Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif. Photo source: AL 24 News
Guest post by Victoria Kirby York, the Director of Public Policy and Programs at the National Black Justice Collective.
Imane Khelif, an Olympic women’s boxer from Algeria, has been targeted by JK Rowling and others and called a man based on a possible reproductive health condition that is none of our business. Black women are often the Olympians targeted by transphobic and racist people who wish to minimize our success in sports by labeling us as men instead of celebrating the athletic achievements of all women. In addition, they refuse to educate themselves on the diversity of womanhood and femalehood, which includes a variety of sex characteristics.
Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, the other targeted athlete, have met every qualification required to compete in women’s sports. Both deserve to compete as much as every other athlete who has trained and prepared for the opportunity to take on the most talented athletes in the world. However, this opportunity has since been dampened by internet trolls consumed with ignorance about how sex is defined, assigned, or experienced in the real world.
Unfortunately, this is not new for Black women athletes. Team USA Women’s Basketball team member Brittney Griner was targeted this week by online trolls for not fitting into the stereotypes they have of women’s height, voice, and presentation. Serena Williams was drug-tested four times as often as her peers while also facing regular attacks on her womanhood. The attacks on Khelif are reminiscent of the tribulations Olympian Caster Semenya and other Black women have faced simply for having different body chemistry than their peers.
Olympians compete against the best to be the best in the world. Each athlete has attributes that help and hinder their ability to take home the gold. No athlete should be targeted or excluded because of others’ biases, stereotypes, or definitions that privilege one performance or experience of womanhood over another.
Khelif’s harassment involves unfounded speculation about her testosterone levels. As a person who lives with polycystic ovarian syndrome, it is unfathomable that I would be targeted or denied the opportunity to play women’s sports because of the amount of testosterone in my body at any given time. Testosterone is naturally produced in all types of human bodies, and testosterone often becomes estrogen, so the amount of any hormone constantly changes based on the day a person is tested in their cycle. People living with PCOS, like me, often have irregular periods, making estimations of our chemical imbalances difficult, if not impossible, to chart or manage ahead of athletic competition. Most women never have reason to know what their hormonal makeup is, even though approximately 10% of us live with PCOS, and it is the most common reproductive disorder in women of reproductive age.
The kinds of tests run by elite sporting organizations to determine body chemistry are most often done outside the athletics context to solve infertility challenges, as there isn’t currently enough research to address or cure these conditions without risking other aspects of one’s health. Metformin to manage insulin resistance and hormone therapy to manage other unwanted symptoms both come with their own set of side effects. Many patients are routinely not told by their doctors that they live with PCOS because the doctors don’t have meaningful treatment options for them beyond some symptom management.
This means that the results of these tests are most often a surprise to the athletes impacted, similar to taking a blood test and finding out you have a Vitamin D, Iron, or Magnesium deficiency. The distinction is that learning you have a hormonal difference as an athlete may mean losing the opportunity you have worked, trained, and prepared for your entire life.
JK Rowling and her legion of trolls’ actions have nothing to do with supporting all women. If she did care about all women, she would be more concerned about the increase in heart disease, sleep disorders, irregular and painful periods, diabetes, infertility, weight gain, migraines, and mental health disorders that happen as a result of hormonal imbalances and perhaps use her wealth to fund more women’s health research. Instead, this behavior only serves her perverse ideal of a specific kind of womanhood that too often excludes Black women, cisgender women with diverse sex characteristics, and women of transgender experience. We applaud the Olympics for not giving in to mythical distractions and allowing Imane Khelif and others to continue to compete. When all people are allowed to compete and play, we all win.
Finally, we will continue to cheer and support Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting as they move past this distraction and show the world the graceful, powerful, and dignified sportswomen they have been throughout their careers.
The attacks on these women are anti-women, anti-Black, anti-Asian, and anti-intersex, and ultimately stem from deep-seated transphobia and erroneous binary beliefs about sex and gender that were never accurate in the first place. Bodily diversity has always existed, and we are all the better for it.
Victoria Kirby York, MPA
Director of Public Policy and Programs
National Black Justice Collective (NBJC)
