How one woman tripped up another

Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson is qualified to join the U.S. Supreme Court, and probably will.

Although I am now scratching my head about the hullabaloo about her being the “first Black woman nominee.”

How do they know she’s a woman, if she (supposedly) can’t say what a woman is?

Jackson choked on the question from Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn. I think I know why. She anticipated it was a trap that would be followed by a question about trans people.

This whole crazy “woman” debate reminds me of Justice Potter Stewart’s 1964 definition  of hard core pornography: “I know it when I see it.”

Jackson could have appropriated that, um, precedent (because the Supremes love that precedent stuff.)

I know for sure Jackson is better educated than I, has overcome more obstacles than I, and may even be smarter than I.

So how come I can come up with two answers to her challenge to define a woman?

1- “Thank you for asking me that, Senator.” (The nominee has to thank each Senator for each question, no matter how mean, fawning, or ridiculous.) “I am a woman.”

[If you are reading this online, I am graciously providing Helen Reddy’s rendition of something she knew she was, “I Am Woman.” https://youtu.be/xwMOC5i2eRk] 

2- “Since such questions may come before the court, I should not answer,” which Jackson used two million times.

So she muffed. Even though she suspected a trap, it was less hard than being asked to recite the alphabet backwards at a DUI roadside trap.

Or she may have declined to answer for fear of offending the woke, who are trying to erase all distinctions between the sexes that have existed since the first sperm (from a man) fertilized an egg (from a woman.)

I am not a biologist. I was not a biology major in college, although I got a B in both Bio I and Bio II.

As someone on the periphery of this debate said, “I am not a veterinarian, but I know what a dog is.”

As do I.

So I was surprised during a social conversation with my kid sister, who has a masters in education, but is otherwise level-headed, when she said she could not define what a woman is.

In her younger days, she was quite the Leftist, but with age slowly moved toward the center. It happens to many, but I don’t think of her as woke.

She threw the question back at me.

My answer went something like this (not word for word): A member of the human species with a uterus, ovaries, two X chromosomes, and who pees sitting down.

If a woman has her uterus removed, is she still a woman?, she countered.

I was not sure, I said, but I thought so.

I also believe that wearing a dress no more makes me a woman than a deep tan makes me African-American.

On later reflection, I grew all the more certain, because of the XX chromosome thing, also known as ”the old double-cross that gave us menstruation.”

How did we get to such discussions?

Blame the patriarchy. But it is not really men’s fault (assuming we know what a man is.)

Way back, around the time mankind humankind early humans figured out how to light fires, it was decided the penises would hunt — which was dangerous and required strength — and the vaginas would plant, cook, clean and (not incidentally) bear and raise the young. They came to be known as “mother,” not “birthing person.”

Until last year when the U.S. House of Representatives, in a valid step to remove gendered language from U.S. bills, went to the extreme of cancelling words like mother, father, sister, brother.

Earlier, I could have said I was having a discussion with a kid sibling, but that would not have had the same meaning. “Sister’ and “sibling” are not synonymous.

But back to the history lesson: There were the hunters (male) and gatherers (female) from time immemorial, except for a few isolated tribes known only to Margaret Mead, the great sociologist who theorized that motherhood serves to reinforce male and female roles in society. She knew what a woman was.

Way back in Neanderthal times, the tribe was headed not necessarily by the prettiest or the smartest, but the one who could kick everyone else’s ass.

[That can be seen even today, i.e., Vladimir Putin.]

That division remained for millennia, until the 20th Century, when women wanted to vote, work, and smoke cigarettes.

And good for them, they got what they wanted.

Then they got Title IX, which meant they got equal access to any program or activity that received federal dollars.

And that lead to trans people competing in sports, which was the issue that Jackson was actually trying to dodge.

But she did it in a very foolish way that led to the wide-scale mockery she is getting today, even from some liberals.