Ain’t I a woman?

Featured image from the National Park Service. Follow the link for the speech and to learn more.

When Ketanji Brown Jackson couldn’t provide the definition of a “woman,” it got me thinking. I remember hearing the speech given by Sojourner Truth in high school, now approaching twenty years ago (I feel old). Take a listen to the exchange between Senator Blackburn and the Honorable Ms. Brown Jackson.

The text of Sojourner Truth’s speech is below.

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say. [1]

From the National Park Service. Please note that there are multiple versions of the speech written. I am taking the one presented by NPS.

It seems that our “progress” is no longer moving forward. In my opinion, the attempts for trans-men and trans-women to be on the same footing as men and women, legally, culturally, medically, biologically, is a denial of reality. I am perfectly fine that they can and should have legal protections, but they should be carved out separately from their cis-gendered counterparts. The pressing forward of the redefining of woman from a biological/natural law premise to a social construct means that all of the rights gained and fought for by women are subject to redefinition on a whim. Women’s comfort no longer matters because trans women are now allowed within their safe spaces. And there is, so far, no litmus test or standard for the definition of a trans woman. Plenty of incidents have occurred where a trans woman entered a women’s space and have made the cis-gendered women uncomfortable. For someone to declare that they are a woman, and therefore should be regarded in the same way as a woman with no questions, skepticism, concern, or reaction is, in all honesty, worthy of ridicule. If the expectation is that I even hesitate to change my perspective about a trans person then I am a bigot and transphobe worthy of cancellation, then I do not agree with the premise, and am suspicious of the person’s motivations.

I want people to be themselves, but to understand that to change the social and legal underpinnings that come from a common definition of a woman is a huge deal. And to dismiss or demonize people with traditional beliefs do not create a harmonious society.

It seems like we have forgotten what a woman is, and we’re all the worse off for it.