What is a Woman?

Brief thoughts on the shifting landscape of language surrounding gender ideology

What is a woman? Is it just a feeling? Is it a conglomeration of stereotypical female behavior? Those entrenched in gender ideology seem to think so. However, I would argue that womanhood is the lived experience of being female. I will agree that womanhood is vast, and the manifestation of it can differ depending on the individual. Personal expression comes in all forms after all. Some women are more feminine, some are more masculine, but all of us have a mix masculine and feminine traits, behaviors, and interests that vary amongst individuals.

Radical gender activists frequently identify the term woman as anyone who identifies as a woman. But that still leaves the question, what is a woman? If one can just declare themselves a woman regardless of chromosomes, gametes, or physical attributes, can anyone identify as anything? Can I claim to identify as a different race? A different age? Can I declare myself a doctor without having any qualifications or licenses? Can I declare myself leader of a country without being elected or appointed? The latter examples might seem a bit silly, but they illustrate my point well enough.

Moreover, if we do not have clear definitions for things, how can we accurately define anything? The push to change language regarding sex and gender is proof of a push to attempt to erase objective truth altogether. We know females are women, but the refusal to acknowledge this is an attempt to erase the meaning of the term woman. And by erasing the meaning, you inevitably erase what women are altogether.

Being a woman isn’t about the clothing you wear, the makeup you might apply, or the way you do your hair. Being a woman is intrinsically connected with the lived experience of being female. Many things contribute to the idea of womanhood, starting in childhood. Being socialized as a female, learning your role within your family unit, navigating childhood friendships, and developing a perception of the world play a big role in shaping you as a person. Female puberty, the changes your body goes through along with hormonal shifts and learning how to adapt to those changes all set the stage for womanhood.

All these variables play a crucial role in shaping who you are physically, mentally, and emotionally. A male who is socialized completely differently within not only his family unit, but his friend group, has a different perception of the world, and experiences a different kind of puberty than their female counterparts is unable to adequately understand what it feels like or means to be a woman.

The idea that womanhood can be reduced down to a walking stereotype that anyone can emulate is, in my opinion, extremely demeaning to women. That isn’t to say gender dysphoria doesn’t exist altogether, I’ve spoken to several people who suffer from gender dysphoria, and I sympathize greatly with their struggles. However, the presence of gender dysphoria doesn’t make you a woman. Simply put, just because you don’t feel like a man doesn’t mean you feel like a woman. It indicates a misalignment of the mind and body as well as a misalignment with how you view yourself and how society views you.

Coincidentally, the notion that not feeling like a man means you must feel like a woman supports the binary that gender ideologues adamantly deny the existence of. Many concepts within gender ideology itself are contradictory and lack logical reasoning, but that’s the goal of postmodernism: rejecting objective reality and truth. The gender movement is just a subset of postmodernism, aimed to dismantle reality by distorting it through the language we use.

Trans women are not women, they are trans women: males who strive to appear as women. But the difference between us is vast. We can respect each other as humans while also acknowledging reality with the aim to be respectful and truthful during discussions surrounding this topic.

You are welcome to have a seat at my table, but you cannot take my seat. A woman is and always will be an adult human female.