The case of two female fist fighters, Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and Imane Khelif of Algeria, competing in the women's events at the Paris Olympics, has heated up the discussion about their gender. There have been harsh comments, memes and made-up facts of life. Meanwhile, the issue of physical gender differentiation is not at all as simple as it may seem to some commentators.
Gender Games. Can verdicts be made without knowing the medical facts?
Published Aug. 16, 2024 08:40
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- Our process of physical gender differentiation is complex This is not a zero-one issue. We don't know exactly what medical situation we are dealing with in the case of exactly these two female athletes, because their medical data has not been made public. As a result, there is a lot of speculation," says Sebastian Goncerz, a doctor in the process of specializing in psychiatry.
The fact is that female athletes were not allowed by the International Boxing Federation (IBA) to participate in last year's world championships in New Delhi. The reason given by IBA President Umar Kremlinov was the detection of XY chromosomes. The International Olympic Committee, on the other hand, allowed the athletes to compete, ensuring that they passed all the required criteria. The IOC took testosterone levels into account. In the opinion of doctors, it is strongly debatable to qualify gender solely on the basis of the type of chromosomes found, because this is only one of many exponents of gender. This was pointed out, among others, by sexologist Dr. Helena Zakliczynska in an interview with Polityka.
- There are situations where a person with XY chromosomes may develop a definite proportion of female sex and appearance-related traits. Such a person may not be aware of this at all until he or she tries to have a child or a menstrual problem arises. It is easy to talk about gender when we have a person with XX chromosomes, having a uterus, vagina, female sexual development and identity, but this is not always the case, and it happens that a person has XY chromosomes, but has a vagina and female sexual maturation. It's not that simple, and it's fraught with error to make verdicts by looking only from the outside and without documentation. Moreover, not every such situation involves a significant physical advantage," says Sebastian Goncerz.
What is problematic, however, are comments from people who confuse the issue of gender differentiation with the issue of gender identity. Especially on social media, there have been a lot of comments saying that the female athletes are actually men in disguise, or that they were born with the male gender and underwent gender correcting surgery. Meanwhile, none of these fists are transgender, none were born male and underwent gender correction surgery and hormone therapy. This shows what a long way we have to go in the area of public education about gender.
