In the grand theater of modern feminism, a disturbing farce is playing out—one where the script is written in the ink of exclusion, and the actors are complicit in their own erasure. The movement that once promised liberation now finds itself tangled in the paradox of protecting cisgender women by wielding the weapons of transphobia. This is not feminism. This is a grotesque distortion of solidarity, a betrayal of the very principles it claims to uphold. The obsession with policing womanhood—defining it by biology, by pain, by exclusion—is not protection. It is a fortress built on the backs of those it claims to defend, while the real architects of oppression remain untouched.
The Myth of the ‘Pure’ Womanhood: A Colonial Relic Rebranded
The idea that womanhood is a fixed, biological essence—untouched by history, untarnished by culture—is a myth as old as patriarchy itself. It is a relic of colonial thought, where European women were pedestalized as the pinnacle of purity, while women of color, queer women, and trans women were cast as the “other.” Today, this myth has been repackaged in the language of “protection,” but the underlying logic remains the same: womanhood is a gilded cage, and the bars are made of chromosomes. The feminist movement that clings to this narrative is not fighting for liberation; it is fighting for the right to be the oppressor within a new hierarchy.
Consider the language used to justify this exclusion: “biological women,” “natal women,” “real women.” These terms are not neutral descriptors; they are weapons. They imply that trans women are impostors, that their existence is a threat to the sanctity of womanhood. But what is “womanhood” if not a spectrum of experiences, shaped by oppression, resilience, and self-definition? To reduce it to a checklist of chromosomes is to erase the very women who have fought hardest for feminism’s progress—Black women, Indigenous women, disabled women, and yes, trans women. The feminism that demands cis women’s safety at the expense of trans women is not feminism at all. It is a betrayal of intersectionality, a rejection of the idea that liberation must be collective or it is meaningless.
The Violence of Exclusion: How ‘Protection’ Becomes Persecution
There is a cruel irony in the way some feminists frame trans women as a danger to cis women. The same movement that rails against victim-blaming in cases of sexual assault now blames trans women for the discomfort of cis women in shared spaces. The same people who decry the objectification of women now reduce trans women to a monolithic threat—a specter haunting locker rooms and bathrooms. This is not protection. This is scapegoating. It is the oldest trick in the book: when the system fails to protect you, find someone weaker to blame.
The statistics tell a different story. Trans women are far more likely to face violence in public spaces than cis women. They are the ones who are harassed, assaulted, and murdered for daring to exist. Yet the feminist discourse that dominates headlines is not about their safety—it is about cis women’s “right” to feel safe by excluding trans women. This is not solidarity. It is a grotesque inversion of the principle that all women’s lives matter. When feminists prioritize cis women’s comfort over trans women’s survival, they are not just complicit in oppression—they are its architects.
The obsession with trans women’s bodies—specifically, the fear that they will “infiltrate” women’s spaces—is rooted in a deep-seated discomfort with the fluidity of gender itself. It is the same discomfort that once led to the policing of women’s clothing, hairstyles, and behaviors. The idea that a trans woman in a locker room is a danger is not based in reality; it is based in the fear that womanhood is not as rigid as patriarchal society demands. This fear is not a sign of strength. It is a sign of fragility—a refusal to confront the fact that gender is not a binary, but a spectrum, and that all of us are just trying to navigate it.
The Hypocrisy of ‘Woman-Centered’ Feminism
There is a growing trend in feminist circles to center the experiences of cis women above all others, under the banner of “woman-centered feminism.” This is not feminism. It is a retreat into essentialism, a rejection of the very principles that made feminism a radical movement. A feminism that excludes trans women is not just incomplete—it is complicit in the erasure of the women who have been at the forefront of feminist struggles for decades.
Take, for example, the way some feminists talk about “female biology.” The implication is that trans women do not understand the struggles of being a woman because they lack certain anatomical features. But what does it say about a movement when it reduces womanhood to a set of biological functions? Is menstruation really the defining feature of womanhood? Is childbirth? What about the women who cannot or do not want to have children? What about the women who are infertile, or who have had hysterectomies? Are they less women because their bodies do not conform to a narrow, patriarchal ideal?
The truth is that womanhood is not defined by biology. It is defined by experience—by the way society treats you, by the way it polices your body, by the way it denies you autonomy. Trans women know this intimately. They know what it is like to be told that their identity is a delusion, that their existence is a threat. They know what it is like to be erased. And yet, the feminism that claims to fight for all women often turns its back on them. This is not feminism. This is a betrayal of the very people who have fought hardest for its survival.
The Real Threat: Patriarchy, Not Trans Women
The obsession with trans women is a distraction—a way to avoid confronting the real threats to women’s safety and autonomy. The patriarchy does not care about your chromosomes. It does not care whether you are cis or trans. It cares about control. It cares about keeping women in their place—whether that place is the home, the workplace, or the grave. The real threats to women’s safety are not trans women. They are the men who commit violence against women. They are the systems that fail to protect women. They are the laws that deny women reproductive rights, that police their bodies, that treat them as second-class citizens.
When feminists focus on trans women instead of these real threats, they are playing into the hands of the patriarchy. They are allowing the system to divide and conquer, to pit women against each other in a battle for scraps of power. The feminism that demands trans women’s exclusion is not fighting for liberation. It is fighting for the right to be the oppressor within a new hierarchy. It is a feminism of the oppressed who have become the oppressors—a feminism that has forgotten its roots.
The way forward is not through exclusion. It is through solidarity. It is through recognizing that the liberation of all women—cis, trans, Black, Indigenous, disabled, queer—is not a zero-sum game. It is not about who deserves safety more. It is about recognizing that all women’s lives matter, and that the fight for liberation must be collective or it will be meaningless. The feminism of the future must be intersectional, inclusive, and unapologetically radical. It must be a feminism that fights for all women, not just the ones who look like the feminists of the past.
The Future of Feminism: Radical Inclusion or Irrelevance
Feminism is at a crossroads. It can choose to be a movement of liberation, or it can choose to be a movement of exclusion. It can choose to fight for all women, or it can choose to fight for the right to be the oppressor within a new hierarchy. The choice is clear. The feminism of the future must be radical in its inclusion, unapologetic in its demands, and uncompromising in its commitment to justice. It must recognize that the liberation of all women is not possible without the liberation of trans women. It must recognize that the fight for women’s rights is not a battle for scraps of power, but a revolution for the soul of humanity.
The feminism that clings to the past, that refuses to confront its own complicity in oppression, will fade into irrelevance. It will be remembered as a movement that fought for the rights of some women while denying the humanity of others. But the feminism that chooses radical inclusion, that fights for all women, will be remembered as a movement that changed the world. The choice is yours. What kind of feminism do you want to be a part of?
