On Wednesday 16 April, the Supreme Court ruled that a woman was defined by biological sex. This was, of course, after years of pressure and hatred from people who hate trans women. Despite many claiming this as a win for women, the ruling will have no actual effect on our lives. But that didn’t stop the usual suspects from spending the day out of their minds in ecstasy.
J.K. Rowling, who part-bankrolled the campaign to make this happen, celebrated how any normal oppressed woman would do: from a yacht.
Resident feminist Graham Linehan, a man, spent the day telling anyone he deemed to be a trans woman to get out of women’s spaces and instructing his (again largely male) following to do the same.
If terves know what a “real woman is” why did they spend the day telling a biological woman she was a man?
What is a woman? Not me, apparently.
Yesterday, I tweeted trans women are and will always be women. I then went for a nap and got on with my life. I forgot however, that the terves have no lives to get on with and returned an hour or so later to over 100 of them telling me I was wrong. A grand total of 17 of them were calling me a man, so I pulled out an old party trick of mine and sent them a photo of my uterus:
Rachel, why the fuck do you have a picture of your uterus casually to hand?
Well you see, almost eight years ago to the day I had a hysterectomy and at the time I was working for a magazine that focused on reproductive health. So, as a way to distract myself from the horrific operation I was about to undergo, I liveblogged my hysterectomy.
Over the years, my support of the trans community has meant many on Twitter have decided I must be a man. So, this has meant I’ve been sending terves my uterus for about four years now. I don’t do it to disgust anyone or to “prove” that you can only be a woman if you have a uterus – because I clearly don’t and I am.
The response this week has been the most bizarre I’ve ever encountered, though. In this post-truth age, many don’t believe that’s really my uterus and think I’m lying about having a hysterectomy, a few even said I was posting my fake uterus as part of some sick sexual fantasy.
A post-truth terfnami
Glinner, who’s infamously drove his family away with his weird obsession with trans women, decided to quote tweet me with “how are males female Rachel?”
Me being the dick I am quote tweeted this with “how’s the family, Graham?”
I had also, as previously mentioned, just woke up from a nap so I forgot I’d sent that and then replied to him with “how’s the wife Graham?” This led to an absolute terfnami of the biggest weirdos you’ve ever known in my mentions.
Replies ranging from “she’s a woman, unlike you” to the absolutely bizarre, accusing me of abusing my dog. There were also a ridiculous number asking about the contents of my pants. Because nothing says “protecting women from perverts” like incessantly inquiring about someone’s genitals.
The thing is though, a big area of my journalism and activism work for many years has been focused on reproductive health. I’ve written about my struggles to be believed through endometriosis pain, my experience with different birth control, my desire for a hysterectomy, and on one occasion live blogged my period.
I’ve also, unlike many of the people screaming that they’re supporting women, campaigned for awareness of the gender pain gap and domestic violence towards disabled women. You can literally Google my name and “hysterectomy” and find many articles. You can effectively find my whole reproductive health history on the internet.
What has all this hate actually achieved?
According to the esteemed gynaecologists who follow Glinner, however, I’ve never had a period, don’t have a vagina, and most bizarrely paid someone to perform a fake hysterectomy. Because I support trans rights, I must be trans, because why would you care about something if it didn’t directly affect you?
The main argument for the necessity of this ruling is that it will protect women, stop men telling us what to do, and we will no longer be silenced. If that’s the case, why have they all spent the last day and a half calling me a liar and attempting to silence me? Why have vast amounts of the internet refused to believe me, someone who was born a woman, when I’ve said that I am a woman?
What is the point of a ruling which dictates that only “biological” women are seen as women if people will then refuse to believe a woman who was born a woman when they say that they are in fact, a woman?
Where were they all before?
How will who is and isn’t a woman actually be determined? If the court case is anything to go by, it’ll be a panel of men deciding – and considering many men spent yesterday telling me I had a gaping rotting fake vagina, I don’t trust them very much.
Will a REAL woman only be someone who can give birth? Someone who has a cervix? Someone who has periods? Because I’ve done all those things and still I was told I’m a man based purely on the perceived notion of what a woman should look like.
And if we are to believe that I genuinely do “look like a man”, it’s probably due to the fact that I have less estrogen in my body because I’m post-menopausal – an issue that massively affects women and one that the Equality Act refused to acknowledge as a real issue a few years ago.
Where were they all then?
What is a woman? We’re soon going to find out.
How far will this go? How long before women are attacked in bathrooms because they don’t look feminine enough? Will butch lesbians be forced to wear dresses and keep their hair long for fear of being attacked (again). Will strangers be able to strip women they suspect of being trans naked to inspect them?
At the end of the day, this isn’t about who is and isn’t a woman. It’s about who performs womanhood enough. It’s about who presents themselves as being a good little pretty wifey who doesn’t stand up to men.
This ruling won’t protect women, it’ll only force them to conform to society’s view of what a woman is out of fear that they’ll be abused and ostracised.
It’s the sort of shit our feminist foremothers would be protesting about.
Featured image via the Canary
