be interpreted as sullen acquiescence and not validation of his lived ‘identity’. We should applaud until our hands are raw and bleeding, and cheer until we are too hoarse to speak.
How I’d love to see one of the women boxers sue the IOC for disenfranchisement. It’s not just getting your image on a box of Wheaties anymore, winning an Olympic medal has much more capitalist potency nowadays. The damages could be enormous. But no, we don’t want to break the spell of the believers, or hurt any feelings.
Notice that when it suits the gender-woo crowd they talk about assigned female at birth, but then when it suits them they move to the affirmative born female.
Contrast that to the language we typically use here – observed to be female at birth.
The vast majority of infants are accurately observed (not assigned) to have a sex at birth. Khelif (allegedly) was incorrectly observed to be female because of a rare DSD. It’s possible that in some countries that DSD would have been diagnosed very quickly, then again maybe not. Apparently in Algeria that either never happened or for cultural reasons it was easier to just keep calling them female.