“Bob is a woman because he wears make-up and jewelry and shaves his legs”

Argument Submitted by: D.B., PhD

This is an example of False Equivalency. This fallacy occurs when an argument asserts or implies that one thing is identical to another simply because they share one trait. For example, assuming that feminine trans-identified males and feminine females are identical because they both wear make-up.

Of course, I’m using the phrase “feminine females” because not all females are feminine. You could respond by asking your opponent if unfeminine women are also women. In this case, it appears that the speaker believes being a woman amounts to being feminine. You could point out that if this were true, then one’s definition of being a woman would exclude females who are non-feminine. You might then ask if a biological female who identifies as a woman (a ‘cis-woman’) but who does not in any way conform to femininity, is a man (proponents of gender identity theory appear to believe this when they argue that butch lesbians are in denial that they are men). Asking this question will press your interlocutor to reveal whether (s)he believes that gender identity is a matter of appearance or a matter of feeling/identity.

You might note that if (s)he believes that gender is strictly a matter of feeling, not appearance, then you could ask if it would be transphobic to tell someone that she is really a man because she isn’t feminine. Wouldn’t that be a case of ‘misgendering’ since it would be an instance of deciding for yourself what a person’s gender is on the basis of what a person looks like rather than on the basis of their declared identification?

If your interlocutor then admits to you that gender is not decided by appearance but by feeling, you could then note that, according to her/his own definition, Bob would not be a woman simply because he was feminine but only if he also declared that he was a woman. This seems to be what some proponents of gender identity theory believe when they insist “I don’t have to pass to be a woman.” You could then ask what ‘woman’ means if it does not mean appearing feminine. Very likely you will then receive the response “a woman is someone who identifies as a woman” in which case see 1. Circularity.