What is a Woman?

Malcolm and Simone debate how to define "woman" after he's asked in a trans community. Simone says it's whoever you perceive as female. Malcolm argues it's a social construct dependent on culture. He explains how polygamous and monogamous societies define it differently based on evolutionarily adaptive strategies.

Ultimately Malcolm concludes there's no universal truth, only answers contingent on the utility you're optimizing for. A culture seeking fertility may define womanhood differently than one focused on happiness. He cautions against governments enforcing subjective cultural norms on others, as with criminalizing misgendering. Overall they agree relativism is the only intellectually honest perspective.

Malcolm: [00:00:00] but what do I think is the true answer?

Malcolm: Because I think that there's no true answer can mean many different

Simone: things. There's your answer, the cultural relativistic one. Now you're saying there's a true answer.

Malcolm: Yeah. Okay. There's many different ways. So all the ways you could determine if someone was a woman, right? You could say, well, XX chromosome, XY chromosome, oh, they pass, oh, they self identify as a woman.

Malcolm: Oh, a woman is whatever would make them happiest if they were called the woman. Yeah. That's what they want to be called. Yeah. Yeah. A woman is whether they can have kids. There's many, many, many, many different ways. A

Simone: woman is a state of mind.

Malcolm: That you can determine this, right? And in different cultures.

Malcolm: Elevate different interpretations of gender above other interpretations of gender. So what's the right answer? Okay. Now, the true answer, the actual true answer, like if you're just stripping all of the tradition away.

Simone: Glad you're solving this problem all in one podcast.

Would you like to know more?[00:01:00]

Simone: Hey, hey Malcolm what, what is a woman?

Malcolm: So yeah, this is a spicy question, Simone. Yeah. I was in this Transmaxxing, I was, I was talking in the Transmaxxing discord with the, the Transmaxxing community for people who, aren't familiar with the trans vexing community they are individuals who transition.

Malcolm: Not because or at least they don't think that transitioning needs to be tied to gender dysphoria, but they think that it makes sense for some men to transition for social advantage. Yeah, so

Simone: basically transition for gain or gender euphoria, not just gender dysphoria.

Malcolm: Yeah, and I, I like it because I what I like about the community is they're expanding the concept, and they're passing off traditional trans communities.

Malcolm: Those are the two things I like. I don't, I don't know, am I terrible for, for having so much fun when like extremist progressive communities get pissed off at somebody just for asking questions they're not allowed to ask? Like, hey, I'm a guy and I feel pretty oppressed in society today. Am I allowed to transition?

Malcolm: No! Yes! The most transphobic question anyone can ask! [00:02:00] How dare you think about doing that? You're so privileged! So I, I do love that they're breaking down this, these, these things and they asked at the end of this, this thing, what is a woman? Cause you know, there's this video, what is a woman, which good video.

Malcolm: This has been recommended to us by smart people. And I think it shows real toxic parts of the trans movement, which let's be honest, has some real. Ooh, toxic parts. But I had never actually considered the question myself until it was proposed to me in the context of this group meeting. And so I had to come up with an answer on the spot and I was really satisfied with my answer, but it's not one that I had come up with before.

Malcolm: Oh, really? So Simone, first I want to hear if you, what your answer is unbiased by me to this question.

Simone: Right. So, to me. I mean, obviously, there's not a good answer for this, but for me, a woman is someone that I see on the street and I'm like, oh, look at that woman. So if you pass, whether it's intentional or [00:03:00] not, you're a woman or a man.

Simone: And there are many

Malcolm: men who just look extra girly. You just like extra girly are not trying to look extra girly.

Simone: Yeah. Yeah. Like there, there can be a, a natal man who just looks extremely femme, not intentionally. And I'm like, Oh, what a pretty girl. But same, same with, you know, natal women who just happened to look really boyish.

Simone: Like you, you are, you are what people interpret you to be.

Malcolm: Yes. So you judge womanhood as an eye of you as the perceiver, because your brain is categorizing everyone you see into either male or female and the way it handles that categorization. You say, because everyone's brain does this. I should be clear.

Malcolm: Even people who are like, I am the most gender understanding person in the world, they definitely have an assumption when they first see somebody of what gender that person identified. They'd be like, okay, I'm not sure. But what you're saying is. From your perspective, gender is whatever [00:04:00] your brain innately categorizes people as from your perspective.

Malcolm: Well, and, and this is, I

Simone: think this is, it works for me too because male and female traits. You know, hormonal levels, et cetera, are averages, right? And so there are, there are women who have way more testosterone, way more other like male traits than men. And there are men who have like way more female traits than women.

Simone: Even Spencer Greenberg like created this like quiz you can take. It sort of shows you cognitively where you trend gender wise toward like male or female.

Malcolm: Did

Simone: you do it? Yeah, I came off as like genderless, I think, just like neither but you would come off as probably hyper, hyper masculine because of sort of the the like dominant approach that you take to things.

Simone: But yeah, like my point though, is like. You know, even, even a, a natal male or female may be outside the averages for the, the gender they were born into or the sex they were born into. I,

Malcolm: I like your interpretation. I'll tell you what my answer was. All right. Yes. Because I think it's [00:05:00] actually the correct answer.

Malcolm: Oh, I said that the concept of man and woman is completely a social construct. No, hold on. Hold on. It is.

Malcolm: It changes depending on the cultural group you're looking at the question from. I mean, you're right. Different cultural groups have different answers to this question. Okay. Okay. You know, so like, if I'm from a conservative Muslim group, right, they famously, if somebody is born same sex attracted, They basically force them to gender transition.

Malcolm: Right, so it means you're a woman. And to them, yeah, that's a woman. If I was born same sex attracted, I would be a woman. So it's like your

Simone: sex is determined in that culture by who you're attracted to, not like the equipment

Malcolm: or your appearance. Determined by who you're attracted to, not by anything else. So I think a lot of people assume that all conservative cultures see things the