One of the favorite "gotchas" of pseudo-debaters/culture-war gnats (they're not warriors, and are mostly annoying) is to demand the definition of a woman (this happens more often if the "debaters" are male).

I'm sure their definition is a strict binary: XX chromosomes, a uterus, etc. But what about those like 2022 Mrs. America and 2026 International United Miss Jackie Green, who was born with female external genitalia, internal testes, no uterus, XY chromosomes and complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, meaning that her body could not recognize testosterone so she developed as the genetic default, female? A natural genetic variation produced a woman with XY chromosomes, and she's far from the only one; there are, in fact, multiple genetic variations that challenge the idea that only someone with XX chromosomes can be a woman.

And speaking of uteruses, what about those of us who had hysterectomies? My sister-in-law had a hysterectomy after giving birth to my niece, having been advised that another pregnancy would likely kill her. I had one after suffering from large fibroids (I named mine Damian; seemed appropriate), and so have many other women.

But here's the thing about the sort of people who bring up questions like this: They're not really interested in an answer that's not black-and-white ... and wrong on so many levels. All they're interested in is a fight.

That's one........

© Arkansas Online