Yes.
Okay, now that I haven’t buried the lede, let me explain why trans women are women. First, I’ll need to describe a foundational concept.
There are 3 major categories we need to understand before we can understand gender. The first is biological sex, the second is social gender(how we experience and express gender in society) and the third is our gender identity(how we experience gender on the inside). So, think about these 3 categories as objective(sex), subjective(gender identity) and inter-subjective(gender roles and gender expression). These are the 3 major domains of existence. All the way back to Plato philosophers talked about them. The true, the good and the beautiful. Art, morals and science. 3 modes of experience. Make sense?
Awesome! Okay, so the phrase “trans women are women” is describing the subjective and inter-subjective domains. It’s acknowledging that our own subjective self sense and the way we show up in the world is a huge part of womanhood. If we compare it to being gay, when someone says, “I’m gay”, we don’t ask for a report about how many same sex people they have slept with. We believe them. The subjective data is all we need. With trans people, and for people who are trans affirming, that self report is enough. However, for those people who aren’t aware of the subject in it’s complexity, there’s reason to question that self report. Why?
Usually those who question trans people aren’t aware of the science that corroborates trans existence. They don’t know that there are nearly a dozen brain studies that show trans brains have differences in structure AND function in exactly the places where brain sex differences occur. They also aren’t aware that trans people can socially pass as the gender they subjectively identify as. If they knew both of those things, they’d know that trans existence is happening in all 3 major domains of experience(subjective, inter-subjective and objective). It’s not just an idea, or a delusion.
Why isn’t being transgender a delusion? There’s a lot of evidence, but the main evidence is the brain science. It would have to be a massive co-incidence that trans people report feeling like the opposite gender, and also have precisely the biology(brains) to match that feeling. If it was a delusion, there would just be a randomly damaged part of the brain, or it wouldn’t even show up at all in brain scans. However, the science suggests that trans people in fact have multiple brain structures and the function of one sex and the body of the other.
What about non-binary people though? We don’t have as much data about enbies, but the same logic follows for them. In all likelihood non-binary people are those who happen to have a subjective self sense, and likely brains, that don’t fit neatly into one sex category or the other.
The science explains gender dysphoria. It’s a mismatch between the subjective gender identity and the external way we show up and/or the other sex characteristics of the body. That doesn’t answer the question whether trans women are women, though.
So, why should we categorize trans women as women? Even if they have a brain like that of a woman, why does that matter. They have other sex characteristics that aren’t like women. What about the objective domain? Good questions. I believe this really comes down to self-hood, and where self-hood is located. Is it located in the genitals? I’d argue it isn’t. A person can have their genitals removed and still feel like themselves. How about gametes? Nope. A person can not produce big or small gametes and still have a sense of self-hood. Truly, I think the brain, and the mind, is where self-hood is located.
This is a bit gruesome, but if any normal person was in a Saw-movie-like situation where they had to choose between removing their genitals or their brain, they would choose to have their genitals removed. The brain matters. It’s where our self is. It’s us. So, if trans people have brains like those of the gender they identify as, and there’s a heck of a lot of evidence to suggest that’s the case, then trans women are women. Without question, in the subjective self sense, in the way they show up in society and in the biology of the most important organ of the body that has to do with self identity. All 3 major domains.
