Why is it so difficult to recognize trans women as women?

What is a woman?

In the video above, Angela Davis asks “why is it so difficult to recognize transgender women as women?”

Davis goes on to describe how Black women were not recognized as women, because they were seen as too angry to be proper women.

This video left me to wonder, in our culture, what is a woman? Who is allowed to claim the title of woman?

Surely not a person with brown skin and certainly not an immigrant.

Not a person who has given birth to too many children and not to a person who has not given birth to any children at all.

Not a person who is queer who resists being a tool of patriarchy.

Not a person who calls for social change or who serves in leadership.

Under the dominant culture, a woman is often one who has adopted a particular esthetic described by Inae Oh of Mother Jones as having a “Dramatic sort of makeup. Heavy on the eyeliner. Almost all of them have this, like, long flowing hair. The outfits tend to be very close to the body. I know sheath dresses are very big within that circle. And ultimately, pushing a very sort of, like, hyper feminine look in traditional conservative senses.”

This is the kind of woman that systems of power lift up for their appearance and allegiance.

Look feminine, obey conservatism.

But women have always been on the leading edge of social change.

Davis points out that the majority of Black Panther Party members were women.

Historically, women have organized and led foundational campaigns for gender equality, civil and voting rights, labor reforms, peace movements, and environmental protection. Today we see women leading movements against data centers and their impact on poverty and the environment.

From this historic view, a woman is not limited to someone who conforms to a static definition of patriarchal expectations. Instead, from a feminist and intersectional approach:

A woman is working class.

A woman is a person of color.

A woman is one who cries for justice.

A woman is queer and celebrates her sexuality.

A woman crosses borders to protect her children.

A woman is transgender. She is a living defiance of social constructs and binary structures that are the foundations of empire.

A woman is one who does not rest until freedom comes for all of her children.