The Perennial Brainrot Of The Online Culture War Joins The Olympics

Where the rightoids start a panic about transgender competitors in a boxing event where there are none

If you so much as glanced at social media this week you’ll have seen the sudden interest in the sport of women’s boxing. That’s good. Women’s sports in general re underfunded and the stigma around feminine pugilism means combat sports get the short end of that wedge. It sure would be awful if that interest was actually just the latest symptom of the incredible brain rot at the centre of the online - read American - culture war. No, no… I’m sure it would never be that. 

Coincidentally at the same time my favourite chuds happened to tell me a really upsetting story. During a bout between the Algerian Imane Khelif and Italian Angela Carini the former pummelled the latter so hard that she had to quit. Now even though that is one legitimate way to end a fight this time it’s different. You see it turns out there’s Khelif is a man who was so frustrated at losing to superior male athletes they decided to sneakily transition into a woman so they could experience the thrill of victory by punching weak women in the face…The sicko punched Carini so hard that she had to tap out after 46 seconds and give tearful interviews about how it’s just not fair while the world stood by and let her dreams be taken away.

I, like you, know this because the influencers on X.com told me. Robby Starbuck with half a million followers asked if violence against women was a sport now. Professional wrestler Logan Paul, someone who rose to fame by using predatory marketing tactics on children, sells kids energy drinks and is yet to refund people from a failed cryptocurrency scam, told his nearly seven million followers it was the purest form of evil. Professional Elon Musk fellator Ian Miles Cheong once again said the quiet - i.e fabricated - part out loud again by saying that biological males were being allowed to compete. JK Rowling of course waded in. Riley Gaines wasn’t too far behind declaring that men don’t belong in women’s sports. Good news for Ian as Cyberdaddy Musk wasn’t far behind in agreeing with that sentiment. LibsofTikTok proclaimed that Khelif had been banned from the Women’s World Box Championships - where I assume the gold medals are regularly taken by Amazon workers - due to being a man. The Guinness World Record holder for smallest face to head ratio Charlie Kirk called it gender insanity and pandering probably before owning a confused 18 year old speaking in public for the first time in their lives.

There were some minor problems with this narrative. Perhaps first and foremost among these were that Khelif is not transgender. They have lived the entirety of their lives from birth as a woman. This would be easy enough to factcheck but a crucial clue would be the fact that Algeria does not allow individuals to change their birth gender meaning it would be impossible for them to transition domestically. I can’t help but notice a lack of critique for the Algerian state that could have theoretically railroaded her into having to compete against women if she wanted to identify as male but that’s not a surprise. 

Those in denial about this point to the fact that Khelif had failed a gender test for the Russian headed IBA boxing federation that revealed she had XY chromosomes. “Ipso facto she’s a man” they peacocked. Conveniently left out of that response is the fact that the only source is the President of that federation Umar Kremlev who made the comments in 2023 after Khelif was disqualified on that basis. Regardless, it’s also a fact that many intersex conditions - referred to as Differences in Sexual Development (DSD) - see the individual having XY chromosomes but developing female genitalia. Those individuals often live their younger lives as women because that is what they are assigned due to the lack of a penis or external testicles. 

Depending on the nature of the individual’s DSD they may have higher than normal levels of testosterone than would be typically found in biological women without a DSD. This will incur changes to their bone density and development of muscle mass, which is desirable in certain physical pursuits. It often comes with the terrible downside of sterility, a lack of a functional sex life and an increased risk of certain types of cancer. It’s unlikely many would make the trade off if offered. The individuals affected by this face unique challenges and are not in any sense “transgender.”

World’s hardest hitter losing in 2020

Also of note is the fact Khelif competed at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo without any attention or condemnation for doing so. Perhaps a crucial factor was none of her opponents publicly bellyached about how hard she hit and Khelif was beaten in the quarter-finals by Ireland’s Kellie Harrington thus missing out on medals. If any comedy can be found in this at all then consider the following. There is exactly one transgender boxer competing in Paris. Their name is Hergie Bacyadan, from the Philippines, who was born a biological female and identifies as male. However due to the sport’s rules around hormone levels he has to decline the regular compliment of hormones transgender males would take as they would be deemed performance enhancing. Therefore at the Olympics they have to compete in the women’s division and do so likely at a great disadvantage not to mention at odds with their specified gender. Their existence isn’t exactly narratively complient so you’re forgiving for not having heard about them.

I won’t erect and hide behind a ring-fence of cowardice here and I shall say that I myself do have considerations about male-to-female transgender competitors engaging in physical contests against biological women. In physical and combat sports I think this is reasonable to assess. Having played the sport for two decades I find myself in agreement with the unprecedented two year study undertaken by the British Rugby Football Union (RFU) that it is impossible to balance the desire to compete against the safety and wellbeing of biologically female competitors. Their findings also stated that a “case by case” risk assessment would require too many variables to be viable. As such they have put in place a ban for contact rugby but also extended support to encourage transgender competitors to enter the many non-contact or “touch” programs out there. I also see no harm to anything other than feelings in the British Triathlon association’s inclusion of an “open” category where no such restrictions exist and people can not complain about outcomes they don’t like having opted in. I will also add that the manifestation of the “big bad trans” that wants to use sports as nothing more than a vector for hurting women is a myth without any substantiating data points. It has all the classic hallmarks of a manufactured moral panic. This is all moot because not only is the poisonous online discourse not really about protecting women, which we’ll get to later, but the individual targeted by the online hate mob - and I really cannot stress this part too often - was never transgender to begin with.

It is before the time of the average culture warrior but we’ve been through this before. Back in 2009 an eighteen year old sprinter by the name Caster Semenya won a gold medal in the World Championship Athletics women’s 800m race. She stormed to victory over two seconds ahead of the athlete who placed silver. Semenya had an unnaturally muscular frame for a woman and spoke with a deep voice. Her performance was not well received by the public nor her fellow competitors. It didn’t take long before people were demanding a “sex test” for the athlete.

A spokesperson from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said that Semenya would be subject to a battery of tests described as involving “medics, scientists, gynaecologists and psychologists.” "It would be wrong today to take a decision to withdraw an athlete” they said. “This is a medical condition. It is nothing that she has done. There is a need to make sure rules are followed. We are more concerned for the person and not to make this as something that is humiliating."

If none of this has made you squeamish then fair enough I suppose however Semenya’s trainers went on record to say that the humiliation had already occurred prior to her gold medal victory. South African athletics officials, fearing a scandal should she be victorious, reputedly lured her into an examination claiming it was a doping test. She was made to sit in stirrups, have her genitals photographed and examined, x-rays of her internal organs were taken. The ordeal lasted two hours. This by the way is why the IOC doesn’t want us to go back here. It’s inhumane, demeaning and borderline dehumanising.

This alone should have elicited some sympathy even from the most ardent of critics. To be clear, there is no great mystery about Semenya’s condition. She has an intersex condition called 5-ARD that occurs in developing genetic males with XY chromosomes. Semenya was assigned female at birth by doctors in South Africa. She does have a vagina but no uterus. Instead she has internal undescended testicles that produce the testosterone that has undoubtedly given her a competitive advantage. Psychological studies on those who are born with this condition do typically end up identifying as male, regardless of how their genitalia develops. Given the rarity of 5-ARD and then the even rarer case that Semenya represents in being unequivocal about their womanhood, ask yourself what you are supposed to do in this case. Are we now supposed to exclude people from sports that have in a very real way already been dealt a blow that will radically reduce the normality of their lives? 

The complexities of the issue were largely ignored by the general public. She was presented as a hate figure in the media, someone who had found a way to cheat and get away with it. This opinion didn’t change even as her rivals around her were disqualified for legitimate doping. Despite having complied with every test, every request and even for a period in her career taking medication that made her physically ill to reduce her natural testosterone, she was in the eyes of the general public a man who was cheating women out of medals.

Equally the ridicule she was subject to was disproportionate by any measure. For instance comedian Jimmy Carr told the following joke on panel show “Big Fat Quiz of The Year:

“Sprinter Caster Semenya was accused of being a man. I could have saved them some time and money. Give me 40 minutes and a couple of bottles of Bacardi Breezers and I’ll tell you if she’s a lady… A sports person with both sets of genitals? It’s a footballer’s dream. They could rape themselves.”

Jokes such as these take on a much darker complexion when you consider this was at a time that annually so-called corrective rapes for lesbians in South Africa were estimated to be 500 in number.

She has remained in the spotlight even as her career has faded. Her existence is a huge factor in the decision of world athletics bodies in introducing new rules around hormone levels in female athletes in 2019. She has challenged this in repeated lawsuits while refusing to take medication that reduces her testosterone levels. This stance has cost her four years of competition. 

Back to the present day. Ask yourself again what does an Algerian and an Italian boxing in an Olympic competition held in France have to do with US politics? Well, the answer is absolutely nothing but what was presented was too deliciously convenient for those mired in culture war bullshit to ignore. Here we had a woman - a biological one no less - quitting after being punched by someone who was probably a secret man or something. Her tears and talk of only participating to honour her deceased father perfectly illustrate the dangers of American leftism. In that world when men fail at sports they simply turn themselves into women and go and beat (up) their new sisters. “Who will protect our girls? Well it certainly won’t be the polyamorous pinko commie scumbags.” This is the heart of the matter and what it’s really all about… Two ideologies that used to coexist and even share power so enamoured now with the total destruction of each other that there is no lie too indecent to tell, no opportunity too cheap to turn down.

What the fuck even is a “retruth?”

Look, I think it’s somewhat reductive to divide what happened along the lines of “left and right.” That said I’d wager a Venn Diagram of those sharing misinformation about this particular happening and having right leaning views would look like a slightly out of focus circle. The subject of transgenderism has bizarrely become a dogmatic purity test for left and right alike but for the latter it is rapidly becoming foundational. It is the ultimate proof of the existence of the “loony left,” so hubristic they deny biological reality and demand all others must do so too. They will often cloak these concerns a layer of benevolence, pretending to care about the mental wellbeing of the individual but as the past few days have proven it is really about attacking American progressivist movements. This is why in right leaning discourse on the topic you will be presented with incongruous lamentations about the mental health of transgender individuals adjacent to a malevolent glee in their suicide rates. It is inconsistent by design, a refusal to surrender the moral high ground while also enjoying the hurtful perks of destructive ridicule.

And so now you have seen serious political commentators and even the Republican Presidential ticket use this issue to be an indictment of newly anointed presidential candidate Kamala Harris. She’s radically woke you see so if she wins the election then the only form of entertainment that will be broadcast on your television sets will be hormone addled male-to-female athletes beating women until they’re unconscious and the HAIL SATAN Powerhour sponsored by Globohomo.

Jesse Waters on FOX News bizarrely said if Trump was president he’d put sanctions on Algeria. John “LeFeverDream” LeFevre said that Kamala Harris supported it, whatever it was meant to be in his mind. Elon popped up again with enthusiastic agreement to say it’s true that she supports “it” without specifying what “it” is. Laura Ingraham said the bout was what Kamala Harris supporters mean when they use the term DEI… Incidentally the replies to her tweet are particularly good illustrations of the brainrot social media spreads. “Vote for Kamala to continue this insanity” says the top reply without any explanation of what this has to do with Kamala Harris or the current state of American politics. “This is the world Kamala wants” says another. Trump MiniMe JD Vance said that a “grown man pummelling a woman in a boxing match” was in fact the result of Kamala Harris’s ideas about gender. Trump himself posted a link to the footage in his diary, better known as Truth Social, posting in all caps I WILL KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS! That’s a crusade he is going to have plenty of time for once he bungles this election as well.

There’s another sidebar here I could talk about, how everything that happens globally has to be viewed through the American culture war lens… How America has become the fat, loud kid who turns up to someone else’s birthday party and has to be given a present in order to not ruin the whole shindig by throwing a tantrum.  It’s just become something the rest of the world has accepted as a cost of being allowed on to the digital spaces dominated by American thought. It of course comes at this terrible price; everything that happens and goes “viral” must be turned into a left vs right battle for the soul of America. The mental gymnastics required to make this incident about the upcoming US election could be its own category at the event it has fixated on.

There are certainly some sensible conversations to be had about trans and intersex athletes competing in women’s competitions, what, if any limitations should be put in place and how could they be enforced while still affording competitors dignity and bodily autonomy. The first step towards that has to be an acceptance that not all “problems” have elegant solutions. The matter is a real life trolley problem and depending on which way we throw the switch someone probably will be run over. Not everyone can get everything they want all of the time. However, you won’t find any of these considerations among those mired in culture war bullshit. The secret is they don’t actually want to fix the issue because to find solutions, compromises and concessions means we’d have to move on and moving on means there’s one less thing to grift about. And that’s all this is and ever was… A textbook misinformation hustle no different to ragebait headlines on dying lefty blogs or fearmongering on right wing talk radio and there’ll be another one tomorrow.