The kind of bullying and abuse that Olympic boxer Iman Khalif has faced makes one thing clear: in the age of social media, misinformation is easiest to spread when it’s based on misogyny, transphobia and racism, and amplified by verified, blue-ticked accounts on X. It also makes it clear that trans-hate will eventually haunt all women who don’t fit traditional, stereotypical definitions of femininity.
Now that Iman Khalif has refused to suffer online abuse silently and is suing the key promoters – J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk – let us revisit the ruthless online hate campaign unleashed against the Olympic gold medallist, all because she is a ‘non-feminine’ woman of colour.
The main promoter of hatred
After a 45-second fight with Khalif on August 1, Italian boxer Angela Carini quit the match. Afterwards, she told the press, “I have never been punched that hard” and broke down in tears on camera, as anyone in her position would do. However, seeing a white woman cry on television was certainly too much for a champion of women’s rights like author JK Rowling, who has a history of making transphobic comments. Rowling falsely accused X of being about a “man” punching a woman and that men’s rights activism had gone too far. Even X’s owner, Elon Musk, couldn’t resist speaking out. It’s another story that Musk’s own views on transgender individuals are worth some scrutiny and can perhaps be best described by his estranged daughter, whom he refuses to acknowledge.
Iman Khalifa’s case underscores a harsh but surprising truth: we are not as progressive in 2024 as we would like to believe. Sure, today there are more people who accept gay rights, gender equality, and human rights in general, but in a country called the Internet, this population is sparse.
Trans hatred is misogyny
When two people with a combined following of more than 200 million people post something this derogatory about a woman, many of their followers begin spreading the same misinformation, often in foul language. But Rowling and Musk’s comments also fueled the fire of deep-rooted transphobia and misogyny that still burns across all levels of human class, race, and nationality.
Trans hate is another catalyst for overall misogyny. There are groups on Reddit and Facebook where people affiliated with the Rowling ideology attack any female celebrity who they think is not “woman enough” and, therefore, must be transsexual or transgender; there is even a term for this group, “transvestigators”. For example, if you like lifting weights and being muscular, you are not feminine, and therefore a perfect target for these ‘transvestigators’. Like sports? Big cars? Beautiful, petite, blonde and not light enough eyes? Wear too much make-up to hide the male form? Wear too little make-up because you are a man and trying to pass as a ‘sporty woman’? Well, according to the transvestigators, women who display such qualities are “not women”.
Coming back to the hate campaign against Khalifa. During and after her win in Paris, conservative media outlets and social media handles started talking about her disqualification from 2023 by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing the ‘gender eligibility test’. Never mind the fact that the IBA was questioned by the Olympics for its ‘methods’ and has also been accused of corruption. The International Olympic Association (IOC) banned the IBA last year over its governance and finance issues, while the Olympic body allowed it to hold the boxing event in Paris. But alas, this nugget of truth got buried under the debris of misinformation spread on the internet.
Many questions have arisen amid this storm. “How can she be a woman?”, “The IBA must have banned ‘her’ for some reason!”, “XY is a male! Only males have testosterone!”, “He clearly looks like a man. His body is also like that of a man.”
Let us try to answer these.
male Female Other?
The story of the Caliph is very interesting Dangal-Like. Indian audiences, if they read her full interview with UNICEF, will understand the story of a young girl who joins a sport that is dominated by men. But the opposite DangalShe did not have a father willing to take on the world. She struggled alone for most of her childhood while her family struggled with poverty to feed their children and run the family.
It is also true that Algeria is a very religious Islamic country, where being trans can invite a number of legal challenges. If any of the ‘transvestigators’ like Rowling or Musk’s followers had bothered to do a simple Google search, they would have known that Algeria would probably never send a ‘trans’ person to represent their country at the Olympics.
XX or XY?
Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Anyone who has studied genetics and chromosomes can answer this: the set of chromosomes that define sex (not gender) are so named based on their shape. Zoya Fatima, a teacher at Jamia Senior Secondary School, explains that women have two chromosomes shaped like ‘X’, while in men, one of them is shaped like ‘Y’. “An embryo with XX may have a Y-shaped chromosome due to a genetic mutation,” she explains, “They may have all female genitals, even a uterus in some cases, but in almost all cases the ovaries don’t function. But they can become mothers through IVF and have normal pregnancies. So it is wrong to say that all XY are automatically classified as male and masculine.”
If we go by the definitions suggested by conservative social media, millions of women will instantly lose their right to be called a woman due to increased levels of testosterone. While testosterone is considered a ‘male hormone’, women produce it too – many women with hormonal disorders like PCOS produce too much of it. Would these conditions take away a woman’s right to be called a ‘woman’?
If we consider science for our definitions, most women with XY or XXY or XXYY chromosome structure have one common trait: a non-functional ovary. So the question arises whether a fully functional ovary is fundamental to be classified as a ‘woman’? If yes, what about the few thousand women who suffer from ovarian insufficiency? Will they cease to be known as women?
The caste question
Women of colour who do not fit into stereotypical definitions of femininity have always been treated badly. Barely a day before her match, Khalif’s Hungarian opponent, Luca Hamori, posted a provocative picture on Instagram that depicted Khalif as an ‘animal’. For centuries, black women have been mocked for their ‘masculinity’. In India itself, sprinter Dutee Chand was subjected to primitive gender tests. “In 2014, I challenged the IOC’s rule that a person with high testosterone levels should not participate in the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland. It was noted that hormonal levels cannot enhance athletic performance. I was very hurt at that time. I faced a lot of controversy over my gender,” Chand said. PTI This step was taken after the Iman Khalifa controversy.
The abuse and attacks Iman Khalifa has suffered online will be remembered for years to come. The bottom line is this: misinformation fuelled by racist, misogynistic ideologies often spreads faster than the truth.
(Anviti Singh is an assistant producer, NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal views of the author
