Being a woman

non-binary women say they’ve found what they perceive as an “escape hatch” from oppressive gender norms. As Lovato sees it, her new label is a form of “healing.” Criticizing this sort of thing is taboo, as no one wants to oppose “escape” or “healing.” But the awkward truth is that nothing described by Lovato, Page, Stodden, or any of the other young (biological) women who’ve chosen different forms of self-identification marks them as different: Few women (and none that I happen to know) are fully comfortable with the stereotypes and expectations that society places on female people.

The most logical way of fighting back is to point out that these stereotypes and expectations are misguided and unhealthy. To instead simply flee the category of woman through a trick of language, on the other hand, isn’t really brave or progressive. Lovato and all the other non-binary-identified women are simply throwing the rest of us under the bus by validating the idea that being a woman requires you to be comfortable with feminine stereotypes. In doing so, they unwittingly contribute to the real sources of female oppression….

I’m sympathetic to the pain that women such as Lovato have experienced as they’ve sought to live “authentically” in a society that wants to put people, especially women, into pre-defined boxes. Although I certainly can’t speak to life as a celebrity, Lovato and I actually have some things in common. Like her, I survived sexual trauma, battled mental illness, and self-harm in my teenage years, struggled to come to terms with my bisexuality, and felt trapped by gender norms. Where we differ is in our vision for a better future. Feminism fights for a world in which no woman or girl will be oppressed or subjected to violence on the basis of her sex. Behind the rise of non-binary identities, on the other hand, is the hope that no one will be forced, because of their sex, to be a woman. Being a woman is perceived to be the problem itself, rather than the cultural stereotypes and pressures applied to women.

That gets it, I think: "being a woman is perceived to be the problem itself, rather than the cultural stereotypes and pressures applied to women". Being a woman brings with it a whole host of problems nowadays….gender stereotypes, an increasingly sexualised social world, violence at the hands of men. Which is where feminism comes in. To simply and absurdly deny that you're a woman is to cop out in the most ridiculous way.

The same applies, of course, to the huge increase in sad young girls looking to transition, under the malign guidance of Mermaids and the like.