This particular Killjoy Truth resonates deeply with the lived experience of female Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif. While all boxers engage in "fighting" as demanded by their sport, Khelif fights to be recognized for who she is - a woman.
After having been disqualified by the 2023 International Boxing Association (IBA) championship for "failing a gender test," Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting were welcomed as women athletes in Paris by the IOC, which does not recognize the IBA and has a different set of gender eligibility criteria.
Ahmed introduces us to Killjoy through familiar “domestic” things and places we interact with everyday - tables, doors, and walls - each of which are sites at which Imane Khelif's identity was put in contention.
We notice tables because we are most often alienated from/at them. Tables are where questions are asked, and when we show up, like Imane Khelif, in ways that do not meet expectations, we become the question - who are you?
In question, Khelif becomes a stranger – her “bod[y] is out of place” which makes her seem suspicious (Ahmed, 2023, p. 128). She is shown to the door, one she cannot open for herself as it has always already been "used to close the category 'woman'" (p. 130).
Even though she was permitted to pass through the wall of the IOC's Framework on Fairness, Inclusion, and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations, the mere existence of the framework reinforces the idea that women's bodies need policing and that inclusion of "unexpected" bodies is inherently unfair.
Remembering that Killjoy is a "skillset," let's apply it.
To be a killjoy philosopher is to turn the questions out. We question who is made questionable and who is not. (Ahmed, 2023, p. 132)
Trans legal advocacy group Gender Justice provides a context for understanding who we question in terms of fairness in sports and who we do not. We celebrate Michael Phelps, who has several biological differences (like being hyper- and double- jointed, and having a wingspan that is greater than his height) that provide him an advantage in the pool. Similarly, Simone Biles' shorter 4 ft. 8in frame provides an advantageous height to strength ratio that allows her to complete more moves in her routines than taller competitors.
At the Paris games, several women athletes with non-stereotypical feminine bodies, like shot putter Chase Jackson, and rugby player Ilona Maher, come to mind. So, why question Imane Khelif?
Of course, Khelif's past experience with the IBA provides an obvious reason, but the pointed glare/stare of the feminist phenomenologist suggests that her brown skin and hailing from a majority Muslim country in Africa has at least something to do with it.
Many of the arguments in support of Khelif participating in the women's category hinged around her identity as a cis-gender woman. While this works to broaden expectations aof how women's bodies show up, I still think there is much work to be done around transgender women in sports.
While Khelif is not, I still would like to ask - what if she were a trans- woman? How would that change her inclusion, and subsequent gold medal in Paris? My answer is it wouldn't, but as the situation played out this year (2024) it still remains to be seen how the IOC and society in general would answer if a real life transgender woman wanted to step into the ring.
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