Man and Woman - Defined At Last!

Forenote: Before reading any of my posts please know that my writing is an ongoing reflection of the conversations in my head—a living, evolving process rather than a final product. Sharing it is just my way of bringing you into that dialogue and letting it change and grow. Thank you for sharing in its journey me.

What Makes a Man a Man? What Makes a Woman a Woman?

It’s a question as old as humanity itself. One that stirs up philosophy, theology, biology, and now, legislation. And in June 2023, the Texas Legislature decided it had the final answer.

Senate Bill 14, signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott, bans gender-affirming care for minors in Texas. In related efforts, lawmakers in the state pushed legislation that narrowly defines “man” and “woman” based solely on reproductive anatomy assigned at birth. According to these measures, a man is someone born with male reproductive organs, and a woman is someone born with female ones. Full stop.

Well, that settles it. Doesn’t it?

At least, it tries to.

This push to legislate gender identity into a neat, binary box reflects an ancient human impulse: the desire to simplify the complex. As a species, we love categories. They give us comfort, stability, a sense of order in a chaotic world. But the problem is: human identity is not neat. It is not binary. And it never has been.

Cave Paintings and Culture Wars

I imagine the Texas Legislature as a council of Neanderthals huddled in a cave, scratching stick figures onto stone walls—one figure with a triangle to represent a dress (female), the other with straight lines and no adornment (male). They point, grunt in approval, and move on with confidence that they’ve defined the essence of gender.

But today, we know better.

We know that biological sex itself is not binary. As the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization acknowledge, intersex people exist—those born with chromosomal, hormonal, or anatomical differences that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female. It’s not fringe—it’s biology.

We know that gender identity is a layered, deeply personal construct shaped by a combination of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors. As the American Psychological Association states, gender is “not necessarily determined by sex assigned at birth.”

We also know that transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people have existed across cultures for centuries. In Indigenous cultures, such as among the Navajo, the concept of the "Two-Spirit" person predates any Western understanding of gender identity. Hijras in South Asia and fa'afafine in Samoa are further examples of cultures with historically recognized third genders.

But these complexities clash with current legislative efforts in states like Texas, where the goal appears less about understanding and more about control.

Opposing Views: The Drive for Simplicity

Supporters of the Texas legislation argue that clear definitions are necessary for maintaining societal norms, legal protections, and public health policy. Some claim that anything outside of a binary framework threatens tradition, faith, or scientific "truth." Others express concern over the perceived “confusion” children might experience if exposed to gender diversity.

And let’s be honest—many people are genuinely trying to make sense of a rapidly evolving cultural landscape. In that sense, the impulse to define can be seen as an attempt to protect what is familiar. But the cost of that simplicity is invisibility for anyone who doesn’t fit neatly in that box.

What these laws fail to acknowledge is that you cannot legislate away complexity. You can only suppress it. And when suppression becomes law, it isn’t clarity you’re creating—it’s cruelty!

A Layered Truth

So, what makes a man a man? What makes a woman a woman? There are many answers, and that’s the point.

Yes, reproductive anatomy plays a role—but so do chromosomes, hormones, neurological wiring, social conditioning, personal identity, and cultural context. To be a man, or a woman, or something else entirely, is not just a matter of what’s between your legs. It’s about what’s in your head, your heart, and how you move through the world.

To flatten that into a one-line legal definition is like reducing a novel to a tweet—or a soul to a silhouette on a cave wall.

Toward a More Human Understanding

Instead of trying to legislate people into boxes, we might try something more radical: empathy. Instead of drawing lines, we could start building bridges between lived experiences. Instead of defining identity from the top down, we could listen to people speak for themselves.

Texas lawmakers may have passed their bill. But history is a long arc, and it bends toward complexity, toward dignity, and toward truth. The story of gender is not a binary—it’s a spectrum. It’s layered, diverse, evolving. And it’s far too rich to be reduced to grunts in a cave.