Most of us can intuitively answer the question on what a woman is, based on a bundle of personal past experiences. Yet, some people are lead to believe one needs to be a biologist to really determine what a woman is, or what have you. If you’re confused by that situation, you are probably normal, though I will say there a form of valid reasoning in claiming only biologists can know what a woman is. Most of us are not biologists, so we infer womanhood through different, though no less valid, means.
I’m going to go against popular reactionary opinion and say Ketanji Jackson’s response to the question by Senator Marsha Blackburn about what a woman is, was not a terrible answer, given the ambiguity of the question. No, it’s not quite simple and clear what kind of answer Blackburn was looking for; there multiple valid answers, regardless, depending on the who is asking, who is answering, and surrounding factors. Was Jackson supposed to answer the question as a Supreme Court nominee, as a layman, as a person who likely has rudimentary knowledge of biology, or was she supposed to give many answers, linking them to different contexts? “In the context of common law,” “In the context of the Constitution,” “If I am explaining what a woman is to my children,” and so forth. I would have probably asked Blackburn to be more specific, but Jackson would end up stuck with a relevant but poorly-worded question, designed to make her look bad no matter how she answered.
To that end, thinking about the different ways we might know what a woman is, is not a bad little epistemological exercise. The better question to tackle is “How do we know a person is a woman?” since normal folks are in a position to have that knowledge, and not as much the determiner of what a woman is. There is small difference between the two, but the difference is significant. I’d contend that we know a person is a woman by our senses, particularly hearing, but also in some cases by memory. Hearing, combined with a few other cues, is probably the surest way the dumbest among us, even biologists, can detect a woman.
1. Genetically
Women have XX sex chromosomes. This is the most arcane way of knowing, since nearly none of us reading have the skills or resources to conduct a test, but it is also the most fundamental way we have available of knowing at all. It’s interesting to note that nearly all other ways of knowing if a person is a woman stem from this fact.
2. Neurologically
Men and women tend to use their brain differently. Most of us don’t have brain scanners and the proper interpretive computer programs handy when the time comes to figure out if someone is a woman, so this isn’t really much help to everyday living. It is one way of determining the questions, though, and interesting nonetheless.
3. Binary Logic
A woman is any human who is not a man. Since humans are sexually dimorphic (yes, there are known and documented ultra-rare exceptions), if we can determine if a human isn’t a man, we can conclude it’s a woman. But we’d first have to determine what a man is. Given the current circumstances, that might be an easier question to answer. However, categorizing the two “forms” of human is how most of us can tell a woman from a non-woman, AKA: a man.
4. Reproductive Organs (Sensory)
Women have the right “plumbing” to incubate and birth new humans. Men have other equipment that do other things. This overlaps with #3, but it’s based less on the process of elimination and more on simple visual observation. Before we had #1 at our disposal, this is likely how we were able to be certain someone is a woman if there was a doubt. However, like #1, everyday life doesn’t lend itself to this way of knowing, and I don’t recommend going around to folks on the street to “test” this out. There are easier, more legal, less assault-y ways of determining womanhood.
5. Visual Cultural Markers (Sensory)
Now we’re getting into the good stuff. Men and women present themselves as culturally distinct, through “micro” indicators like dress, hair, mannerisms, to which most of us would be attune. This is nearly universal to human existence, across cultures, geography, and time periods. Again, there are exceptions, but those exceptions can sometimes present themselves as obvious exceptions; we might be able to reliably tell if someone is trying to fake it, or the context can help us determine. I’m gonna know that lady on stage is a dude if I’m a drag contest and he’s a contestant. I don’t have an easy site or scientific study to link for bolstering this reason, but…c’mon, man, do you really need one?
6. Memory and Habitual Context (Memory, Sensory)
This one is actually more common than you might think, because it’s as automatic and immediate as #5, and it involves simple sensory input and pattern recognition that all of us have in some form or another. If someone walks through my front door at 11:54 a.m., for instance, I’d know the person is a woman just by the door sounds alone, and be correct nearly 100% of the time. I live with three people: 2 kids and my wife. At that time of day, the kids are at school, so anyone coming through the front door while I am home is going to be her. Another example: before you-know-what, I knew the person coming into the office in the morning and setting up next to me is a woman, because I know Marcy (not her real name) usually gets to the office at a certain time after me, and that she takes the desk next to me, and she puts her bags down on the desk a certain way, etc. This obviously doesn’t cover situations where we are dealing with strangers, but the answers we come up with in this context comes with extremely high certainty.
7. Sensory Heuristics and Anatomy (Sensory)
I don’t know if “sensory heuristics” is a real term (it probably isn’t), but this is what I’m calling this form of knowing if a person is a woman. Sensory heuristics means we take in a few fundamental (not cultural) sensory cues when we come across a person that we use to determine, I contend very accurately, if a person is a woman. I’m going to contend that there are three main markers: height, jaw size combined with shoulder width, and voice, plus a few secondary/supplementary markers: walking gait, facial and body hair, hip to waist ratio. I explain more below.
7a. Height
Knowing/sensing our own height is key in determining this, because we’ll compare a in-person person’s height with our own, immediately and automatically, and stack this clue at the bottom. Even if we’re looking at a photograph, we might determine height by comparing to other people in the photograph or objects, like a door or vehicle. Obviously, there are things come into play that determine height, but average men and average women in a big enough sample size will show clear height differences. In America, average height for men is 5’9″ (some sites say 5’10”), for women it’s 5’4″. That’s a good 5 or 6 inches to work with. At 5’7″, I am short for a man, but assuming the person is an adult, if someone shorter walks by me, I can likely determine they are a woman by height difference alone.
7b. Jaw size combined with shoulder width
I put these two together for a few reasons. Some men might have a small jaw or narrow shoulders, but rarely do they have them both, and even then it’s hard to find them in proportions that a woman would have them. I have a weak jaw and narrow shoulders, but not so acutely that I’d be mistaken for a woman (even if I didn’t have such a sweet beard and decently-developed upper body musculature; hey, I’m being completely honest about myself here, good and bad). A tapered jaw and narrow shoulders can be seen easily from a distance, without the need to be creepy with the direction of your gaze, and is hard to hide with clothing and accessories.
7c. Voice
I honestly think that, out of the methods of determining who a woman is that are available as an everyday carry epistemological tool, the voice is most reliable. Take a listen to a bit of this song and a bit of this song, and then a bit of this song. Now, those are probably examples of the limits of one sex sounding like the other…singing, at least. There are some spots where it’s not quite as convincing, and your ear catches something that makes you think it could go the opposite way. The first song is the least deceptive, as there are a few spots where his delivery breaks in such a way that betrays the singer’s masculinity. Most of the time, though, I’d think it’s either a man, or a woman with an unusual vocal range and approach. In the second song, the guy’s junk was removed, so I’d consider that an extreme outlier in an already small group of outliers. The third song is similar in regard to the first one. There are a few spots where you might be able to tell it’s a woman, especially if you are familiar with with style of vocals (she does them quite well). Again, these are very extreme examples of a crossover. Folks aren’t walking around, clothed in a cardboard box, with a band accompanying them, ambiguously singing at everyone, leaving us confused as to their sex. How much more sure we can if someone is using an everyday speaking voice, and there’s no intention to deceive? Yeah, you can train yourself over a number of years to come close and maybe fool a few people with bad hearing, but like #5 above, people just don’t do that as a daily routine. I don’t need to give you a source.
Taking all this into account, here are some options Ketanji Jackson could’ve used to answer the (better formed) question: how do you know if a person is a woman?
1. “I’d listen to the person’s voice.” – This is the most sure way most of us can determine the answer.
2. “I’d observe their relative height, shoulder width, chin size, and gait, as well as their hairstyle, clothing, and accessories.” – Long winded, but you can nail the sex with near-perfect accuracy in most context using all of these visual clues. Immediate, easy, automatic knowledge, with no thought required.
3. “Do a quick boob and crotch check.” – Accompany this with a lascivious grabby gesture for emphasis. From a woman it won’t come off half as creepy, and it would highlight the silly context of the question. She’d be a decades-long meme and wouldn’t get nominated for the SC, though.
4. “Observe them.” – A quick answer.
5. “Observe.” – An even quicker answer, but might be confusing. Not recommended.
6. Point to one of your eyes and ears, as ways of observation. – The quickest answer without using words, but likely even more confusing than the previous. Also not recommended but you may come off very sage-like if you gesture theatrically.