If you answered C

(This is a complementary note for my story “What Do We Do About Women With A Penis?”)

Cassie Brighter
Empowered Trans Woman
3 min readMar 9, 2018

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You answered, “I don’t fully agree - while I understand some men are very feminine and choose to dress and act as women, they’re still biologically men. I can humor them on pronouns, but that doesn’t magically turn them into women.”

Here’s the thing. Sex and gender are different things. There’s a whole unpacking of it right here for you.

Trans women may have been born with male anatomy, and you might say we’re biologically male; but we’re neurologically female. When we talk about trans women being female, we’re referring to gender, not sex. (And to a larger or smaller degree, these are both impacted by social constructs.)

And if you don’t like the idea of a trans woman explaining sex and gender to you, here’s a white cisgender male — Robert Sapolsky PhD, Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Stanford. I interviewed Prof. Sapolsky in 2017 for the Empowered Trans Woman Summit.

“Genderbread Person” — art by Jermo234

You might not be a TERF, but you're definitely lacking understanding of the transgender experience. I strongly recommend you read this article by Julia Serano.

Feel free to read the rest of my article — but fair warning: unless you can allow for the possibility that trans women are women, my piece will make little sense to you.

© Cassie Brighter 2018

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Read another story by Cassie Brighter:

Welcome, Welcome, Cassandra! — The Long Journey to Self-Acceptance
I Wasn’t ‘Annoyed’ at Your Misgendering Me
Why This Sudden Trans Kids Trend?
What Do We Do About Women With A Penis?
The Cage Around Me, The Rage Inside Me (a short poem)
Welcome, Welcome Cassandra! — The Long Journey to Self-Acceptance
Coming Out Trans To Your Children: A Step-by-Step Guide
A March for ALL Women: A Trans Woman’s Defense of the Pussyhat
Gender Transition and Living “One’s True Self” Are Different Things
Trans Women & The Single Story — How Chimamanda Got It Wrong
Divisiveness Is Dangerous — The Women’s March And Linda Sarsour
An Open Letter To A Good Man
Just a Bad Date

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Cassie Brighter
Empowered Trans Woman

Activist. Public speaker. Writer. Community Organizer. Mom. Creator & Host, Empowered Trans Woman Summit. Managing Editor, EmpoweredTransWoman.com