HoS: Colin Wright on the Imane Khelif Saga

House of Strauss

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OK, I’m back from vacation, leaping out of cold Lake Tahoe and into this particular hot water.

The women’s Olympic boxing controversy is an absolute mess from a media perspective. When Angela Carini of Italy quickly tapped out against Imane Khelif of Algeria, it kicked off a cultural firestorm. Initially, some of those outraged by what they witnessed in the match were operating off of incomplete information. But in the follow up, many conventional media outlets were misleading in their corrections.

Given all this confusion, I’ve enlisted evolutionary biologist Colin Wright to make sense of what’s likely happened, why it’s happened, and where the public conversation went wrong. We also discuss what determines “male” vs. “female,” and the impact of testosterone on the human body. Fascinating stuff, in my humble opinion.

Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* Imane Khelif as subject of controversy

* What is a DSD (Differences of Sexual Development) condition?

* Where the “right” went wrong in the immediate aftermath of this controversy

* Where the “left” is wrong in their correction of the right, especially in media

* What’s with the impulse to morally shame people who seek an ethical guideline here?

* How the IOC really dropped the ball

* Does XY = male?

* Does it matter at all that the International Boxing Association has Russian ties?

* Odd ways that testosterone impacts the human body, right down to the fingers