"Are Lesbians Women?" By Jacob Jenkins

Nikki Bracci
Professor Richardson
PHI/WGS 297
Blog Assignment Three

"There is nothing in Wittig to suggest that heterosexual marriage is the only relationship that counts as a binary relation between a man and a woman, nor would this restriction be plausible. Further, she has not said that a heterosexual marriage always counts as a binary relation between a man and a woman; this would not be plausible either." (Hale, 99)

The above quote is made by Jacob Hale in a piece entitled, "Are Lesbians Women?" The quote precedes his reconstruction of Wittig's argument, following Judith Butler to an extent. In his proposed version of the argument he discusses first that dividing sex into categories assumes that sex is a binary thing which therefore assumes that a man and a women are binary opposites. He goes on to explain that the categories of sex are determined under the assumption of heterosexuality - meaning that to be perceived as a person you must be a man or woman; this leads to the presumption that there are only two sexes, which according to Judith Butler is a false accusation. To limit a person to identify as a man or woman is wrong, but in society it is (unfortunately) common. Only recently (the past year or two) have people of different gender identities begun to come out and educate the rest of society on their ignorance to gender. The claim of being defined as a woman by being required to participate in a binary relationship with a man - is easily refutable. The easiest refutation would be to question, what defines a man. Obviously, you can continue on with the questioning of what defines a woman, but to be the most impacting you would need to question the solidity of the male gender. The final pieces of this puzzle were that no lesbian can be a woman because they do not participate in binary relations with men and therefore are not women. But this too is refutable. For example, say there is a woman (Stacy) who identifies as a lesbian, she begins dating Sam (born with female anatomy, but identifies as trans). If Stacy begins dating Sam while Sam still identifies as female- then they are both lesbians and according to Wittig they are not women. But What if Sam transitions while with Stacy and Sam now identifies as a trans man. Since Sam is technically male now, can Stacy now identify as a woman because she participates in a binary relation with a man? This follows along with my previous rebuttal of what classifies a man.

To go off of Hale's statement above, since there are so many gender identities, what does constitute as "heterosexual"? Is Wittig saying that in order to be in a heterosexual relationship one person but identify as man and one as a woman? Because Visually that can be disrupted - I have seen many instances where female- born people identify as men but stay in their biologically female bodies.
I think there are too many variables to strongly solidify a definition of man, a definition of women, and a definition of heterosexual. I agree with Hale 100% in that Wittig never suggests that heterosexual marriage is the ONLY relationship counted. Wittig leaves too many unanswered questions to have a solid idea - and therefore I think her concepts of lesbians not being women are false.