Social Media Debate: What is a Woman?

It's that time again. There has been a discussion on social media for weeks about what a woman actually is. It is a favorite topic of the right and conservatives. This time the trigger was an excerpt from the podcast “The Comment Section with Drew Afualo”. In this episode, which actually appeared on Spotify in April 2025 and was uploaded again to YouTube this summer, the influencer Drew Afualo hosts a non-binary person named E. R. Fightmaster.

She criticizes the fact that being a woman is often reduced to biology and sexualized attacks. It's as if women are defined solely by the fact that they have a uterus and experience violence. It is a definition that is shortened but also transphobic.

An excerpt from the conversation is now going viral on Tiktok. And it still generates texts and comments even months later. The two are heavily criticized not only by right-wing and conservative cis women, but also by cis women who see themselves as progressive and liberal. And in doing so, they themselves reproduce transphobia.

At this point I neither want to evaluate the statements from the podcast nor get involved in the game and try to give myself an under-complex definition of being a woman. Because the very question “What is a woman?” is a misogynistic imposition. How can one person pin down what an entire social group should be? The question simply cannot be answered because too many factors play a role. Most right-wingers probably know this too and are asking it for exactly that reason. Because no matter how you answer this question about what a woman is, right-wingers will twist it and use it against you.

Another aspect that is completely lost in this debate is why no one asks the question: “What is a man?” The answer here is very simple: Because being a man in a patriarchal society is never questioned and has a much more secure position. That's why there are no debates about trans men in men's sports or men's toilets. Because men don't feel threatened by it and don't have the feeling that something is being “taken away” from them. Things are different for cis women because their status depends on how much space the patriarchy gives them. This puts them in a sometimes real threat situation. This means that cis women are allying themselves with the patriarchy and agitating against refugees and trans people.

But in the end it won't help them. Because cis women use the same means with which they themselves are fought. It would be more productive to show solidarity with trans women and fight together against the system that oppresses us all. And it's not worth asking: What actually is a woman?