The 2024 Paris Olympic Games have come to a close, and what an incredible display of athleticism we have seen across the board. The competitions and races have been thrilling, the surprise victories inspiring, and the talent is extraordinary.
There’s another competition that happened concurrently with the Olympics, which seems to center around the worst take. And this year, those takes are largely focused on the women. In particular, how the women look.
Let’s start with the most prevalent one - Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif. If you are not familiar with this story, the TL;DR version is Italian fighter Angela Carini withdrew from her boxing match against Khelif after 46 seconds, saying she had never been hit that hard in her life. This moment has sparked a massive backlash against Khelif about her eligibility to compete. Much of the misinformation is centered around her gender identity - she is female, not transgender - and a 2023 ruling by the now banned International Boxing Association stating Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan had failed unspecified eligibility tests. This case is a whole separate post in itself, so I’m just sticking with the basics here.
Photo credit: Isabel Infantes, Reuters.
Khelif has been subject to a rush of abuse from anti-transgender activists, right-wing commentators, and politicians all calling her a man, and declaring that she is unfairly competing with genetic advantages.
Let’s be very clear. Khelif is a woman. The IOC has supported her eligibility to competing, noting “she was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case.” That statement has seemed to not matter, as the masses continue to insist that Khelif is a man.
American rugby player Ilona Maher has also faced criticism for her appearance, specifically her body. She has gained TikTok fame pushing back against the comments, which have focused on her weight, and her build. Specifically, that she’s. too muscular, too masculine, she’s on steroids, and she is a man. A 2022 TikTok video of Maher talking about these comments recently resurfaced.
Let’s be clear again. Maher is a woman. She is not a transgender woman. She does not take steroids. She is not too muscular or too masculine. For the record, Katie Ledecky is also not a man . Neither is Brittney Griner.
The common thread that all of these (and more) women have in common is that they do not conform to the typical standard of beauty and femininity that has long been expected for female athletes. Krane (2001) noted “Generally, women who appear heterosexually feminine are privileged over women perceived as masculine.” In the early 2000’s, Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova was making over $10 million in endorsements, despite never winning a singles title.
Credit: PA Images via Getty Images
With the target audience for most sporting events being men, beautiful, attractive, and feminine female athletes are arguably more appealing. Research has consistently pointed out the framing of female athletes as ‘women first, athletes’ second,’ noting that female athletes are more likely to be described in terms of their appearance, rather than their athletic accomplishments.
This standard of beauty and femininity is a white standard of beauty. The treatment women of color - and Black women in particular - have been subjected to, in both traditional and social media, is downright disgusting (and deserves its own focus). We have seen in past Olympics how female athletes of color - Khelif, Caster Semenya, Yu-Ting, Christine Mboma, Beatrice Masilingi, Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Serena Williams - have faced not only sexist but racist attacks over their body, their hair, and if they were even women at all.
Credit: Jean Catuffe, PacificCoastNews
Research suggests images of female athletes shown as athletes, and shown as powerful sports figures have positive effects on adolescent girls, college students, more college students, collegiate female athletes. Portraying female athletes in sexualized manners leads to a perception that they are less competent than a female athlete portrayed in an athletic manner. However, it seems that there is a line in which female athletes are still not allowed to cross when it comes to their appearance - masculinity.
Maher, the U.S. rugby player, has the ability to take to her TikTok where she has 2.3 million followers and shut down individuals who criticize her for her body type, simply pointing out that yes, she has muscles and a higher BMI…but she’s in the Olympics, and they are not. Khelif, the Algerian boxer, has the ability to file a legal complaint over the online abuse she was subject to during the Paris 2024 Olympics. Simone Biles can tell people not to come for a black woman’s hair on her Instagram, which boasts 12.5 million followers. That’s great, and they are messages that are very important to hear.
There are many girls and women - athletes and non-athletes alike - who do not have that kind of platform to speak out on. This meme comes to mind:
When you say a female athlete looks like a man…has too much muscle…is too strong…too powerful…too *much*…it sends a distorted message about what a female athlete is supposed to look like. What may seem to be an offhand comment on social media can have long-lasting consequences.
As we close out this Olympiad and look forward to the Paris 2024 Paralympics, why don’t we also snuff out the torch on policing the bodies of female athletes online and criticizing them for how they look. It’s not funny, it’s not cute, and it’s not being helpful at all under the guise of ‘protecting’ women. Women come in all shapes and sizes. So do female athletes. They need muscles. They need power.
Simone Biles needed power to win her Olympic golds. Ilona Maher needed her muscles and power to help the U.S. women win the Olympic bronze. Katie Ledecky needed power and endurance and a strong stroke to become the most decorated U.S. female Olympian. The aspiring Olympic hopefuls, the collegiate, high school, community league, youth league, intramural, and amateur female athletes across the globe all need muscles, strength, and power too.
Let’s celebrate THAT.