Hollywood Reporter: The Real Scandal in Olympic Boxing Is ...

AP Photo/Scott Garfitt

Just when you think the media couldn't possibly behave worse ... they manage to one-up themselves.

Today's example comes from the Hollywood Reporter, which decided to take a close look at the scandal involving boxing at the Paris Olympics. Do they focus on how the IOC allowed a male to enter the women's boxing category? Nope

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How about the necessity of a female competitor to withdraw to prevent possibly life-long injuries? Or how the dreams of an Italian woman to compete against other women shattered into pieces before her face did?

Nope. The real story, according to THR, is how the biological male in the ring got misgendered by J.K. Rowling. No, I am not &^%$£$% kidding:

They also roll out the latest pseudomedical excuse from the IOC in allowing Khelif to compete in women's categories. Khelif isn't transgender, they claim, but has a condition called Differences of Sexual Development (DSD). As explained here, though, it certainly sounds like transgenderism:

Social media users and famous faces including Elon Musk, Logan Paul, and Piers Morgan are now weighing in to talk about the “fairness” of letting Khelif compete, with many seeming to believe she is a man. But Khelif was raised and identifies as a female, and is not transgender. Athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD), where some people are raised as female but have XY chromosomes – leading to blood testosterone levels in the male range – are currently allowed to compete in women’s competition at the Olympics.

DSD does actually exist, and is the current nomenclature for "intersex," which used to be called hermaphrodite. The problem with this explanation is that Khelif doesn't identify as intersex, according to NBC, and that Khelif has XY chromosomes and has clearly gone through male puberty. That's why Khelif got barred from competing at the world championships for women last year:

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Khelif’s participation in Olympic women’s boxing has been scrutinized in recent days after reports resurfaced that she and another boxer, Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan, failed to meet gender eligibility tests at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi last year. At the time, sporting officials alleged that the boxers failed an unspecified test because they had male chromosomes.

Khelif, 25, has always competed as a woman — including during the Tokyo Olympics — and there’s no indication that she identifies as transgender or intersex, the latter referring to people born with reproductive organs that do not fit into a male or female gender binary. 

NBC also reported on Rowling's remarks, although they didn't make those the lead. And unlike THR, NBC actually does provide more context for the supposed DSD diagnosis that the IOC is using to deflect criticism. 

But that explanation is absurd, especially when it comes to sports competitions where risks for profound injury from mismatches are higher. Boxing avoids that by matching competitors not just on biological sex but also on narrow weight classes as well. What happens when a heavyweight competitor claims he was raised as a flyweight and climbs into the ring against someone half his or her size? Would the IOC allow that? If not, why would the IOC allow adults with XY chromosome profiles to compete against XX opponents?

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David wrote pretty extensively on the event and these issues this morning, and Jazz will have more later. But the Hollywood Reporter's attempt to make the story about Rowling and "misgendering" is so transparently corrupt and didactic that it speaks volumes about what the Left and Hollywood really care about ... and it ain't women

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | December 16, 2024
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