An intersectional approach to harassment on social media

Abstract This article employs textual analysis to examine the online hate speech and harassment directed at Algerian boxer Iman Khelif during the 2024 Summer Olympics. Through an intersectional approach, this article explores how racialization and gendering informed the hegemonic discourse about Khelif and investigates the discursive racist, sexist, and Islamophobic themes in the hate speech that targeted Khelif. The textual analysis of social media content that perpetuated discourse about Khelif on X, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit identified four patterns: Khelif was exploited for the construction of identities within Western political discourses, Khelif’s identity as a woman was dismissed, Khelif’s Muslim, Arab, and Algerian identities were weaponized in the Transvestigation discourse to perpetuate racist stereotypes, while Khelif was sidelined from the story. This article applies the emerging concept of Transvestigation, providing a critical perspective on the representation of Muslim and Arab women on anglophone social media.