Is there anything men can’t do? Increasingly, the best “women” are men. Take women’s boxing.
I am not actually a fan of women’s boxing. I don’t think it is a step forward for women being hit to be a form of entertainment. And I don’t think that simply because men do something, women should do it too. Or vice versa.
But if you are going to have women’s sports, it seems obvious that they should be limited to women. Otherwise, there is no point. Separate competitions for women make sense only because it is blindingly obvious that men, as a group, have substantial physical advantages over women.
In general, the Olympics subscribe to that common sense view, which is why we have women’s competitions in track and field, swimming, etc. But the IOC’s standard of femininity apparently is flexible, so that a man who “identifies” as a woman–i.e., pretends to be one–qualifies for women’s events. At least, that is how it appears after the notorious boxing match between the Algerian Iman Khalif and the Italian Angela Carini.
The bout lasted a mere 46 seconds:
Khalif is, to all appearances, a man. If you saw him walking down the street, it would not occur to you that he might be a woman. He was disqualified from boxing as a woman last year by the International Boxing Association, a Russian-dominated organization, because he “failed gender tests.” What does that mean?
According to Reuters, Khelif was found to have elevated levels of testosterone.
IBA President Umar Kremlev explained the decision at the time, according to Russia’s Tass News Agency.
“Based on DNA tests, we identified a number of athletes who tried to trick their colleagues into posing as women. According to the results of the tests, it was proved that they have XY chromosomes. Such athletes were excluded from competition,” Kremlev said.
The facts are not entirely clear, but if Khalif has XY chromosomes, he is a man. Which certainly is consistent with his appearance. It is only in the topsy-turvy world of 2024 that a woman being beaten up by a man is seen by some as a token of progress in human rights.
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