Womanhood and Choice — and the Gender Critical Woman Trap

Photo by Drew Dizzy Graham on Unsplash

Hi. I’m a cis woman, pronouns she/her.

Easy, right?

Except it’s not. I don’t actually mind pronouns he/him. I don’t mind being called sir.

But don’t use they/them, please. (Why do I get dysphoria from they/them and not he/him? I have no idea, but I know I’m not the only one).

Woman is the default when you come screaming out of your mom and the doctor looks and doesn’t see a penis.

Woman is the label the world puts on us, the cage the world wraps around us. Woman means being told I couldn’t play soccer because I was a girl (UK in the 1970s).

Woman meant being told not to do X because I would get raped by my slightly overprotective father (I grew out of it, if you know what I mean. He stopped when he realized how well I could look after myself).

The Gender Critical Woman Trap

Anyone who knows me knows I have a very low opinion of so-called “gender critical” people.

They are transphobic, often ignorant about biology, and they play the oppression Olympics constantly. Wah, wah, I’m a (usually white) woman, I have it so bad.

Their womanhood is wrapped around them like both a security blanket and a bear…