Elinor Burkett

I read Elinor Burkett's article, "What's makes a woman", in the New York Times opinion section of Sunday's (June 7, 2015) newspaper. It was more confusing than anything as she seemed to say what doesn't make a woman than what does.

While I agree with her assessment of the "mainstream" view of transgender activists and celebrities, using Caitlyn Jenner's recent photo shoot and interview (which I disliked for it's obvious self aggrandizement by Ms. Jenner than anything) she makes the mistake to assume that view is shared by the many women who have transitioned or are transitioning.

And in reality, nothing could be farther from the truth, which shows either she knows very little about  the transgender people, except from the mainstream media and community, or didn't readily show her knowledge of it beyond the mainstream media and community.

In short, she made false assumptions to make a case, and that's the issue I have beside the other issue where she makes women a very complex construct of physicality, mental characteristics, experience and cultural/society events, she puts men in a large box, including male to female (MTF) transgender people.

Many MTF people don't transition because they're men wanting to be or live as women, and most recognize and acknowledge they can't have what female women have with their body. They transition because of an innate sense of who they are and put themselves into the limits society gives them.

She makes the case that you can't tell a male from a female brain. Not entirely true as neurobiologist have researched and published there are some general physical difference but insufficient to distinguish with any great accuracy.

What she doesn't addressed is that neurobiologist have researched and published that MTF people have brains more similar to female brains than males brains, something she either failed to mentioned or doesn't know. It's not the body that matters, it's the individual's brain that does.

The view of binary gender norms are changing as younger generations reject the male-female binary to be who they want over the whole spectrum, and while some older people also live in that mode, most assume a role they're comfortable with that also fits into what society expects and allows them to live.

As she noted, the majority of transgender people, especially children and young adults, face discrimination and often violence, more than women face in many aspects of society, especially in work and acceptance in public. This is something she neglects to acknowledge.

In addition, many women don't accept the standards of what society expects as women, but often live by it to get through life and work with the least hassles and problems. This is no different that MTF people who transition into a similar role, but women don't have the obviousness of transitioning in public.

She also assumes that all men have male privilege by some gift of society forgetting many men don't have it and don't live with it, and some don't want it. Some of the last find themselves recognizing more as women than men, not in the way Caitlyn expressed but simply as themselves by their personality, character, temperament and identity.

In the end, she has a point about the transgender community as expressed in the mainstream media and many transgender activists and celebrities, but she mistakenly assumes it respresents the whole of the community and all transgender people.

On that note she should talk to more women who have transitioned or are transitioning outside the mainstream media. She will find acceptance of her view about women because they're equally women, just with a different histories and experiences.