OPINION:
I get my period every month, but I’m not a “menstruating person.” I carried three boys for nine months and gave birth to them, but I’m not a “birthing person.” I breastfed all three for a year, but no, that doesn’t make me a “chest-feeder.”
It makes me a mother and a woman — and I’m sick and tired of the Left trying to erase me and my personal experiences, just for the sake of appeasing biological males who want to put on a dress and heels. Or for those so-called feminists who are determined to take away everything that makes women powerful, unique and admirable.
The latest assault on my gender is from one of these “feminists,” someone named Chelsea Conaboy, who penned an essay in the New York Times last week how the “maternal instinct is a myth that men created.”
“The notion that the selflessness and tenderness babies require is uniquely ingrained in the biology of women, ready to go at the flip of a switch, is a relatively modern — and pernicious — one,” Ms. Conaboy wrote. “It was constructed over decades by men selling an image of what a mother should be, diverting our attention from what she actually is and calling it science.”
Of course, the notion of motherhood, as depicted in the Bible, of a selfless, loving Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Eve, who ate the forbidden fruit, had to be destroyed.
“Mary’s story, combined with Eve’s — unattainable goodness, perpetual servitude — created a moral model for motherhood that has proved, for many, stifling and unforgiving,” Ms. Conaboy insists.
She then goes on to argue that mothers aren’t as necessary as the conservative right (and normal people everywhere) would like you to believe, “While the biological mechanisms for change are quite different for gestational and non-gestational parents, scientists now believe that the outcomes may be similar for anyone — including fathers, adoptive parents and nonbinary parents — who truly invests time and attention in caregiving.”
You see, anyone can be a mom. Never mind the primal aspects of giving birth, like knowing exactly when your baby is hungry because your milk lets down. Or that your child’s embryonic stem cells and fetal DNA can be found in your brain and bones decades after giving birth.
While we’re at it, let’s ignore the studies that show that, while pregnant, the grey matter in women’s brains is reduced, helping them focus on specific behaviors or activities, like taking care of an infant.
Maternal instincts cannot be erased because some “feminists” believe the patriarchal culture unfairly expects women to be selfless, solo caregivers. It’s actually based on science — making women special, wonderful and empowered.
So let’s get into the transgender debate. I could not care less what grown adults choose to wear, whom they want to sleep with, or with which sex they “identify.” Where I draw the line is when those choices degrade the unique experience of being a woman.
It’s patently unfair, for example, for biological males to compete in women’s sports. Setting aside the physical advantages — men have more muscle mass, larger hearts and lungs, and therefore greater stamina than women — transgender women never get their period, no matter how many surgeries or hormone therapies they’ve endured.
Menstruation does affect athletic capacity — as any female athlete will tell you.
Although there are no definitive conclusions on the topic (research about the sporting world tends to focus heavily on men), small studies have shown a woman’s muscular reflexes are lower around the point at which the egg is released, and athletic performance is greatest nearing ovulation. In addition, there’s iron deficiency, and about 10% of women suffer from iron-deficient anemia, which includes fatigue, thirst and shortness of breath.
Yet, to the woke left, feminists who oppose transgender rights are not “true” feminists. And yes, you oppose “transgender rights” if you believe a transgender woman shouldn’t be able to compete for scholarships and prizes at women’s-only athletic events.
I love being a woman. I love being a mother. I love my body and the gifts that God has given to me. I love that in America, we have the right to choose our own path and have been given (by the genuine feminist women who first paved the way) the opportunity to pursue our dreams — whatever they may be.
But it’s patently unfeminist to want to erase us — and our shared experiences and biology — all in the woke crusade to appease the men who want to be us.
* Article from: The Washington Times
