What Makes Me A Woman Analysis

The title of the article I found online is called “What Makes Me A Woman”, by Dr. Helen Webberley. The title accurately reflects the main issue addressed in the article. There are many dueling theories for what truly defines a woman. Moreover, the ones that are relevant now are biological determinism, self-identification, experience and external identification. First of all there is biological determinism, in which women who identify as women, but have male genitalia, are excluded from the group. Secondly, in external identification, the identity of a woman is perceived by the society around them and thus is necessarily subjective. For example, while it may appear to one person that someone looks female, to someone else they may look male. In essence, in both of these situations, a certain group of people is either excluded, or stereotyped. These, however are just two theories of defining …show more content…
The reason for this is because these issues have a lot to do with gender identity and sexuality. The articles seem to provide a spectrum of viewpoints. For instance, Burkette states that “people who haven’t lived their whole lives as women, whether Ms. Jenner or Mr. Summers, shouldn’t get to define us” (17). As can be seen, scholars like Burkette would argue that it is experience that defines a woman. In making such statements, she herself is putting women into the “tidy box” she claims she has fought against. Furthermore, in the Intersticios article, Alsultany preaches self determination. She states that other should not, “project essentialisms onto my body and then project hatred because I do not conform to your notions of who I’m supposed to be (5)”. Approaching gender identity with such lenses can have potentially precarious results. However, given these points, while it may appear that gender is a long withstanding and permanent notion, gender is not as simple as it should be to