{"id":1399619,"date":"2022-03-25T00:44:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T04:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1399619"},"modified":"2022-03-25T00:44:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T04:44:55","slug":"usa-today-tops-ketanji-brown-jackson-even-biologists-cant-define-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/usa-today-tops-ketanji-brown-jackson-even-biologists-cant-define-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Today Tops Ketanji Brown Jackson: Even Biologists Can\u2019t Define \u2018Woman\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fusa-today-tops-ketanji-brown-jackson-even-biologists-cant-define-woman%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1399619&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">After President Joe Biden\u2019s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was unable to define the word \u201cwoman\u201d during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday \u2014 claiming she is \u201cnot a biologist\u201d \u2014 <em>USA Today<\/em> outdid Jackson by arguing that even a \u201ccompetent biologist\u201d would be unable to \u201coffer a definitive answer either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an essay published in <i>USA Today<\/i> on Thursday, titled \u201cMarsha Blackburn asked Ketanji Brown Jackson to define \u2018woman.\u2019 Science says there\u2019s no simple answer,\u201d <em>USA Today<\/em> reporter Alia E. Dastagir claimed that even experts in science lack a \u201csufficient way to clearly define\u201d what a woman is.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cScientists, gender law scholars and philosophers of biology said Jackson\u2019s response was commendable, though perhaps misleading,\u201d the author writes. \u201cIt\u2019s useful, they say, that Jackson suggested science could help answer Blackburn\u2019s question, but they note that a competent biologist would not be able to offer a definitive answer either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cScientists 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,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Justices sometimes have to make determinations about who is meant by &#8216;man&#8217; or &#8216;woman&#8217; \u2026 and they may have to acknowledge the reality that sex and gender are not binary. I think Blackburn would prefer a world in which reality was much simpler.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zqxpALqMCm\">https:\/\/t.co\/zqxpALqMCm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alia E. Dastagir (@alia_e) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alia_e\/status\/1507088776715190273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 24, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The essay <a href=\"https:\/\/barnard.edu\/profiles\/rebecca-jordan-young\">quotes<\/a> Rebecca Jordan-Young, a self-described \u201cfeminist scientist\u201d at Barnard College focusing on \u201cgender, sexuality, class, and race,\u201d who describes the complexity of defining a woman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere isn\u2019t one single \u2018biological\u2019 answer to the definition of a woman,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s not even a singular biological answer to the question of \u2018what is a female.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jordan-Young also insisted that there was no need to \u201cengage\u201d Sen. Blackburn\u2019s questioning, accusing the Tennessee senator of not having done enough for women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Blackburn and the rest of her caucus support women\u2019s full reproductive justice, when they aggressively try to solve the inequality of investment in girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports \u2013 still true 50 years after Title IX made it illegal \u2013 when they take meaningful action on the persistent wage discrimination against women, especially women of color, then maybe it will make sense to engage their questions about who can count as a woman,\u201d Jordan-Young said.<\/p>\n<p>The essay also quotes Harvard scholar Sarah Richardson, who <a href=\"https:\/\/wgs.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/sarah-richardson#:~:text=Sarah%20S.,Women%2C%20Gender%2C%20and%20Sexuality.\">focuses<\/a> on the history of science and \u201cstudies of women, gender, and sexuality,\u201d who agrees that science cannot provide a sound answer to what a woman is.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAs is so often the case, science cannot settle what are really social questions,\u201d Richardson says. \u201cIn any particular case of sex categorization, whether in law or in science, it is necessary to build a definition of sex particular to context.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17179690\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/07\/Womens-Protest.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">January 21, 2018, in London, England \u2014 The Time\u2019s Up Women\u2019s March marks the one-year anniversary of the first Women\u2019s March in London. (Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Juliet Williams, a professor of gender studies at UCLA, is also <a href=\"https:\/\/gender.ucla.edu\/person\/juliet-a-williams\/\">quoted<\/a> as insisting that what a \u201cwoman\u201d is has been politically contested for ages while noting the \u201clongstanding view of white supremacy\u201d was responsible for having \u201cdenied recognition as women to Black women and women of color\u201d in the past.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Next, the essay highlights trans swimmer Lia Thomas, who has nearly shattered Ivy League records set by women while competing in collegiate athletics as a woman, quoting Wheaton College gender studies professor Kate Mason <a href=\"https:\/\/wheatoncollege.edu\/academics\/faculty-directory\/katherine-mason\/\">attacking<\/a> critics for undermining Thomas\u2019 successes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLots of people are assigned male at birth, have higher testosterone levels \u2026 and could never make a Division I swimming team,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy do we attribute her current success to her assigned sex, rather than to her long record as an elite swimmer?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Admitting the need for a legal sex classification, Mason explained that reality remains complex.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do think that judges and justices sometimes have to make determinations about who is meant by \u2018man\u2019 or \u2018woman\u2019 in written statutes \u2013 and they may have to acknowledge the reality that sex and gender are not binary,\u201d she said. \u201cI think Blackburn would prefer a world in which reality was much simpler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The essay comes on the heels of Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) asking Jackson if she could provide a definition for the word \u201cwoman\u201d in light of recent national debate regarding transgender athletes and men who compete in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/01\/26\/biden-pledged-to-nominate-a-black-woman-to-scotus5-who-could-be-up-for-the-job.html\">nominated<\/a> by Biden because she is a black woman, could not answer Blackburn\u2019s question.<\/p>\n<p>Blackburn <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rncresearch\/status\/1506451123674173443?s=21\">asked<\/a>, \u201cCan you provide a definition for the word woman?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan I provide a definition? No, I can\u2019t,\u201d Jackson <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rncresearch\/status\/1506451123674173443?s=21\">replied<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t?\u201d Blackburn again asked. \u201cNot in this context, I\u2019m not a biologist,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n<p><i><em>Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joshuaklein_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@JoshuaKlein<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After President Joe Biden\u2019s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was unable to define the word \u201cwoman\u201d during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday \u2014 claiming she is \u201cnot a biologist\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1399619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}