Heteropessimism
And other links for your Sunday
This week, JK Rowling, who is bound and determined to be remembered, not for her children’s series about wizards, but for her virulent hatred of trans people, criticized an Algerian boxer, calling her a man.1
The boxer, Imane Khelif took out her Italian competitor, Angela Carini, with one punch. Khelif defeated Carini in 46 seconds. Later, Carini’s tears were used to spread the lie that Khelif was a man who hit a woman. In reality, Khelif was assigned female at birth and has not spent her career as some sort of dominant boxer, known for her overwhelming power.
But this made-up controversy, spread by JK Rowling and Donald Trump, leans heavily image of and the language of gendered violence to evoke the desire to protect a woman. But it’s a trap. This discussion is less about protecting “women” and more about policing the lines of who can and cannot be a woman.