Susie O’Brien: Why identifying as a ‘woman’ has become a hard task

Chest feeding humans, birthing people, bodies with vaginas — have we lost our way in defining what it means to be a ‘woman’ to respect a minority?

Work is apparently underway to rewrite the Late Helen Reddy’s signature song I am Woman.

The song’s lyrics now refer to the singer being a fearless, sexy, divine “cisgender chest feeding human with a binary biological vagina”.

Just kidding. But we’re not that far off this point.

The absurdity of modern gender relations was illustrated this week when respected Health Secretary Brendan Murphy was unable to define what a woman was.

After first suggesting there are a “variety of definitions”, he said it was something that he wanted to take on notice.

“It’s a very contested space at the moment,” he said.

He’s got that right.

What would Helen Reddy think about all this nonsense?

For years some things have been taken for granted.

Women give birth, the Carlton Football Club loses games and beer is alcoholic.

But now Carlton’s on a winning streak, zero-booze beer is racing off the shelves and even US President Joe Biden refers to “birthing people”.

Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson told a Senate hearing that she couldn’t answer the same question because she “wasn’t a biologist”.

She is a woman who gave birth to two girls and yet couldn’t answer this simple question.

Same goes for UK MP Yvette Cooper who didn’t want to go down “that rabbit hole”.

You might think Cooper, who wrote a book in 2019 entitled She Speaks: The Power of Women’s Voices, would know what a woman was. But no.

While dictionaries are still on solid ground, defining a woman as an “adult female human being”, others are not convinced.

Governments and medical bodies in Australia, the US and the UK are busy removing the term woman from official documents.

Health Secretary Brendan Murphy was unable to define what a woman was. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Many organisations don’t talk about breast feeding, but “chest feeding” or “human milk feeding” or “lactating parents”.

Some even use “father’s milk”.

The official Victorian government guide to pregnancy and vaccines also refers to “people who are pregnant” although “pregnant woman” is used from time to time.

Breast Screen Victoria even feels the need to explain that they are using the term “breast” in the “non-gendered medical sense”. While their website does mention women, there is extensive use of “client” and “eligible Victorians”.

It’s the same elsewhere.

The American Breastfeeding Association “recognises that not all people who give birth and lactate identify as female, and that some of these individuals identify as neither female nor male”.

And the National Health Service in the UK recently invited “all women and people with a cervix” to have a pap smear”. Male cancer patients in that country are asked if they are pregnant before undergoing scans.

One hospital chain in the UK has even decided the word “breast” is discriminatory and doesn’t respect “birthing people”.

The esteemed American Lancet magazine even recently referred to “Bodies with Vaginas” instead of women on its cover.

Sheesh. No wonder Murphy was confused.

The task, as I see it, is how to ensure non-binary and transgender people are included, valued and respected without annoying the hell out of everyone else.

While it’s important to be inclusive, we don’t want to put off the 98 per cent of the population who are not directly impacted because their biology matches their identity.

Gender neutral toilets are one way to respect non-binary people.

Perhaps the answer is to concentrate on practical things that make a difference such as gender neutral toilets, having more than two gender options on forms, non-discriminatory access to IVF and other health services, more support for trans youth and fostering understanding in schools and workplaces.

While people who are gender diverse should be listened to when they express their preferred pronoun or name, outlawing terms like woman and man altogether is complete lunacy.

The key is surely respecting the preference of others — if I want to be known as a woman and a mother rather than a human with a cervix who gave birth to three hupersons, then I should be respected for that choice.

If a trans person wants to be known as “they”, then they should be listened to as well.

It doesn’t have to be this hard.

Sally Goldner, one of Victoria’s most well-known trans women, was accepted on the Victorian Honour Roll for Women a few years ago. Thankfully, it’s not yet been transformed into the Honour Roll for Humans With A Cervix or Female Gender Identity.

Turiya Todhunter and baby Jack Stallion.

We can — and should — care about the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming people but still hold onto the notion of male and female.

After spending decades advocating for women’s reproductive rights, groups such as the AMA in the US are now lobbying for birth certificates to not refer to gender at all.

It’s nuts.

The desire to avoid offending a few ends up offending many, and that doesn’t help anyone.

Trans and gender-diverse people deserve dignity, but it’s not transphobic to define a woman in three words (adult female human) not 30.