Penna Dexter

A couple of weeks ago, University of Pennsylvania senior Lia Thomas won an NCAA championship in women’s swimming, setting an Ivy League time record for the 500-yard freestyle. Thomas, a former male swimmer for Penn, has dominated the female competition this year. Commentator and podcaster Matt Walsh observed Lia’s demeanor at the winner’s podium: Thomas, he writes, did not “make any effort at all to sound or appear womanly.” He was “accepted as a woman because he declared himself to be so.” Parents who complained in a letter about Thomas’ presence in Division 1 women’s swimming said the NCAA dismissed their concerns outright. Mr. Walsh pointed out that the Left makes little effort to explain, defend, or justify gender ideology.” They just “demand that it is obeyed and expect that to be the end of the conversation.” Indeed. Senator Marsha Blackburn tried to have a conversation about this issue when, in a hearing conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee, she asked President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson to “provide a definition for the word ‘woman.’” The nominee replied that she could not and stated “I am not a biologist.” USA Today’s report on the exchange stated:

“Scientists, gender law scholars and philosophers of biology said Jackson’s response was commendable, though perhaps misleading. It’s useful, they say, that Jackson suggested science could help answer Blackburn’s question, but they note that a competent biologist would not be able to offer a definitive answer either. Scientists agree there is no sufficient way to clearly define what makes someone a woman, and with billions of women on the planet, there is much variation.”

It’s almost comical to watch the media tiptoe around the word woman. When Arizona legislators passed a 15-week abortion ban, one article stated that abortion advocates are warning that the ban “would be harmful to people who can get pregnant.” People who can get pregnant. Why didn’t Ketanji Jackson think of that?