This!
Everyone is somehow accusing Imane of being intersex or trans. The trans phobia of it all is awful, but truly there is gross racism and misogyny here that I’m so glad you are addressing!
Pretty much, people are looking at Imane and seeing someone that doesn’t fit their narrow standard of beauty, being mainly white, thin, without muscles and deciding Imane doesn’t fit these narrow beauty criteria and then doubting her gender. Black women are frequently masculized and portrayed as stronger, more resilient, that way we white people can have less empathy for them. This is a deep river that runs in racist programming, and as a white woman, I have seen it programmed into me.
I’ll never forget the time, I don’t remember why, but I saw an image of an actual lynching. It was horrible. There was a beautiful you black man dead with his face covered (guess it helped stripped him of his humanity to cover his face). One of the first thoughts that ran into my mind, was how strong the young man looked, he had big muscles and a fit body. I was horrified at this thought, while true, he had muscles, the man was dead. There is nothing weaker than a dead man. I realized then I had been programmed my whole life to always see black peoples as strong, even threatening, no matter what circumstance they are in. I realized this programming was racist and was designed to make it easier for society to abuse black people. Like, they’re so strong, they can’t be hurt. It’s dehumanizing. Since then I see this everywhere, black people portrayed as stronger than others. Often it’s layered with respect, which is fine, but it still has their almost invincible aura around black people, like they don’t feel pain.
Now when a black woman rightfully wins a fight, pretty much people have decided she must be a man because she doesn’t fit in white beauty standards. That’s what going on here.
So glad you called it out.