The politics of shame

You’re not likely to find a winner in this story. In the politics of shame, everyone loses.

By now, the debate surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, one of many controversies from the 2024 Olympics, is a familiar headline. The 25-year-old athlete won the gold medal in the women’s welterweight boxing competition at the Paris Games. After four matches, not one of Khelif’s competitors could even score a point. The result marked only the seventh gold medal in Algeria’s entire Olympic history.

And it never should have happened.

According to reports this summer—and allegedly confirmed by medical assessments this fall—Khelif is indeed genetically male. The International Boxing Association disqualified him from competing in the women’s division, claiming he failed its sex verification test and was found to have XY chromosomes. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach defended Khelif, decrying the “hate speech.” It was all “politically motivated” and a “culture war,” he scolded.

Khelif’s presence in the women’s division became something of a Rorschach test. On the one hand, Khelif had a birth certificate declaring female biology, the IBA was corrupt, the IOC said Khelif was female, and any speculation to the contrary was considered hateful conjecture. Case closed. Stop questioning.

On the other hand, Khelif likely had a developmental sex disorder, Algeria’s laws forbade updating his information, and seeing a female boxer in full men’s wear having physical contact with other men (deeply inappropriate in Muslim cultures) and wearing a groin guard in training seemed odd, at best.

Italian boxer Angela Carini stopped her match against Khelif after 46 seconds because of the physical pain. She refused to shake her opponent’s hand, defiant, convinced she’d been forced into an unfair fight.

Less than 24 hours later, Carini apologized: “If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision. … I was angry. … I don’t have anything against Khelif. Actually, if I were to meet her again, I would embrace her.” As to what occurred behind the scenes to effect such a change, we can only guess.

A French journalist recently leaked a medical report stating Khelif not only had XY chromosomes but also other characteristics of a developmental sex disorder. Despite having the appearance of a female at birth, Khelif was born without a uterus and possesses internal testicles, consistent with an intersex condition called 5-alpha reductase deficiency.

According to the National Institutes of Health, 5-alpha reductase deficiency affects male sexual development before birth and during puberty. A person with this condition is “genetically male.” He has one X and one Y chromosome in each cell and male gonads (testes). Since his body doesn’t produce the hormone dihydrotestosterone, his external sex organs don’t develop before birth.

It’s worth reinforcing that Khelif is not “transgender.” In the range of intersex conditions, 5-alpha reductase deficiency is mercifully rare and among the more extreme, affecting some 1 in 4,500 live births, or .0002% of the population worldwide.

Since Khelif appeared female at birth, his birth certificate irrevocably stated he was a girl. Further, he was indeed raised as a girl and, at least to some degree, socialized as a woman despite being a man. None of that was Khelif’s fault. Like every person born with a genetic disorder, Khelif deserves compassion. Even more, it’s likely that his condition has been exploited for financial gain since he was young. In many ways, he’s a victim in all this controversy, as well.

He is, however, both caught in the crosshairs—and a beneficiary—of Western beliefs about sex, gender, inclusiveness, self-determination, and the relationship of biological facts to reality. When a masculine-looking athlete physically punched females, the West produced both visceral revulsions at the barbarity of violence against women on a world stage and philosophical pontifications on the nature of sex and gender as spectrum-inhabiting social constructs.

The indignation following the leaked report was more than vindication that Khelif is indeed male. The report only confirmed what most of us already knew. We’re just tired of being shamed for saying it.

We’ve been told that, while Khelif looks male, has the chromosomes of a male, and is considered “technically male,” we must accept that he is actually a woman. Fail to fall in line—put one word out of place—and you’ll be publicly humiliated and accused of bigotry. Comply or be canceled.

Women have been expected to fully undress in front of a man and offered psychological services to “reeducate” their biases. They’ve been told to comply when they find a man in a women’s gym locker room or be fired for complaining. And they’ve been obligated to celebrate when genetically male figures are named “Woman of the Year.” Comply or be canceled.

Biology doesn’t matter, we’ve heard. This is what an inclusive, kind world requires. Any concern for women’s well-being, safety, or equality is unfounded, histrionic, and extreme. And it’s not like anyone is trying to sexually assault you—as though not being harmed is all women can expect. Comply or be canceled.

The 2024 election expressed, among other issues, a hard shift toward common sense. People who don’t want to see biological males compete in women’s sports now realize they’re in the majority. The obligation to “comply or be canceled” is only as strong as the silence of those who submit to it.

The politics of shame has grown thin. And its victims are growing in volume.