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actively contains designs (genes) for the development of male genitalia. He cannot, nor ever could he,
develop a womb by natural means. Any such endeavor seeking to change the biological reality of a male
into a female remains an entirely factitious endeavor. For this reason, women cannot welcome a man
into a personal conversation about periods in the same way as they can with another woman, even if
that woman has never had a period in her life.
The following opinion column titled “What Makes a Woman?” from The New York Times argues
from a similar viewpoint. I will quote this author at length, because her response to the popular
understanding of gender supplies this thesis’s argument with a sympathetic attitude on the importance
of experience grounded on more than feelings, however strongly held:
And as much as I recognize and endorse the right of men to throw off the mantle of maleness, they
cannot stake their claim to dignity as transgender people by trampling on mine as a woman.
Their truth is not my truth. Their female identities are not my female identity. They haven’t traveled
through the world as women and been shaped by all that this entails. They haven’t suffered through
business meetings with men talking to their breasts or woken up after sex terrified they’d forgotten to
take their birth control pills the day before. They haven’t had to cope with the onset of their periods in
the middle of a crowded subway, the humiliation of discovering that their male work partners’ checks
were far larger than theirs, or the fear of being too weak to ward off rapists.
For me and many women, feminist and otherwise, one of the difficult parts of witnessing and wanting to
rally behind the movement for transgender rights is the language that a growing number of trans
individuals insist on, the notions of femininity that they’re articulating, and their disregard for the fact
that being a woman means having accrued certain experiences,
endured certain indignities and relished certain courtesies in a
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culture that reacted to you as one.
There is a strong argument buried within this opinion piece
in accruing certain experiences unique to being a woman, but it is
buried under assumptions and unspoken questions about how
femininity entails being female. It is imperative to question which
of these so-called woman’s experiences are culturally established
and which are natural to being a woman and inherent to her side
of human nature, part and parcel of the function of her body and
mind. The problem encountered here is a question of human nature and the design of our bodies and
how that design influ ences our worldview.
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Elinor Burkett, “What Makes a Woman?,” The New York Times, June 6, 2015, under Opinions:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/sunday/what-makes-a-woman.html?_r=0 (accessed July 21, 2016).