It was also mentioned that Kremlev (whose name even sounds like ‘Kremlin’) went on for some time about the opening ceremony, which has nothing to do with boxing, women’s sports, or Russia (would Russian Orthodox Christians even care about a painting by an Italian Catholic?), but is pure red meat for the culture warrior crowd.
It’s just part of a cynical ploy to weaken confidence in western institutions and strengthen isolationist nationalists who won’t stand in the way of Czarist irredentism.
I believe that you are overestimating the advantage that testosterone during puberty gives to men. Yes those factors you mention are on average greater in men. But there is going to be significant overlap between men and women. Especially for men and women at the Olympic level.
Read my response above re the factors involved in the difference between women’s and men’s performance. In the nature vs nurture debate I am strongly on the side of nurture. And people raised as male are treated very differently than people raised as female.
You want to tell that to the IAAF that won’t let Caster Semenya compete unless she takes testosterone blockers?
I don’t know where you got that, that is the exact opposite of what I believe.
Good heavens that Daily Mail article is just jaw-dropping, and this BBC Sport follow-up, which includes an interview with IBA exec Roberts, no less so.
The IBA folks literally don’t seem to be on the same page with one another about whether the alleged results were from chromosome tests or hormone tests.
The “officially established rules” part, at least, didn’t exist.
It’s in the IBA meeting minutes where Kremlev told the IBA board he had decided to disqualify both Khelif and Lin and they later ratified this decision he had already made. At that same meeting the board also discussed the need to actually establish a clear procedure for gender testing. They literally decided to make up the rules after the fact.
Shitshow is probably one of the kinder ways to describe the current IBA. No shocker for a group that’s pretty much known to be stooges for Russia.
This part I don’t get. Yes, as that previously cited 2018 study showed, there’s a lot of overlap in testosterone levels between male and female Olympic athletes. But there is absolutely not, AFAICT, anything approaching overlap in their competition performance levels. (Not in these running/throwing/hitting/lifting type sports, at least. Some other sports, like equestrian competitions, do have a lot more gender overlap (and consequently, AFAICT, mixed-gender teams), along with far greater age-group overlap.)
This guy:
Full title: JD Vance falsely accuses Algerian Olympic boxer of being transgender & weirdly blames Kamala Harris
Vance posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, sharing a video initially posted by far-right influencer Charlie Kirk. The footage depicted Khelif’s recent Olympic match in Paris, during which her Italian opponent, Angela Carini, withdrew shortly after the bout began, citing the intensity of Khelif’s punches.
In his tweet, Vance commented, “This is where Kamala Harris’s ideas about gender lead: to a grown man pummeling a woman in a boxing match. This is disgusting, and all of our leaders should condemn it.” Kirk’s post, which Vance retweeted, falsely claimed, “The Olympics just allowed a biological man, Imane Khelif, to pummel Italian Olympian Angela Carini. Her life’s work was stolen by a man who beats up women for sport. Will someone have to die before people wake up?! This entire ideology is pure evil.”
The IOC is one of the most corrupt sporting institutions on the planet, and if they say an organization is too corrupt for them, that tells you everything you need to know.
Ironically, by tweeting out this openly bigoted shit, from a political perspective Vance was viciously punching himself in the groin.
In what way? Won’t his people just eat it up?
Yeah, the people that campaign already has in the bag. Everybody else will laugh at him.
Because politically speaking, “his people” are meaningless. MAGA isn’t nearly large enough to elect Trump. And the more extreme they get, the more they drive away folks outside of their base.
My brain went to Carrie. “They’re all going to laugh at you!”
Well, if Vance had telekinesis, I’d be worried.
Oh, and this just in: Imane Khelif has won her third bout, and will now be boxing for the gold. Good for her.
(Her most recent opponent, Thailand’s Janjaem_Suwannapheng, is the same fighter Khelif beat in the 2023 championships just before being disqualified.)
Perhaps this is a moot point, but Khelif does not have short hair. She is wearing corn rows. At least I think that is the proper name of her hair style. It is braided in rows down her scalp and ends in a mid length ponytail or braid. I’m just sayin’ that is not short hair. I hope she takes gold and makes all the bigots heads explode,
The two aren’t mutually exclusive: Khelif’s hair is in fact pretty short, as you can see in pictures like this one where she’s wearing it unbraided. It’s not as short as a standard “taper”-type or “short back and sides” guy-type haircut, but it’s not the ponytail material that a lot of female boxers wear.
Many men with hair even shorter than Khelif’s wear scalp braids like hers: here’s a demo of braiding that way on hair as short as 2 inches.
Oh, and:
I hope she does too, but I’m pretty sure that the bigots will be able to twist any outcome to serve their narrative.
If she and/or Lin Yu-Ting takes gold, the bigots will announce “See?! Gotta be a man, look at how easily they defeated all those female boxers!” (Never mind that AFAICT, all their opponents have lost bouts in the past to other female boxers as well.)
If either or both of them don’t take gold, the bigots will say that they deliberately threw the match to try to quiet suspicions and outrage about their “suspect” eligibility. Assholes gonna asshole.
Both might factor but honestly after reading her tweets for years I think she’s just exceptionally paranoid of men. Which isn’t uncommon among TERFs. And not an excuse to be awful obviously. But I think that’s her main motivation. I think she was in an abusive relationship and it’s permanently affected her world view.
She thought the boxer thing was a slam dunk example and jumped right on it without any kind of vetting or fact checking process.
I think it didn’t even occur to her that the boxer could be cis, or intersex/dsd. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her even talk about trans men, they mostly get ignored unless she wants to fear monger about top surgery but she doesn’t give a thought to adult trans men.
What’s even worse is that I’m starting to get the lowkey impression from some of her tweets that she might just also think women of color look mannish.
That’s the part of JK Rowling’s behavior in the whole ongoing “gender controversy” that’s really most reprehensible, IMHO.
Rowling undeniably has a brilliantly vivid imagination and an ability to craft compelling hero/villain/victim narratives that engage the reader. But the extent to which she’s irresponsibly using those talents to make up and publicly disseminate stories about individuals she knows nothing about, and scientifically complex issues she doesn’t understand, is appalling.
Well, contra, there’s the famous incident in 2015 where Rowling mocked some Twitter commenter for saying that tennis champ Serena Williams is “built like a man”. But then, of course, Williams has very pronounced bust and butt curves and wears her hair long (and, like most female tennis players, frequently competes in the traditional cute little short-skirted dresses). So that doesn’t ping the transphobes’ alleged “male detectors”.
I would not be at all surprised if there are some race-related reasons why Rowling jumps to the conclusion that flatter-chested, shorter-haired, strong-featured muscular female athletes of color like Khelif and Lim are “male”, but doesn’t seem to worry that flatter-chested, shorter-haired, strong-featured muscular white female athletes like boxer Diana Prazak might be “male”.