-Essay-
BEIRUT — Whoever was surprised by what happened to the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics has never been subjected to comments about being a girl or women with a few hairs on her face. How many women have been ridiculed because they’re larger than average, or because they have broad shoulders — or maybe they didn’t remove the hair on the back of their hands!
To those who are surprised by what happened to Khelif, do they really know the extent of the stereotypes and criticism that women and girls (and even men) must face? Haven’t they heard jokes about a man with a soft voice? Or a small body? Or decided to grow his hair long or wear an earring?
Khelif not only won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but she also triumphed over old ideas about what women are expected to be and forced to be. It was a triumph over sports being manipulated for political purposes.
But even if Khelif’s story evokes joy and pride, it also evokes outrage since it exposes how much hatred people can suddenly face just for being different. And we’ve seen from this Olympic story that it is a hatred that is literally shared across the world.
It seems wrong to think that hatred of the other can disappear completely from any part of this planet that is ablaze with right-wing tendencies, most of which are directed towards hatred of the other and too often target women’s bodies.
Complex story
Khelif’s story is more complex than just stereotypes about women. It is also closely related to racism, transphobia, and global political disputes, in addition to the violation of human rights through medical tests on gender.
Coming from a poor village in Algeria, Khelif fought tooth and nail to achieve her dream, overcoming logistical and cultural difficulties related to being a woman who wanted to enter a sport that was thought to be “for men only” especially in the Arab world.
Since women entered the Olympics in 1928, they have been subjected to skepticism, examination and violation of their body’s privacy. It was said that Japanese runner Kino Hitomi was taken aside before a competition and “examined” to confirm her femininity after winning a silver medal in the 800-meter race in 1964.
It is worth noting that part of this skepticism came after it was discovered that men disguised as women and participated in women’s competitions. But the problem lies in the stereotype and suspicion of the gender of every woman with superior physical characteristics that differ from the usual: women should not have strength similar to that of men.
Men instead are never required to show a certain limit to their strength, unlike women who, when they show a higher limit than expected or approach male physical capabilities, are questioned.
True cheating
The Olympic competitions witnessed cases of “cheating” as happened with Hermann Ratjen, who tied his genitals in a certain way and competed as a woman in the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, until the truth was revealed by a journalist in the 1950s. Hermann told his story to the journalist, and the story was turned into an award-winning film.
The controversy over Khelif tells us the following: “If you do not display the socially and culturally accepted feminine characteristics; if you display great physical strength, you will be doubted”, but “if you have feminine characteristics that are compatible with cultural and social beliefs and great physical strength, you will not be doubted!”
In 1966, before the start of the European Athletics Championships in Budapest, 234 female athletes were asked to stand naked in front of three female gynecologists to prove that they were female. Just imagine being forced to stand naked and show your body parts to prove your femininity. It should be considered a violation of human rights.
Modern gender “testing”
But there are real questions: Is there a way to confirm the gender of a female athlete without insulting her dignity and violating her privacy?
Gender eligibility tests have changed over the years. Yes, scientific developments have uncovered many cases of cheating (men disguised as women) — but they remain inaccurate and humiliating tests for women. According to human rights groups, such tests have led some female players to commit suicide following the controversy surrounding their “gender.”
In the early years of the Olympics, visual observation and gynecological examinations were tried on a two-year trial basis in some competitions, but these humiliating procedures were abandoned in favor of genetic testing.
Later, analysis of sex chromatin and DNA of male chromosomes (Y) became required in all sports. Since then, gender verification has been shown to be highly discriminatory, causing trauma and social stigma for many females with inter-sex problems or “androgen insensitivity syndrome,” who are excluded from competition.
Attempted suicide
Sex chromatin analysis was phased out of common diagnostic use by geneticists after its introduction in 1968, as the lack of laboratories to routinely perform the test exacerbated the problem of errors in interpretation by inexperienced workers, resulting in false-positive and false-negative results.
Why should any woman go through such a humiliating experience?
Scientifically, taller and more physically fit female competitors will have a higher percentage of muscle, and their lungs and heart will be larger, which means they have a greater chance of winning. So, such female athletes are likely to have a more competitive physique than others that can result in erroneous and harmful conclusions.
For example, the South African runner Caster Semenya was considered by some observers to have a male body because she achieved overwhelming success that, according to skeptics, could only be achieved by a man. After winning the women’s 800-meter race at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, her gender was questioned and she was asked to undergo gender determination tests.The investigation and tests took a long time, which led to a delay in announcing the final race results. The investigation sparked a wide debate about human rights and discrimination.
In 2010, Semenya received permission from the World Athletics and was allowed to compete again.
But the question is: Why should any woman go through such a humiliating experience and be subjected to accusations and doubts just because she is physically strong? Is there no means of determining gender that respects the dignity of the athletes and does not violate their privacy?
Sports and politics
In his book The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, U.S. researcher Gene Gallup presents a picture of the complex relationship between sports, fascism, and non-traditional sexual orientations. He discussed how these factors overlapped in shaping modern sports, as fascist regimes used sports as a tool to achieve their political goals and promote their ideologies.
The book also addresses how societies deal with athletes who have non-traditional sexual identities, and how this contributed to shaping the modern sports environment. Gallup believes that the modern sports environment is a space overcrowded by social and political complexities that have gone beyond the limits of pure physical competition, which we believe is the essence of this competition.
It focuses on the idea that modern sports are not just a recreational or physical activity, but rather an arena in which issues of identity, power, and gender collide and intertwine since sports have been exploited for political purposes.
Jesse Owens v. Adolf Hitler
At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler used the games as a platform to demonstrate the “superiority” of the Aryan race and promote his racist and fascist ideology.
But Hitler’s plan did not succeed, as African-American star Jesse Owens won four gold medals. But the matter did not end there, as the German media tried to downplay his success, instead portraying his achievement as evidence of the weakness of American sports policy.
It is on the individual level that we may understand better how big the stakes are.
At the time, the Nazi regime promoted the idea that the United States relied on “non-white” people to achieve victories. Unfortunately, even in the U.S., Owens was not honored in a manner matching his achievements, as racial segregation was still prevalent. His achievements were downplayed only because he was Black.
Nearly 80 years later, Russia exploited the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 FIFA World Cup to improve its image on the international stage.
Yet it is on the individual level that we may understand better how big the stakes are when sports and politics meet. Khelif’s victory will always be accompanied by questions and accusations. Yet her courage and toughness, and victory, force us to think more about both progress and where we will direct our next punch.
