You might have seen ads floating around online for “What is a Woman?” Matt Walsh’s new documentary. It is a show that anyone who cares about women should absolutely watch. When I finished the program, I felt physically ill.

Matt Walsh is a divisive commentator.

I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I personally don’t agree with everything he says, but I like him because he gets me thinking deeper about topics. He digs in deep, but he pulls no punches. You know exactly how he feels and where he stands. He’s certainly not politically correct, so he’s going to rub some people the wrong way. No matter how you feel about Matt Walsh as a person or as a political commentator you should still watch “What is a Woman?” I would say he is very mild-mannered in the film. The film is almost entirely filled with him asking questions. And his approach shows us that we also should be asking questions.

I know what you might be thinking.

Do gender issues really concern me?

I didn’t really think they concerned me in the past. But now it is hitting too close to home. Here are a few scenarios that have raised the red flag for me.

Scenario One:

One of my children had a classmate who believed he was transgendered in her class. This class had an overnight campout, and guess where the boy slept? Yep, in the girls’ cabin. Honestly, they were pretty young, so it didn’t concern me as much as if they would have been teenagers. I was also there. I would have been pretty unhappy to find this out if I had not been there. He felt mislabeled to me. A young child away from home probably just wanted to be with his sisters who were also in the class. But what happens when my child is 16 in this same scenario and what if the male allowed in the female area is really just trying to take advantage of the situation? It has happened before. Read about it here.

Scenario Two:

One of my daughters participated in an activity in which she created a poster with adjectives describing herself. One of the adjectives was “woman.” According to many of the experts in this film, what a woman is, is undefinable. I saw my daughter’s poster after the film and it made me sad to think that women are basically obsolete and unidentifiable entities. The statement that she was a woman could very soon mean absolutely nothing. I’m not willing to buy that. My experience as a woman has meaning, no matter how much biological males want to try to usurp that.

Scenario Three:

Drag Queens are reading stories to children this month, just up the street from me. Read about it here. I do believe in inclusiveness, but I’m no more for drag queens, individuals with sexual connotations, reading stories to children than I would want an individual identifying themself as a pimp, a prostitute, or swingers reading stories to my children. I also wouldn’t want heterosexuals or homosexuals who were blatantly putting their sexuality on display to read stories to my children. Sex is big and complicated and it should not enter childhood which should be a free time for learning and growth.

The basic premise of the documentary is Matt Walsh traveling the country, asking various individuals “What is a woman?”

Here’s what is really shocking. So many people could not answer the question. People said, “I don’t know.” One female in the program said she wasn’t a woman, so she couldn’t identify what a woman was. A professor defined a woman as anyone who feels like a woman. And a group of several blond-haired women, well, can we call them women? Yes, women, or adult females if you prefer, all said they didn’t know. Matt asked several people if he was a woman, and many of them said, more or less, “Sure! If he wanted to be.” So, the world is taking an innate part of me, part of any female, and letting whoever would like lay claim to the identity.

Why though does this matter?

It matters because if the term woman is indefinable then women’s rights also cannot be defined.

If women’s rights can no longer be defined, women no longer have rights. And the documentary touches on this. It’s starting with bathrooms and women’s sports. Okay, well, you can use the bathroom at home. Women’s sports don’t matter that much, there are a lot bigger problems in the world, right?

Both matter. Why are women now asked to change? Do you know what that is, when rights are being taken away? The right to use a public restroom without a biological male in attendance? Women, or biological females if you prefer, are being disenfranchised and deprived of their freedoms with the transgender movement. The rights many women fought and suffered for, for over a century, are being usurped in less than a decade.

Female athletes who have devoted their time and energy to a sport are being told to shut up and let the boys win–or biological males win if you prefer. I participated in athletics as a teen, my husband did not. A lot of the time, I’m more physically active than him. It doesn’t matter. He can come in and is still 10x stronger than I am, because of his male DNA. It’s the simple nature of biology. I play volleyball with males. I’ve played for years, yet a male can come in with more power and more physical agility even if they have only just started playing.

Changing the definition of a word does not change the essential characteristics of a being.

If we all decide to call dogs, cats, and cats dogs, dogs don’t suddenly morph into cats and take on cat characteristics and vice versa, even if we give them surgery. Usurping the rights of women to compete, and even to speak about their experience as happened at the University of Pennsylvania is just the beginning of biological men taking over the rights that have been so hard fought for women.

If you want to have a trans-gender NCAA program, by all means, do, but to say their biology has changed because they wanted it to is simply false. To believe biological men should be able to compete with biological females is ludicrous.

But wait, medicine can change a man to a woman, can’t it?

This is 100% what is being believed. If we give a woman a surgically created penis, and hormone levels more consistent with men, now she is a man and visa versa. But let’s think critically about this. The medical community can’t cure cancer, and has not been able to defeat COVID, can’t reverse obesity, but they can accurately and completely change gender? We put far too much gravity in the beliefs and practices of individuals who have gone to more school than we have. There is no magic skill they have to create or deconstruct genitals. It’s largely experimentation.

Honestly, if an adult wants to do this, and I’m not asked to pay for it, I question the integrity of the doctors doing the surgery who have committed to “Do no harm,” but, it doesn’t really impact my life that much.

Do you know what does though?

The potential that my parental rights could be taken away because my child thinks they relate more to the opposite gender and they could potentially find an adult to support their belief.

This is terrifying. Matt Walsh talks to a father currently out on bale who is being prosecuted in Canada because he did not use the pronouns his child preferred. Read about it here, or just google it. Here is another time parental rights were threatened in favor of the beliefs of a child and other adults. If it wasn’t true, I would think it was a really bad joke.

Now these surgeries, which we have minimal unbiased research on, are being offered to children.

Pat Newgent, a transgender man who underwent surgery in middle age regrets the choice. There were so many complications Pat doesn’t want to transition back. The high focus on children seems to be a money ploy. And yes, there is a lot of money in transgender pharmaceuticals as well as surgery and resultant complications, of which transgender surgery has a high rate. Matt Walsh allows us to listen to someone who has been through the process.

What on earth would make parents do this to their children?

My opinion? A lot of misinformation.

Watching transgender advocates and hearing parents’ stories, I honestly believe they are good people who want to do what is best.

The problem is, we don’t have proof that it is best, and we aren’t waiting to find out either. Eight-two percent of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves. Many believe this is because they are not accepted in the community, but there is no evidence of that being the underlying cause for suicidality. If it was true, rates would be going down, because transgender individuals are more accepted than ever before. They would have been sky-high in previous times. We don’t know if that is the case. According to the Medicaid Coverage Database in a report that took place during Obama’s term, we simply don’t have enough information on how gender-affirming surgery impacts individuals for better or worse. That is a pretty high-stakes game to play with children.

The majority of parents want the best for their children, unfortunately, they may be being led in the wrong direction.

As one doctor spoke, I could just envision her talking to a parent desperately concerned for their child and searching for answers, and being in turmoil over all the different information they receive. The doctor talked about how medication can be given to “just pause” puberty because it can be so “uncomfortable.” I can just imagine the relief, as a parent believes they can take the wait-and-see approach. But puberty can’t just be paused and then resume. There are biological processes that aren’t reversible and medications that you can’t just undo. Watch the movie to learn about the meds children are being given.

Also, guess what, puberty is just uncomfortable! We don’t need our children to avoid everything that’s uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable for me. Something being uncomfortable does not mean it is wrong or we need to change it. It is very often the case that it is something new, that we have not experienced before. Discomfort is a part of life to be faced, not a part of life to be fixed with medications and surgery.

Children simply aren’t developed enough to make decisions on whether or not parts of their body should be pharmaceutically or surgically changed.

Individuals change so many of their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs over time. Children are no exception. If a group of adult females can’t answer what a woman is, can a child really understand the implications of gender? More importantly, brains are not even close to being developed during late childhood and adolescence. Surely, a fully developed brain would be beneficial for such a life-altering decision. Yet, one of the physicians performed gender-affirming surgery on a child as young as sixteen–physically altering their body.

If the medical community is so skilled at reassigning gender, wouldn’t it be okay to wait on the process until you are at least old enough to vote?

And that is what is most disturbing.

We are experimenting with the idea of changeable gender in our children before they even have any true comprehension of what gender is. Gender is more than wearing a dress, or wanting to do what the boys get to do. (I used to dream about being a boy as a child–boys were always more adventurous in books, movies, and real-life). However, the idea is pervasive and confusing to individuals and children who had never even considered the alternative before being fed a steady diet of gender reassignment.

I’m beyond grateful my parents didn’t begin wondering if I was actually a boy and that instead, I was able to grow into my own unique womanhood. I still don’t fit the stereotype. My husband bought me a mini-chainsaw, which I would have chosen over flowers. This may say something about who I am as an individual, but it doesn’t speak anything about my gender or affirm I’m actually a man.

Celebrities left and right are making discoveries about their gender and pronouns. As is expected, impressionable minds are following suit with only minimal understanding of the implications. Even the medical and scientific community does not yet know the implications.

The spectrum of what is a man and what is a woman is much broader than what the transgender movement allows for.

If you are an informed adult, by all means, change your gender if that is what you desire and have the money and means to do so. But children are too young to make such decisions. Additionally, biological males, who choose to live as females should not be allowed to usurp women’s rights in the process.

The Movie isn’t Perfect

Jorden Peterson was one of the experts, to whom I really just don’t relate. He is crass and unsympathetic and seems a bit of a narcissist. If anything, I think he did a disservice to any message being shared, not to mention he looked like a creepy psychiatrist from the 1800’s. I don’t remember his thoughts or arguments, except that I could have skipped his excerpt and felt no loss. But hey, that’s just my opinion and I know others feel differently about him and his work. I for one am not a fan of his approach, nor is he someone I look to for information.

EDIT: I have since gained a new appreciation for Jorden Peterson, though I don’t always love his approach, he has some good things to say. I still don’t believe his work in this documentary was his best.

Watching “What is a Woman?” will give you insights into both sides. That’s not to say it isn’t biased. It is biased, (as is most information). But it is important content to learn from and glean an opinion. Many experts and proponents of gender affirmation were given an opportunity to truly speak. This isn’t meant to be a post to tell you what to think, though I certainly share my opinion, but rather just to highlight that this is an issue we should all be thinking about not blindly accepting.

Find some great informatoin on how to help your children here.