There is alot of anxiety and media attention swirling around this women's boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics in France. The fight between Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, and Italy's Angela Carini lasted a mere :46 seconds. After exchanging a few blows, Carini's corner signaled their desire to quit in front of a stunned and confused crowd.
After the fight, Carini broke down in tears and described how she feared for her safety in the ring.
“After the second punch, after years of experience, I felt a strong pain in the nose. I said enough, because I didn’t want. I couldn’t finish the fight after the punch to the nose. So it was better to put an end to it."
People are projecting their understanding, and using their limited language to describe this event. News media outlets are feeding their audiences clickbait & posting headlines that don't help us understand.
Here are some things to remember. Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman. Her passport says "Female", and Khelif was declared female at birth in Algeria, Africa. She trains as an Olympic boxer at her natural levels of testosterone/estrogen. She is not a transgender woman, and she is not on any chemical hormone program outside of typical boxing training. Her reality is similar to South African runner, Caster Semenya and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting. They live with an "intersex" condition, or "differences in sex development" (DSD) ... but even here we must remember that these are just words. Words only give us a chance to point toward a more complex Truth.
Both Khelif and Yu-ting were disqualified from fighting in the "World Championships", which has different sex eligibility rules. They were cleared and deemed within the eligibility requirements to fight at the Olympics.
The Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) said on Wednesday it “strongly condemns the unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda “from certain foreign media outlets”, adding: “Such attacks on her personality and dignity are deeply unfair, especially as she prepares for the pinnacle of her career at the Olympics. The COA has taken all necessary measures to protect our champion.”
Linguistics & Social Identity Categories
While Fox News and other tabloids publish cheap words to enrage their low information audience and get clicks ... it's important to slow down. We must, again, learn to relax.
The language we employ, & the categories we create/inherit are powerful concepts of the mind. All these concepts will eventually meet the edge of their value and collapse on itself, because nature is not constrained by our socio-political concepts.
This is the truth of complex reality.
I don't have an answer on who should be fighting who in a boxing ring. Boxing Federations/Leagues are private entertainment entities; each with unique rules and aims. The Olympics has committee organizations that make up the categories & rules for the various games they stage.
I DO know that beyond just the realm of sports, 'gender' and 'biological sex' are more complex concepts than we've been taught. This News event is a product of natural human complexity rubbing up against the written traditions of boxing mythology. Because there is the vast & indescribable human condition ... and then there are words and symbols, which populate our textbooks. I think the key is to inquire, with acceptance and Love for what is. From there, we have a chance to use germane language, and build our myths in a way that more accurately maps onto our Now-Reality.
-Billy
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