…and why trans women are still women.
We have to accept that trans women will never experience the same puberty that many cisgender women go through. But does that really diminish the right for trans women to call themselves women? I doubt it. Because not all cisgender women go through the “ideal” puberty.
So, under the infantile argument that trans women aren’t women because they don’t experience womanhood, by that same token some cis women aren’t really women, too.
On top of that, some of us who get periods aren’t really “women” as well. Not entirely. Intersex people, who are born with mixed sex characteristics, fall between the boundaries of male and female. And some who appear as male – with hairy chests and chiseled jawlines – have working vaginas. And many of them consider themselves male, even though they’ve never experienced their own working cock. How can they be male if they’ve never tugged their own sausage?
Perhaps being ‘female’ is more about femininity? That you must prance around in dresses and wear heels. Well, I dare you to go and tell that to all the blokey ladies out there.
And does that mean real men are hairy, muscley and good at punching things? Well, not every man lives up to this ideal, and yet they are still men. Just like many women can portray masculine traits, while still calling themselves real women.
The thing is, being a woman goes beyond sex characteristics and personality traits. It’s an identity, and we all have the right to portray our ideal identity. The only people who should really care what’s below a woman’s skirt is her doctor or whoever she’s fucking. And if you’re truly worried about her personality traits, then how superficial can you get?
Also, a trans woman calling herself a woman does not diminish a cisgender woman’s womanhood. They are not stealing your vaginas. You will still get your periods and you can be proud of that however you wish. And no, they are not downgrading women’s issues, either. They are simply being a part of it. Isn’t this what many feminists have wanted all along? For men to take a walk in women’s shoes? That way, they can understand what it’s like to be a woman and change the system to benefit all sexes.
The fact is, being a woman (or even a man for that matter) is a personal identity. There is no harm in accepting trans women as women, not unless you fabricate being a victim. In fact, accepting trans women as women will make you a more empathetic person.
And if you’re still concerned about what’s beneath her panties, then you better hope you’re her doctor or you’re fucking her.
The Gay Straight-Talker 
You have forget large groups of cis women who suffer from health issues related to their endocrine and gynecological organs, and we don’t consider them any less women. I had an aunt (RIP) who had a hysterectomy when she was 6 years old, so she never experienced puberty like most and had to be on drugs, she could never have her own kids; the legalization of “birth control” as a form of hormone therapy when she was in her late 20s/early 30s was a godsend for her and eased many of her plaguing issues.
I have a friend and former manager who, while she may have had a “typical” puberty, ended up developing endometriosis, a form of cancer where uterine cells begin to grow in other parts of the body, especially around the pelvis.
The women with delayed or who never enter puberty for whatever reason, because their ovaries failed to develop and make estrogens/progesterones. Often called “hypogonadism”.
Juvenile and adolescent cancers whose treatments interfere with puberty, thus denying these girls and young women the chance to have “normal” experiences.
Women who may be otherwise completely healthy but are unable to conceive, who are infertile. or what about women who just don’t want kids? Are their experiences as women any less “womanlike” or “feminine”?
And the tomboys and butches of the world, the cis women who choose to maintain a more masculine presentation, what about them?
I hate that in the discussions about trying to dismiss trans women as women, that while intersex conditions are brought up, that these other issues of cis women are not. This modern definition of feminism, reducing women to what organs women do or don’t have, dismisses all the women out there whose experiences are different. Growing up with parents who are old enough to be my grandparents, and thus my grandparents as great-grandparents, I knew about first- and second-wave feminism, where it was financial, political, and economic independence for women, and their right to be allowed in the workplace. Concepts such as “universal sisterhood”, “patriarchy” etc were foreign to me till I entered college and took my first electives in sociology. It dimishes too much the experiences of so many women whose experiences don’t fit in with such a pigeon-holed, overstuffed definition of what a woman is, what it means to be a woman.
Feminism wasn’t just meant to bring women onto a level playing field with men. It was always about letting a woman choose. And trans women, whose experiences are perhaps more fringe that those experiences I listed above, are no less women than even these women.
Thoughts from a trans man.
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