Women and Trans People Must Stand Together to End Gender-Based Oppression

Unfamiliar with some of the language in this article? Scroll to the glossary at the bottom.

On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order to erase transgender people from public life. The order requires all federal agencies to recognize only two biological sexes, which it claims are immutable, and permits no recognition of gender as a distinct concept. The order claims to be about protecting women, a position also taken by a small, but vocal and well-resourced, contingent of feminists known as trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) or gender-critical feminists.

TERFs and their far-right allies are mistaken, and cisgender women need to stand with their trans siblings now more than ever. Some gender-critical talking points have intuitive appeal, or even kernels of truth buried within them. Ultimately, however, attacks on transgender people only serve to strengthen the patriarchy, and place women at risk—especially women of color, working-class women, and other women who experience intersectional oppression.

Before diving into why transphobic policies are harmful to all of us, it’s important that we have a nuanced understanding of biological sex, gender, and gender-based privilege:

Transphobia is Based on Bad Science

Historically, most advocates for transgender liberation have accepted the same basic premise that our enemies do: biological sex is a binary characteristic (male or female), which can rightly be assigned before or at birth based on externally visible sex characteristics, primarily genitalia. The fight came down to what to do with that: allow trans people to modify their sex characteristics to match their internal sense of gender, or lock everyone into a strict gender binary defined by sex at birth.

It turns out, however, that biological sex is much more complex. Rather than a binary, it’s better described as a bimodal distribution, or a double bell curve:

Image credit and supporting research: https://genderdysphoria.fyi/en/what-is-gender

Most people’s sex characteristics line up in two rough categories. People born with penises are likelier to generate more testosterone than estrogen, have XY chromosomes, more upper body strength, more body hair, and the various other traits we associate with “biological” men. People born with vaginas are likelier to generate more estrogen than testosterone, have XX chromosomes, wider hips, a “curvier” body fat distribution, and the various other traits we associate with “biological” women.

However, there is no one clear-cut biological trait that neatly and accurately divides humanity into two camps. Not everyone has XX or XY chromosomes. Among those who do, some end up naturally developing sex characteristics of the “opposite” sex. There are cisgender women who naturally have more testosterone in their system than some cisgender men. Not everyone is born with just a penis or just a vagina. Those who are may nonetheless naturally develop the other sex characteristics of the “opposite” sex. Reproductive capacity doesn’t work, either: what about the infertile? Or, for that matter, the prepubescent and post-menopausal?

Intersex people are those whose naturally occurring sex characteristics do not fit the established biological sex binary. They are often subjected to medical interventions at birth or in early childhood to “fix” them without their consent, which many consider to be an act of violence to reinforce a false binary. But even among those who are not intersex, natural variations in sex characteristics fall on a curve, not a binary.

Therefore, when Trump’s executive order—and anti-trans activists more broadly—assert that binary sex is an “immutable biological reality,” they’re just straight-up wrong about the facts.

Transphobia Reflects Oversimplified Understandings of Gender and Social Privilege

Conservative, anti-feminist transphobes believe a person’s social role as a man or a woman is defined by their biological sex according to traditional gender roles. Men should be strong, assertive leaders and women should be submissive, nurturing housewives. Anything that threatens that—homosexuality, transgender people, abortion, women in the priesthood, or a woman President—is therefore bad, albeit perhaps to varying degrees. I won’t dwell on what’s wrong with that worldview: I’m hopeful most of my readers already reject it, and I’m unlikely to persuade any who don’t.

Trans-exclusionary feminists take a slightly more nuanced view, believing that either male privilege or female oppression are clear-cut, unchanging facts that directly correlate to our sex assigned at birth. Though not every TERF has identical views, they may believe everyone born male is an inherent threat to women, either because of their male upbringing or the effects of testosterone; that gender is a harmful social construct, which trans people promote by subscribing to it; that trans men are misguided women attempting to escape misogyny by becoming men; or that trans women are bitter, even predatory, men who can’t accept that some spaces or opportunities are for women only.

Some of these beliefs have intuitive appeal, so they merit closer attention.

First, while much of the language we use today is relatively new, transgender and non-binary people have been here since the beginning. Records from as far back as the Stone Age show at least some prehistoric societies not only accepted, but revered, those who changed their bodies and their social roles to those of the “opposite” sex. Contrary to popular understanding, hunting and gathering weren’t strict roles assigned based on sex in pre-agricultural societies; rather, those roles shifted fluidly. Joan of Arc was burned alive for wearing men’s clothing and refused to revert to the prescribed clothing and social role of a woman even to save her life. Across time, different cultures have had vastly different understandings of gender, recognizing those who exist beyond the binary and those who belong on the other side of it. Likewise, gendered roles, expectations, and power imbalances between men and women have varied dramatically across time and culture.

Thus, beliefs that certain traits are “hard-wired” into people based on their sex assigned at birth don’t just fly in the face of contemporary trans and gender non-conforming people’s experiences; they also ignore the historical record and insult the traditions and knowledge of indigenous societies around the world.

Second, social privilege is much more complex than man=oppressor, woman=oppressed.

It’s no coincidence that so many TERFs are white, middle- or upper-class, abled, and otherwise privileged women. White feminists from privileged backgrounds have often been criticized for centering their own experiences and priorities as a universal female experience and failing to appreciate the complex lives of women with overlapping marginalized identities. In many ways, TERF ideology is just another iteration of the same oversimplifications to which Black, disabled, immigrant, working-class, etc. women have long objected.

It’s true that the gender assigned to someone at birth is part of the story of how they experience privilege or oppression, but it’s far from the whole story. I’ll use myself as an example.

Certainly, I benefited from male privilege in some respects during the decades I spent in the closet. I wasn’t discouraged from speaking up in class or told to limit my academic or professional aspirations. My deep voice and male name surely won me unearned respect and deference when I worked in customer service, and later in business. I never had to worry the State might force me to give birth against my will. But I was frequently mocked, bullied, and ostracized for failing to live up to male gender norms, and for being attracted to men. I also had to live with the psychological toll of living a lie I could never quite reconcile. I was fortunate to largely escape physical violence for my “inadequacy” as a man, but I know many who weren’t so lucky.

My autism and ADHD went undiagnosed in childhood, largely because they manifested in the same ways they often do for cis women. Doctors, educators, and even parents are familiar enough with the stereotypical traits of neurodivergent boys, but girls are widely overlooked. Thus, despite being seen as a boy or a man at the time, I share the experience of countless other women who’ve gone undiagnosed and unsupported until their 30s or later—an experience attributable to gender bias and misogyny in the medical and educational fields.

Today, as a non-binary trans woman, no one accords me male privilege when I walk into a room: I’m seen as either a woman, a non-binary person, or a freak (spoiler alert: I’m all of the above). Statistically, I’m at greater risk of sexual and physical violence than cis women. On the other hand, as a white, physically abled person with a stable professional job and secure housing, I’m at lower risk than many others—both cis and trans, male or female or non-binary—who lack those privileges.

Everyone’s story of privilege and oppression is at least as complex as mine. Sex assigned at birth is certainly relevant, but not always in a straightforward way. Race, class, disability, immigration status, and countless other experiences are relevant too, and they shape the way we experience gender-based oppression. Transgender people experience intense discrimination across the board: employment, housing, medical care, interpersonal violence, and state violence. To think transgender women have the same social privilege as cisgender men, or to think transgender men can achieve that same social privilege, flies in the face of our lived experiences—not to mention our employment statistics.

Third, another gender-critical belief deserves some attention: that trans people reinforce patriarchal gender norms. According to this narrative, when a man has stereotypically feminine interests, personality traits, etc., he becomes a woman so he can better “fit” society’s expectations of men and women. However, those expectations are fundamentally outdated and harmful, so rather than changing our identities or appearances to fit them, we should join the fight to deconstruct them. In other words, proudly asserting oneself as a masculine woman or a feminine man is the answer, not transition.

The problem with this narrative is it’s based on a “strawman” trans person unlike any I’ve ever met. Most trans people have given far more thought to what gender is on a societal scale, what it means to them personally, and its relationship with the patriarchy, than the vast majority of cis people. Transitioning is not an offhand decision a boy makes because he likes dolls, or a girl makes because she likes sports. Rather, it’s a decision to take on a lifetime of medical bills, social rejection, and institutional discrimination, because the alternative is to live with a sense of wrongness and alienation so profound that it’s worth all those costs to change it.

Most trans people are feminists, who enthusiastically celebrate the women, men, and non-binary people who subvert and resist gender stereotypes. We’re in the same fight, together: resisting the idea that our social roles, power, and personal preferences are defined by the genitalia with which we were born. Rather than striving to be hyper-feminine or hyper-masculine stereotypes, many trans people gleefully defy the norms of both their assigned gender and their authentic one.

The future trans people want is not one where everyone is sorted into a binary gender based on their personalities or interests, and pressured to transition if it doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth. The future we want is one where everyone is free to live, identify, express themselves, and customize their bodies in whatever ways feel most authentic and fulfilling to them. With a little help and solidarity, we can build that world, and it’ll benefit all of us.

Attacks on Transgender People Are Attacks on Women

There are many obvious reasons to be skeptical that the Trump administration’s attacks on trans people are really about protecting women. We’re talking about a President who’s openly admitted he sexually assaults women and does so with impunity because of his wealth and power (the famous “grab ‘em by the pussy” comments). He invokes misogynistic themes when he runs against women, he takes anti-feminist stances across the board, and he surrounds himself with other open misogynists.

With that context in mind, let’s consider what transphobic policies mean for cisgender women. They mean defining people by their genitalia or reproductive capacity, an inherently anti-feminist position. They also mean increased policing of sex and gender boundaries that harm us all.

In 2024, J.K. Rowling publicly attacked Algerian boxer Imane Khelif. Sharing a photo of Khelif after landing a punch on her opponent, Rowling asserted: “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who’s [sic] knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.” However, just like her opponent, Khelif is cisgender: she was assigned female at birth, and lived her whole life as a woman.

Once we start down the road of policing who’s “really” a woman or a man, the inquisitors don’t stop at people who are actually trans. Any woman who’s too strong, too tall, too athletic, or too aggressive is suspect. In my view, what’s truly sexist and misogynistic here is the assumption that “real” women can’t have those traits.

The attacks on Khelif weren’t a random mistake. Caster Semenya, another cis woman athlete, has come under similar scrutiny. It’s no coincidence both women are African: sex and gender policing disproportionately targets women of color, especially Black women. As discussed earlier, TERF ideology overlaps with other exclusionary strains of feminism, which share a common assumption that there is one universal experience of womanhood. But that monolithic image of womanhood is essentially just the experience of white, middle- and upper-class, cisgender women from North America and Western Europe. Just as white supremacists have long claimed Black women aren’t sufficiently “ladylike” to deserve respect or equality, it’s unsurprising that TERFs and other transphobes set their targets squarely on Black women’s backs. In other words, as one Twitter user put it: “J.K. Rowling is one bottle of gin away from saying that only white people can be women.”

Source: https://x.com/istreasatuatha/status/1819030770331078771?lang=en

Of course, attacks on trans people also harm women because they harm trans women, and trans women are women. Attacks on trans people also harm trans men, who aren’t women; but, as people who were assigned female at birth, they’re part of the group TERFs claim they’re protecting.

Though not the focus of this essay, it’s worth acknowledging that misogyny, sexism, and transphobia harm cisgender men, too. In the words of bell hooks:

The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead, patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves. If an individual is not successful in emotionally crippling himself, he can count on patriarchal men to enact rituals of power that will assault his self-esteem.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/15/bell-hooks-best-quotes-feminism-race 

Men are not the enemy; the patriarchy is. Widespread transphobia and increased policing of gender boundaries only make it harder for men to cast off the yoke of toxic masculinity and join us in the fight for a better world.

Together, We Rise

Feminism teaches us that women can be anything we want. We don’t need to be delicate flowers or damsels in distress. We don’t need men to protect us. We’re allowed to show strength, anger, and ambition. We can, and do, beat men at their own games. We can, and should, take up space in the world. Transphobic policing of sex and gender means the exact opposite: anytime a woman doesn’t perfectly embody the traditional standards of white upper-class femininity, it’s fair game to question her womanhood until she proves it.

Women don’t need “protection” from trans people. Women always have been, and always will be, strong enough to stand alongside trans people and other marginalized communities. Only by standing together can we achieve justice, equity, and liberation for all.

I invite you to stand with us, and to tell our common enemies: “Not in my name.”

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River Sedaka (she/they) is a public defender with eight years of experience representing indigent defendants in Colorado’s appellate courts. They hail from Toronto, where they studied intersectional social justice movements at the University of Toronto. River attended law school at Northwestern University, where the 2014 police murder of Michael Brown opened her eyes to the racial and economic injustices at the heart of the criminal legal system, inspiring her to pursue a career in public defense.

River has felt a lifelong calling to achieve justice and liberation for society’s most marginalized, and centers equity and inclusion issues in her advocacy—both in the courtroom and in the larger legal community. River is openly autistic, ADHD, transgender, queer, and non-binary, and recognizes that her white privilege informs her experience of those identities. They are an active member of Colorado’s legal community, regularly presenting on appellate practice and EDI issues.

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GLOSSARY

Cisgender: People who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. Cis women are people who were assigned female at birth, and continue to view themselves as women or girls. Cis men are people who were assigned male at birth, and continue to view themselves as men or boys.

Intersectional oppression: A term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the complex ways people with multiple marginalized identities experience oppression. For example, misogynoir is a term used to describe the intersectional experience of Black women, which is more than just the combination of sexism (as a white woman would experience it) and racism (as a Black man would experience it).

Non-binary trans woman: a person who was assigned male at birth, feels generally aligned with women and is happy to be perceived as one, but also experiences some disconnect from the idea of binary gender.

Transgender: People who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. Trans women are women who were assigned male at birth, but understand themselves as women. Trans men are men who were assigned female at birth, but understand themselves as men. Non-binary people are those who, regardless of their sex assigned at birth, see themselves as neither woman nor man, as both, as something between the two, or something else entirely.

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Sources & Further Reading

On the bimodal distribution of biological sex:

• Claire Ainsworth, Sex Redefined: The Idea of 2 Sexes Is Overly Simplistic, Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sex-redefined-the-idea-of-2-sexes-is-overly-simplistic1/ 

• Alexandra Kralick, We Finally Understand That Gender Isn’t Binary. Sex Isn’t, Either; Slate: https://slate.com/technology/2018/11/sex-binary-gender-neither-exist.html 

• Steven Novella, The Science of Biological Sex, Science-Based Medicine: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-science-of-biological-sex/

On historical variation in sex and gender roles:

• Nurith Aizenman, Men are hunters, women are gatherers. That was the assumption. A new study upends it; NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/07/01/1184749528/men-are-hunters-women-are-gatherers-that-was-the-assumption-a-new-study-upends-i 

• Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman (book, 1997)

On the relationship between TERF ideology, other exclusionary branches of feminism, and white supremacy:

• Tamar Westphal, I Am the Woman the ‘Gender Critical’ Movement Claims to Protect. I Refuse to Be Their Pawn; Ms. Magazine: https://msmagazine.com/2023/11/16/protect-women-trans-gender-critical/ 

• Lore/tta LeMaster, Anti-TERF: Trans Feminisms against White Nationalist Projects—Introductory Remarks, Women’s Studies in Communication: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07491409.2023.2193535

On the increased policing of sex and gender that results from transphobic discourse:

• Orion Rummler, Anti-trans violence is coming for cisgender women of color, advocates say, the 19th: https://19thnews.org/2024/08/cisgender-women-of-color-anti-trans-violence/

• Arwa Mahdawi, Whether you’re trans or not, the gender police are coming for you too, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/17/gender-police-trans-war-women

• Westphal, supra