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Trans women do not erase women’s rights
This is written as a response to this article which asked me to respond to every woman who feels erased. This feels apt on Internation Women’s day.
I preface this by stating that gender identity is a complex triptych of internal conception of self, externalised expression based on social construction, and personal biology which comes in many intersectional forms and understandings. Gender identity shapes the material reality we all exist in, including cis people’s ability to reshape their biological form to better suit their conception of self. Having a gendered identity do not make one trans, rather, it makes you a human being. To be a woman therefore is to understand oneself as a woman and to externalise that understanding in a manner in which other people in society can understand. The biological basis for this womanhood is secondary, as being a woman is more than the gonads and genitals you have.
To be a woman in this world is to have 4,000 years of recorded history telling you that the only thing you are worthy of is hearth, home, and children. Globally there have been few historic examples of matriarchal or equitable societies where women have equal power to men. Feminism as a global movement arose out of the desire to set aside those narratives, starting with the emancipation of women from marital bondage, and in the 2020s is now fighting a…
