The Battle for Trust
How the divide over gender identity ideology extends into private life and why women are not believed
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. If that is granted, everything else follows.”
George Orwell, 1984
On August 1, 2024, male boxer Imane Khelif stepped into the ring against Angela Carini in a women’s boxing match. The occasion was the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. It was particularly important to Carini to compete in Olympic boxing. She had already qualified for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. However, on the eve of the first-round bout, her father passed away, so she decided not to compete. She took a two-year hiatus afterward but then fought her way back into qualification for the Paris Olympics and dedicated her first bout to her late father. The bout against Khelif was thus her very first Olympic bout.
It ended after 46 seconds.
Khelif landed such a hard blow to her nose that damage was suspected, and she was advised to stop the fight. She refused to shake Khelif’s hand and cried out, “It’s not fair.” After the fight, she explained, “I’ve never been hit that hard in my life.”
That’s not surprising, since men’s punching power is 2.6 times greater than women’s.1 On average, men have 75 percent more muscle mass and 90 percent more strength in their upper bodies than women.2 Competing against a man in boxing is therefore life-threatening for women.
It was only the third Olympics to feature women’s boxing, and in the end, two men won gold medals: Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. They defeated a total of eight women at the Olympics and stole their athletic achievements. Yu-ting faced Sitora Turdibekova (Uzbekistan), Svetlana Staneva (Bulgaria), Esra Yildiz Kahraman (Turkey), and Julia Szeremeta (Poland). Angela Carini (Italy), Anna Luca Hámori (Hungary), Janjaem Suwannapheng (Thailand), and Yang Liu (China) faced Khelif in the ring.
The Battle Over Sensory Perception
What is remarkable about the entire process is this: Anyone who trusts their senses could SEE that it was men who were allowed to beat up women on the Olympic stage. Not only their physical build, but also their punching power was unmistakable. The women boxers didn’t stand a chance.
Humans have a very reliable perception of their counterpart’s gender. Facial structure alone is sufficient for this.3 Gender perception occurs in under 200 milliseconds—faster than conscious thought.4 This points to a universally applicable mechanism deeply rooted in evolution that transcends cultural and individual differences. Women are more proficient at this.5
Nevertheless, both the IOC and Thomas Bach, as well as the media, stubbornly insisted—and in some cases still do to this day—that they were women. To this day, the media write about Khelif as if he were a woman.
The Battle For Interpretive Authority
The public broadcast’s Sportschau wrote at the time:6
“Representatives of the right-wing populist camp seized the opportunity for political messaging, casting doubt on Khelif’s identity as a woman or denying it outright. For example, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Donald Trump, and his vice-presidential candidate JD Vance made such statements. The facts were ignored in the process. […] The IOC, as the organizing body, continues to adhere to the information on the athletes’ birth certificates—Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting were both born and raised as women.”
The media thus framed criticism of men in women’s boxing as coming from the right. Something similar happened with the International Boxing Association (IBA), which is under Russian leadership. In two independently evaluated test series (2022 and 2023), the IBA had determined that Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting have a male karyotype—which led to their exclusion from the 2023 Women’s World Championships. The IOC did not recognize these tests—formally, because the IBA has not held Olympic jurisdiction since 2019 due to corruption scandals, and substantively, because its president, Kremlev, is considered close to Putin. The media used both points to fundamentally delegitimize the test results.
Then-IOC President Thomas Bach cited the boxers’ birth certificates.7
“We are talking about women’s boxing. And we have two boxers who were born as women, who have been raised as women. Who have passports as women. And who have competed for many years as women. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman.”
What was not taken into account here is that in countries such as Algeria, men with a disorder of sex development (DSD, commonly referred to as “intersex”) may well have a birth certificate and a passport that incorrectly identify them as female. The same applies to countries where self-determination of sex applies, such as in Germany (“Self-ID” / “Self-Determination Act”).
Data presented by World Athletics scientist Dr. Stéphane Bermon in September 2025 at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo,8 revealed that since 2000, 50 to 60 men with DSD have competed in women’s events, reaching the finals of the World Athletics Championships 135 times—thereby systematically depriving women of their achievements.
This finding initially led to mandatory gender testing via a cheek swab at World Athletics Championships. This test is now also becoming mandatory for the next Olympics to protect women’s sports.
The Battle Against Women
One would think that all women, feminists, feminist organizations, and the press would stand behind these decisions in favor of women and oppose the men and their clubs who cheat in women’s sports—but far from it. A storm of indignation swept through the press and was also voiced by supposedly feminist organizations such as the German Women’s Council or by the Federal Government’s Queer Commissioner from the Federal Ministry for Women and Gender Equality.
It is now claimed that “transgender” athletes are being excluded from athletic competitions. First of all, this regulation primarily affects men with DSD (“intersex individuals”), who have a clear physical advantage over women. Furthermore, both men with DSD and men who identify as transgender can continue to participate in sports and competitive athletics—though exclusively in the male category, so as not to disadvantage women. But THAT is precisely what is not being reported. Instead, Trump and TERFs are being attacked, and journalistic framing is being used at the expense of women.
What is good, safe, and fair for women simply does not matter as soon as there is a man on the other side who can claim minority status for himself.
“In summary, Imane Khelif cannot be biologically female. Even if he were to have a DSD or ‘intersexuality,’ he would still remain biologically male.”
“This does not result in a moral imperative, in the sense of social justice, to create a balance by guaranteeing men with rare mutations and tragic life stories a gold medal in women’s sports as compensation, regardless of the danger to women’s health and lives.”
Marie-Luise Vollbrecht, biologist at Telepolis9
“Athletes with XY DSDs who have testes (usually internal), XY sex chromosomes, male-typical levels of testosterone, and functional androgen receptors are often described as females with ‘hyperandrogenism,’ i.e., abnormally high levels of testosterone. The issue for sports is that athletes with the XY DSD 5-alpha reductase deficiency (5-ARD) may be socialized as female, may be legally female, and may live and identify as female; but they are male.”
Carole Hooven, former co-director of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, in The Bridge10
Both scientists who have cited these biological facts—Vollbrecht11 and Hooven12—have been and continue to be subjected to massive smear campaigns that have severely damaged both women’s careers to this day. Women who advocate for sex-based women’s rights or simply state scientific reality face massive reprisals—even when men bash women’s skulls in.
After losing the match, Angela Carini was pressured into apologizing to Khelif for refusing to shake his hand. At the same time, she faced massive attacks from Algerian fans on social media, while Khelif complained that he was the victim of a hate campaign because feminists were stating the reality. Only he was taken seriously, while Carini was told not to make such a fuss and to get over her loss.
The Battle to Be Heard
When men’s violence against women was introduced as an Olympic discipline in 2024 with Khelif and Yu-Ting, and brought gold medals to the women-beaters, the international community of “TERFs”—the genuine feminists—was certain that this would convince the general public of how dangerous such developments are for women.
We were certain that everyone could see: Men are boxing here! We were certain that a public outcry of indignation over this injustice would be heard.
But the public is apathetic and trusts the press. And here we come to a point that is very personal for many feminists: We are not believed—not even by friends and family members.
When Hajo Seppelt from the Sportschau editorial team focuses on the harsh fate of Caster Semenya13 instead of the tragedy of Angela Carini, when the Tagesschau fact-check portrays “TERFs” as being funded by evangelicals and Putin14, and Jan Böhmermann destroys the life of biology doctoral student Marie-Luise Vollbrecht in the media because she insists on the sex-binary in humans,15 when the children’s channel is already spreading the myth of the “wrongly born” child 24/7 who needs to be corrected through invasive medicine,16 when the NGO HateAid redefines our motives as hatred and queerphobia,17 we “TERFs” have just as little chance with our arguments as the opponents of Khelif and Yu-Ting.
Like them, we lose 0-5 in almost every battle, even though we are right in everything we say.
The hurdle of questioning trust in the media and institutions and believing women instead is too high. It would shake one’s own worldview. It would also mean switching to a side that is discredited and endangers one’s own existence.
Even if a man were to compete in women’s boxing right before everyone’s eyes—and yet the citizen lulled by the news and sports broadcasts thinks everything is perfectly fine. And it doesn’t stop there. No, the male thug is shielded and defended by any means necessary against the evil “TERFs,” who care about the fate of the women who lost their medals. Men can punch women in the face on the Olympic stage or maim them with a life-threatening blow to the back of the head. But if they cite the tragic fate of a sex development disorder or a transgender identity, they are the victims and clearly female from birth—and unfortunately, there are many women who defend them at any cost.
The sinners and heretics are the women who oppose this trend and stand up for justice for women. They are—like the battered women—tarred and feathered, told to be ashamed, insulted and defamed, harmed in their careers, and cast into social ostracism.
The Battle For Reality
So there is a divide that is insurmountable. It is the divide between people who still trust the media and institutions and those who have turned away and rely on their senses, biological facts, and common sense.
I belong to the second group, because I consider the blatant lies—that men can be women, that people can change their sex, and that children might be born in the wrong bodies—to be unforgivable. There is hardly a more existential lie than this, for it strikes at the core of our human existence and the way we relate to one another, how we are embodied, and how we survive and reproduce. It also strikes at our instinct and our clear perception of those around us.
We are not disembodied. We exist physically, and our sex fundamentally and lifelong determines our physical constitution and our physical experiences—especially as women. Accepting our physical and sexual realities and learning to live with them is an essential part of growing up.
To view the body, on the other hand, as a completely self-determined and marketable product while simultaneously assuming that physical realities are flawed is far removed from “be your true self.” The latter, however, is the marketing label used to sell the “ideal body” to people.
The sheer scale and drastic nature of these interventions alone make it clear that nothing here is innate and how strongly the human body resists the fiction of a self-determined gender. Through these massive interventions in hormonal balance and sexual organs, one may appear to be the opposite sex—perhaps even deceptively real—but every cell will carry the true sex within it until the end of life and resist the hormonal and surgical manipulations.
The Battle Against Body-Part Markets
Now, however, we are told with the utmost conviction that there are new insights into sex and that it is simultaneously vital that some people—even children—be allowed to lie about their physical existence with state legitimacy, that everyone must go along with the lie under threat of punishment, and that they may irreversibly damage their bodies at the expense of the general public in order to conform to a sexist conception of themselves.
Dissatisfaction with one’s own body is not addressed therapeutically and ultimately led to acceptance and reconciliation. Instead, a “body part wish list” is touted.
We have now reached the point where the ICD-11 no longer assumes any suffering at all, but rather that a claimed gender identity becomes the gateway to an entire market of manipulative interventions, plastic surgeries, and hormone manipulations, which the general public is expected to finance.
Since children, adolescents, and young adults are highly likely to be chemically castrated, the risky pre-pubertal extraction of germ cells and the “wish program” of buying children through surrogacy are directly factored in.
These are unbridled billion-dollar markets18 built on people’s suffering, wishes, and dreams. The people who surrender to this market are dependent on it for the rest of their lives. They have sold their autonomy.
The media and politics have degraded themselves to the role of henchmen and service providers for these markets and are squandering their credibility on a massive scale. Nevertheless, there are still many people who trust the media and politics and their identity-ideological lies.
In the end, the truth prevails—at a high price
We feminists can try as hard as we might, write articles, organize protests, and cite source after source. We can tell our friends and relatives: Please, just take a look! But it may very well be that we are still running into walls and are seen as untrustworthy, extremist, frivolous, and crazy.
How is anyone supposed to believe all that? It is so outrageous that it is actually hard to believe. And in my opinion, that is precisely the shield under which this ideology operates. The equation “2+2 no longer equals 4” is almost harmless compared to “men can be women,” because the consequences for girls and women—but also for society as a whole—are far-reaching and herald a totalitarian development that runs counter to humanity.
I will never forgive those responsible for the fact that this division now extends into the private sphere; that people trust the lies of a sports show or the evening news more than their own perceptions or me and other women who have been dealing with this issue for years; that it is now possible to openly advertise for severed breasts and genitalia.
But I would also never forgive myself for not speaking out against these developments and not openly opposing them. And we see from the example of the Olympics: We—the so-called “TERFs”—were right once again, and through our united international efforts, we have ensured that women’s sports are becoming fairer and safer once more.
That we are not alone in this assessment is also confirmed by a report from the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, which was presented to the UN General Assembly in October 2024. 13Alsalem documented that by March 2024, over 600 female athletes had lost more than 890 medals to biological men in over 400 competitions across 29 sports—and explicitly classified the opening of women’s categories to men as a form of violence against women. So it is not just “notorious TERFs” who see it this way.
Whether this will lead to us being trusted more in the future—including in private settings—remains to be seen. Protecting a male abuser and cheater with minority status still counts for more than protecting a woman who fights for her athletic achievements or trusting a woman who defends women’s rights and openly speaks the truth.
Thank you Rona, great post! Societies all over the globe have always protected men over women; it's the reason why young girls wherever they are wake up to find that they/we are understood as subordinate to men. I doubt this will ever change; all the more reason why we need to stand up to all further encroachment before it may get too late.
Thank you for this resolute mustering of those lies which support the rights of men who claim to be women against the biological truths which should protect women. I am grateful that so many strong women are prepared to proclaim the truth despite the terrible cost there often is on their careers and reputation. The truth must prevail.