What Is a Woman? A Circular Definition That Is Impossible to Explain
As you likely know, women are different than men in many ways. There are good biological and physiological reasons for this. However, it should come as no surprise to most that men and women are also very different emotionally and socially. These differences can sometimes lead to conflict, especially in long-term relationships and marriages. While these differences between sexes are natural and unavoidable, they shouldn’t be used to discriminate or denigrate one sex over another.
This issue came to a head this month when right-wing media commentator Matt Walsh released a controversial documentary called “What Is a Woman?” In this film Walsh asks expert after expert and gender activist after gender activist, all of them unable to answer the very simple question. They all fall into the same trap by defining a woman as someone who “identifies as a woman.” This is a circular definition that is impossible to explain.
It’s an easy mistake to make, and it’s a common one. It’s a mistake that you see in schools, where children learn to avoid circular definitions by not using the word they are trying to define in their explanation. But it’s a mistake that’s also made by transgender advocates when they try to define what makes someone a woman.
Most people are assigned a specific gender at birth, and it is quite common for parents to speculate about the sex of their baby before it is born. This can then create binaries of behavior that can continue throughout the rest of a person’s life. These gender binaries can affect how a person views their hobbies, traits, and abilities.
While some of these binaries are unavoidable, others are entirely up to the individual and are influenced by a wide range of factors. In some cases, these preferences are based on cultural expectations. For example, many cultures place a high value on feminine traits such as modesty and kindness.
While there are certainly exceptions, most women are generally heterosexual and cisgender, meaning they were assigned a female gender at birth and have a feminine gender identity. In addition, most women are fertile and can give birth to a child. These traits are reflected in the anatomy of most women, which has features such as ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, and vagina, as well as a wider pelvis and larger breasts than that of a man. In addition, women are typically capable of reproduction from puberty until menopause. These characteristics are a reflection of the fact that, in general, women possess XX chromosomes while men have XY chromosomes.