There has been a nagging hypothetical that has bugged me since I watched a few citizen journos that hit the streets to ask any passersby “What is a Woman”. Admittedly that was in the USA scene, but still, I felt internal fidgeting. What would I say if I was confronted with that very question?
Someone politely asking on the fly, “What is a woman?” is a simple enough question. Surely, it cannot be that hard to answer. Superficiality, however, can condemn one to irrelevance, I would not want that. As I started making notes it became apparent that there was a possibility of formulating gibberish. And I would not want my input to be thought to be ‘politically charged log jams’ either. Thinking through the tricky bits and being prepared to answer coherently without stumbling seemed like a plan. Therefore, the path for me is to relate to the experiences that have shaped my logic of things female, a “Baby Boomer’s” perspective.
It is of value to consider why such a question is necessary. Maybe it all started with Germain Greer, who began to muddy the waters at the beginning of the ‘70s. The title of her treatise is the highly charged “The Female Eunuch”. Other feminists took up the cause. Soon the slogan became “Burn the bras”, for whatever reason? Why would it be so that they discard a symbol of femininity? I was not happy about that.
Gender has become a political hot potato in this contemporary time. It is said to have something to do with the need for ‘equality of outcomes’. The alphabet credentials being bandied around In the media effectively swamp the scientific facts of “XX” and “XY.” There are only two genders, and anybody with a “Y” in the combos (XXY) is an aberration, one of the numerous artifacts of genetic transcription errors that occur in nature. Let’s leave this tin can and not kick it any further now.
In the book series “Where Were We”, I write of my affection for the first woman I have known, my mother. Mothers nurture both male and female children to make a family unit. Next came the awareness that girl children were different. It was most worthy to expend the effort to try and impress them with one’s masculinity. That was a long time ago in Francavilla, Calabria. Those processes of having a mother and a social entourage were unfortunately for me, cut short. But no matter, schools in Australia offered wonderments in what I would affectionately call “Les petit femmes”. These would become the women of my transitioning to an Australian with Italian characteristics. There was nothing to question here, a girl-to-woman was a continuum.
The natural attraction to females was innate in that boy from long ago; the “XX” and “XY” chromosomes configuration worked well for him. Moving on from a girl to a woman is a wonderment of nature. Males and females are born with eyes, peepholes into our very souls. Eyes “flash’ and express the intent of the moods swirling inside us. But wait, a girl begins to show bumps in the upper torso. That must be it, girls become women in the natural life cycle. A woman is differentiated by gaining another ‘set of eyes’ that stand ardently, screaming “I am a woman, take note, we are the womb of humanity; stop fiddling at the edges.”
The “woman” tag does not mean a one-dimensional stereotype. The mould is much more than even three-dimensional. Where would one start with female personality traits? Possibly the biochems that modulate us all. Historical standouts such as the evil Jezebel or the warrior prophet Deborah may be considered. Or what about Esther, Ruth, Cleopatra and Boudicca? The list goes on and on. My pick for the positive role model is the women who fought for emancipation into the political systems of Western Democracies without attempting to dismantle the evolving structures for governance. Greer’s hypothesis for a ‘woman’ being equal to a ‘man’ is unfortunate; arithmetic equations can cut both ways, men wanting to identify as a ‘woman’. Not at all tenable.
I have written elsewhere about the need for incremental liberalism, however, the wholesale approach to accommodate minorities seems to be coming at the expense of women’s rights. In this case, I would return the focus to the simplicity of the “XX” and “XY” chromosomes. If there is a “Y” anywhere in the configuration the ‘technical’ male should not be allowed anywhere near a woman’s private space at public facilities. The “Y” is for life and no amount of hormonal manipulation will change that.
An ”XX” makes a woman and gives each the right to compete against other “XX’ers” in all sports. On the topic of sports, I will say that I’m not in favour of women competing in contact sports. I can’t get my head around those wonderful mammary glands becoming fricasseed by punches, kicks, tackles and footballs. But that’s all I shall say about that. A woman can choose to do self-harm without a “Y’er” making sure the play is foul.
Ahh! Yes, the young woman has billboard real estate that makes a simple T-shirt bloom messages with or without slogans. Poets and lyricists continue to conjure words to express the chemistry of “le joie de vivre” when a girl is about to become a woman, immortalised in “The Girl from Ipanema”.
Visual artists agonise over the female shape to capture “the look” that sells stuff. Women continue to be the cornerstone of the advertising industry. Jean Shrimpton fulfilled fashion designers’ dreams when she wore the mini skirt to the 1965 Melbourne Cup. It became an instant “must-have” for young women. A woman sets materialism on fire and keeps the economy ticking along.
In the life continuum, a woman storms through hormonal avalanches best articulated by the lyrics of “Bitch” by Shelly Peiken and Meredith Brooks. Something that I admit to having first-hand experience in. Such are the dynamics where the catalysts created by mothers and fathers nurturing children while trying to achieve financial sustainability.
The pheromone chemistry surfaces intermittently to dissipate the effects of the “catalysts”. Sonya McMahon reminds us of the power of womanly legs seen through a slit in a full-length dress. A mature woman sets the amorous tempo for her man.
Back to the idea of the family unit. The creation of ‘Dolly” the sheep, broke the model for the procreation of mammals. It is my preference that rampant liberalism stop interfering with the traditional family. In this, there is a male role model and a nurturing mother to underwrite the social needs for cohesive and moral societies. Unfortunately, hetero Society has descended into an amorality that is being emulated by the growing trend of “Pride March” exhibitionism.
I’m mindful of the decent homosexuals who do not flaunt their inclinations in public and maintain a sustainable moral code. Still, I’m not in favour of laws that allow them to have children by surrogate or of enabling them to adopt from the available pool. The “Man and Woman thing” has evolved alongside the troubles afflicting humanity for millennia. It continues to be a workable model, not to be discarded.
In conclusion, the pernicious social theorists who propose the subversion of the purity of the “XX-Woman” and “XY-Man” principles are pointing the way to the slippery slope to the destruction of Western Society. This ideological iceberg must be stopped.