On the occasion of March 8, International Women's Day, Marie Wright and Alexandra Houle of the Réseau Féministe Québécois remind us that women's rights are taking a step backwards under the guise of inclusivity.
To read the article on Libre Média: «Être femme est une réalité biologique insurpassable» - Libre Média ( French only)
For those who thought that women had achieved equality, and that feminism was no longer necessary, it is time to understand that, on the contrary, our rights are going backwards!
Our governments and several feminist organizations are participating in this setback of our rights. Donald Trump is not the main cause of all these setbacks.
We, universalist feminists, want to issue an important warning: to protect women's rights, it is imperative that these rights are, without any nuance, rooted in reality. In biology. In our bodies.
Being a woman, a biological reality
More and more people are having difficulty defining what a woman is. We are told: "It's complicated", or "A woman is anyone who feels like a woman". This kind of response often comes from feminist groups who, by wanting to be inclusive, promote the questioning and weakening of our rights.
Being a woman is an unsurpassable biological reality. We are born into a woman's body, and this body makes us women for our entire lives, no matter how we may feel elsewhere. The rights we have won after years of struggle are directly inscribed in our state as women: the right to participate in public life, the right to work, the right not to be discriminated against because of our plans to become pregnant (parental leave, affordable childcare) or, on the contrary, our desire not to experience pregnancy (access to contraception, abortion).
We have obtained the right to have specific spaces (changing rooms, toilets, prisons, accommodation centres) to protect our privacy and our need for security.
We have earned the right to play sports, both amateur and professional, in categories that allow us to compete fairly and safely.
A feminism that protects women, not industries
We still lack the rights to regulate industries that take advantage of women's bodies, that commodify them, use them, exploit them.
Far too many women are reduced to having to sell their bodies, their image, or rent out their wombs for the prostitution, pornography and surrogacy industries.
By giving everyone the right to identify as a woman, we lose our rights. Nothing is guaranteed to us anymore.
We find ourselves invisible, threatened, anticipated, unprotected. We also lose what allows us to fight against exploitation.
We find ourselves invisible, threatened, anticipated, unprotected. We also lose what allows us to fight against the exploitation of our bodies.
Progress must not erase women
In the name of social progress, women are asked to accept to sell and rent themselves. In the name of social progress, women are asked to accept that their sisters veil themselves and hide their bodies in the name of a religion. We are asked to forget that religions, all without exception, are misogynistic and seek to control our bodies as women.
A feminism that claims to be inclusive threatens women's rights. Because these rights are exclusive. For women. Because of our condition as women.
We claim the importance of maintaining an anchor in reality. We demand rights that protect our reality. As women.
It is our bodies, those of our daughters, our sisters, that are used, put to good use. The right not to be used, to be sovereign over one's own body, is a very fragile right in the face of these powerful industries.
