Note: This was a “Susie Says” segment I delivered while guest co-hosting on the Tim Jones & Chris Arps Show on NewsTalkSTL on Friday. Audio/video of the segment is available in the video at the end of the article at roughly the 1:35:00 mark.

Man, I Feel Like a Woman…

Scratch that – I don’t just feel like a woman. I am a woman.

Just a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been a remotely controversial thing to say. Think of the song I just referenced: Released by Shania Twain in 1997, the song reached the Top 10 in six countries, and was Number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart, in addition to winning a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

Or reaching back a little further, “I Am Woman (Hear Me Roar)” was a huge hit for Helen Reddy in 1972. And anyone Gen X or older remembers the early 80s Enjoli commercial: “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, never let you forget you’re a man…’cuz I’m a woman.”

I’m not just waxing nostalgic here: Being a woman – and understanding what it means to be a woman – is something most everyone instinctively gets – or got. Until we started confusing tolerance with twisting ourselves in pretzel knots to see who can outwoke whom. To the point where we now have a Supreme Court nominee declining to define the term – presumably not because she can’t but rather because doing so would be politically problematic.

I want to be very clear about something: I have sincere empathy for anyone who suffers from gender dysphoria or who genuinely believes their biological sex doesn’t match with their psychological/emotional self. I’ve known several young people who’ve wrestled with their gender identity, and I believe anyone facing such a struggle should be met with compassion and understanding. Our call to love one another doesn’t turn on conforming to norms – if anything, those who find themselves, for whatever reason, outside the norm (and thus, more likely to be treated as outcasts) may need to be loved a little bit more.

But loving one another does not require us to toss logic, common sense, or objective fact out the window. To redefine terms so drastically that up is down and wrong is right. Nothing has highlighted this more than the recent furor over transgender athletes. One of the key ideas behind (and effects of) Title IX was to ensure that women and girls had the opportunity to compete in athletics. Implicit in this — and in the distinction that has been drawn between men’s and women’s sports — is the unmistakable truth that men and women are physiologically different. Generally, men are bigger, stronger, have more muscle and bone mass – in short, they are going to have a measurable advantage in any activity which involves, strength, speed, etc.  A similar distinction is drawn between adult and youth sports – for similar reasons. Doing away with that distinction necessarily excludes women from being able to compete in a meaningful way.

Which is the net effect of permitting biological males to compete in women’s athletics. Note, we’re not having this debate over biological females competing in men’s athletics. Just as we’re not seeing the progressive left and legacy media awarding “Man of the Year” accolades to transmen. The push is purely a one-way street – and it dead-ends in shoving women and girls – those born biologically female – to the side.

I’m not suggesting that transgender individuals should be shoved aside – or that reasonable accommodation can’t and shouldn’t be made to enable them to participate in sports (and society in general) in meaningful ways. But the key there is reasonable. Which shouldn’t translate into the exclusion of biological females. Otherwise, we’ll wind up right back where we were before.

I won’t pretend to have all the answers – but what if, in the context of athletics, we had men’s, women’s, and open divisions? The argument that there are too few trans-athletes to field a trans-only division appears valid (and also underscores the need not to upend everything in order to accommodate said few – thus succumbing to the “tyranny of the minority,” if you will.)  But an open division would be exactly that – a division open to any and all who wish to compete in it regardless of their biological sex or gender identity. Maybe ultimately that won’t work, but we ought to at least be willing to try, right? If not, that suggests the heart of the issue isn’t about inclusivity and opportunity – or even that favored buzzword “equity” — but rather about competitive advantage.

I’m a woman and happily so. I don’t need a biology degree to know it. And you don’t either.