When being a woman is reduced to a sentiment

It’s not easy being a woman—in part because so few people seem to know what a woman is. Dismiss a woman because she’s being “emotional,” and it’s typically met with disdain. Women are more than their feelings. But claim that emotions affirm one’s identity as a woman, and it’s now met with validation. Being a woman is a feeling, we are told.

Feelings are the new facts in our brave new world. 

Emotions are the new evidence. 

And as one organization recently discovered, beliefs are the new biology. 

To celebrate Women’s History Month, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors featured a 13-second video in which a few of their athletes described why girls “run the world” [cue Beyonce]. Their answer? Women can have babies. 

The video was less than well-received, to put it mildly. Within hours, the Toronto Raptors removed the video and issued a public apology with the all-now-too-familiar language of self-groveling. They pride themselves on “inclusion and representation.” They made a “mistake.” And the promise to “do better.” The corporation apologized for saying women could have babies. 

Unless its leadership has suddenly become sensitive to women who are childless or infertile, the only group lacking “inclusion and representation” in the video is the transgender community. According to gender ideology, a biological male (who does not have the capacity to give birth) can identify as a woman, and a biological female (who does have the capacity to give birth) can identify as a man. 

Ironically, the Toronto Raptors video was on to something in our gender-confused age. Properly understood, a woman—an adult human female—is someone whose biology is structured or organized around the potential to give birth. In her book, The Genesis of Gender, Abigail Favale defines a woman according to a purpose that every woman (but not a single male) has the potential to fulfill: gestation. Even if she doesn’t have biological children, whether by choice or condition, her body is still organized around the possibility of giving birth. In other words, according to Favale, this definition of a woman that includes all women and excludes all men is grounded in biology.

But the gender ideology pervasive in our culture regards one’s physical body as a randomized inconvenience. In the conflict between the inner self of personal feelings and the outer self of biological facts, the inner self always prevails. And this superiority is not only considered a civil right to be protected but a mark of progress to be celebrated. Why else would the Biden administration include a “transwoman” among those honored at the White House on International Women’s Day? 

Remove physical biology from personal identity, and you’re left with two factors to determine whether or not you’re a woman: cultural stereotypes and personal feelings. According to The Gender Dysphoria Bible, a website devoted to dismantling the belief that gender is biologically grounded, if a female wants to be a boy, she already is one: “Men want to be men, and women want to be women. If you want to be a man, then you’re a man. It really is that simple.”

According to this ideology, the core of one’s gender is discovered in “doing what makes you happy.” Another online resource tells males that if they are questioning their gender identity, they should experiment with small activities like shaving their legs or wearing makeup to assess how they feel. No word on how those in other cultures, in which women do not shave their legs or wear makeup, can discern their true gender.

Disconnected from the body, the substance of gender is little more than a feeling, a transient psychological state. As a result, the body is little more than a collection of organs, bones, and skin, physical parts that can be altered and removed to fit your personal feelings. But if being a woman means having a female body with the structural, hormonal, and reproductive potential for gestation, then no technological advancement or ground-breaking surgery can create a woman from a male body. It’s just impossible.

Unless gender identity is grounded in physical biology, a woman’s identity is little more than a stereotype or a sentiment. And in a society like that, nothing is so oppressive or bigoted as facts. But the fact remains a fact.