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I’d like to start by saying I am a woman. I was born a woman and I continue to identify as a woman. In this respect I’ve been rather fortunate that it’s been that simple. I’ve never had doubts about my gender being right for me and although I may have had doubts about my sexuality during some time in my life I am, on the whole, a pretty average heterosexual woman.
I’d also like to say that I don’t hold any prejudice against those who feel they identify with a different gender to the what their body suggests. I have no animosity, no negative thoughts, no fear of men wearing dresses and sneaking into bathrooms to touch kids….none of that. I think people should be free to do what makes them happy for the most part so my Take today is not trying to judge or shame those who feel an internal conflict or to deny they feel more of a connection with the opposing gender, it is simply to explain my view as to why trans women are not women… and why that’s Ok.
First off let’s get the terminology straight: a trans woman is a person who has been born with the physiology of a man but feels they should have been born a woman, and vice versa for a trans man. In this take I will be talking mainly about trans women as I am a woman and I feel I can speak more accurately about this side of the subject than the other.
Many people will argue that people who were born men and feel they should have been women can become women with enough superficial help. Growing longer hair, wearing women’s clothes, sometimes even taking hormones to grow breasts and in the most extreme cases – having gender reassignment surgery, but for me none of this makes you a woman. Sure, it makes you look like a woman but the fact still remains they were born a man. They were brought into this world as a man and were seen as a man for most of their life. Dressing and looking like a woman makes you as much of a woman as wrapping yourself in tin foil and saying ‘’beep’ makes you a robot. You may look like a robot, sound like a robot and feel that you are a robot – but you aren’t a robot and you will never be.
The whole issue of transgender has come into the spotlight in the last few years due to people like Bruce Jenner being so public about their changes. I think having the courage to do what makes you happy is a great thing but it has raised a lot of debate about what makes a woman a woman and a man a man. When asked what makes a woman a woman many people will list of physical features; breasts, genitals, a womb….of course all of these things are typical of the female physiology but NOT having them doesn’t make you any less of a woman. In my eyes women have two X chromosomes and men have XY chromosomes. That’s the difference when you get down to it. Which sperm fertilised the egg that became you, the X or the Y.
There are of course debates about what gender is. Is it a physical state or is it a mental state and a lot of this has to do with how we think people are brought up and the gender roles enforced on them from society, so there is a lot to think about in the whole trans-debate and a lot of discussion about how things are perceived. I'm not going to go into the debate over gender and whether it is something which occurs naturally or if it is socially imposed because that really is a whole debate in itself.
My personal thoughts on the matter are that trans women need to accept the fact they are not women and they won’t ever be. They haven’t been brought up as a woman, they haven’t experienced the world from the perspective of a woman for most of their lives because they were born men and have been seen and treated by society as men. They will never know what it’s like to go through puberty as a young woman, to experience your first period, to experience losing your virginity, to worry about pregnancy every time you’re a day late and countless other things that women and girls experience as part of growing up as a biological female.
Now before people start jumping down my throat about ‘What makes a woman’ I am in no way trying to say that women who don’t go through all the normal things are not as much a woman as me, that isn’t my point at all. Trans women can’t have children naturally but that doesn’t mean women who cannot have children are less womanly than those that can. What I’m saying is that trans women are just that – Trans-Women, not Women….and that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with there being a grey zone.
There’s nothing wrong with having a new section to what we call gender, but they do not class as women and to try and push them into that mould is wrong and will only cause issue. Do you remember the white woman who identified as a black woman? It’s the same principle. She felt inside that she was a woman of African descent….. but no amount of tanning, perming and make up will ever make her black. She just isn’t black no matter what she feels, and the same goes for men who want to be women.
There have been a few things in the news recently where people have been attacked for having this view and I think that’s wrong. Germaine Greer has been the centre of a lot of this since making some rather blunt remarks about her views on the matter, as has Richard O’Brien – a man who himself has had gender issues but who agrees that a trans woman is not a woman.
I’ve asked my doctor to give me long ears and liver spots and I’m going to wear a brown coat but that doesn’t turn me into a f***ing cocker spaniel.”
Germaine Greer (https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/12/19/germaine-greer-on-trans-women-i-could-call-myself-a-cocker-spaniel/)
“The 73-year-old has previously spoken about his own fluid gender identity, labelling himself the “third sex” and explaining “I believe myself probably to be about 70% male, 30% female”, adding he “ticks the ‘M’ box” for gender but “would quite like to have Other to tick.”
You can’t be a woman. You can be an idea of a woman.”
Richard O’Brien (https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/03/08/rocky-horror-star-richard-obrien-trans-women-cant-be-women/)
And what’s so wrong about that? What I find saddening is that any comment that isn’t supportive of trans women being accepted as woman is seen as ‘Speaking out against’ or being ‘anti-trans’ when a lot of the time this isn’t the case, it’s just a different view on the matter. The fact I don’t accept trans women as "real" women like myself doesn’t mean I am against them.
It doesn’t mean I am dismissing their feelings or want them to be treated differently from me, it means that I have an objection to someone claiming to be something they are not and insisting everyone agree with them under the guise of political correctness.You can walk like a girl, talk like a girl, feel more comfortable as a girl but you will never be a real girl….and that’s OK.
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