Commentary
When Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked the simple, commonsensical question “What is a woman?” of then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during the Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings and got back a legalistic reply that could only be described as trendy drivel, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh was caught up short.
The subject of the documentary that he had quietly been making for several years had suddenly gone national before he was finished. What would that mean for the film?
Not to worry. Not long thereafter—on Aug. 15, actually—Walsh was standing onstage at the historic Franklin Theater in Franklin, Tennessee, along with Blackburn and producer/director Justin Folk to receive the plaudits of a packed house that absolutely loved this hugely important film.
That includes me, possibly the lone Academy member in the audience, because the number of conservative qualified Oscar voters might not even reach a dozen. In a just world, this movie would be competing for a statue in the documentary category, although as we have seen on multiple fronts lately, this isn’t a just world.
The topic of the film couldn’t be more timely. “What Is a Woman?” exposes what initially seemed to be a fad but now has metastasized into a full-blown epidemic: transgenderism.
This evil trend, or whatever you prefer to call it, particularly when it ensnares our children, teenagers and younger, is a form of extreme child abuse hitherto not seen in the history of the human race. Our young people are literally being poisoned for life with hormone treatments whose import no one fully understands.
Arguably, if you wanted to kill off Western Civilization at its root, massive transgenderism would be a good way to do it—just convince children that the developmental issues so many normally have are serious cases of gender dysphoria, and switching sexual identities is their road to salvation. More likely, it’s a road to suicide.
Cui bono? Big Pharma, of course. Once a child takes the first medical step into being transgendered, he or she (or whatever they want to call themselves) is on the way to spending millions on their health care over a lifetime. If you didn’t despise Big Pharma before seeing this film, you will afterward.
Walsh, with excellent support from Folk, takes us on a literal global adventure to demonstrate all this. Often it’s infuriating, as it should be, often heartbreaking, but sometimes mercifully funny, as when Walsh travels to Nairobi, Kenya, to ask the question “What is a woman?” of some Masai. More perceptive and intelligent than the so-called experts, the tribesmen seem nonplussed that anyone would ask something that obvious and silly.
Other notable stops along the way are with a pediatrician (in the infuriating category) who is so devoted to administering blockers to children that she appears to have a monomania in favor of gender switching. No one, to her, is born male or female, despite the apparent evidence in front of our eyes. Also infuriating, not surprisingly, is an academic in a gender studies department.
On the heartbreaking side is a woman who underwent seven operations to be a man, spent much of his/her life sick and depressed because of this, and now regrets ever having made the change. This noble person has now formed an organization to advise others against following his/her path.
Near the end of the film, clinical psychologist and author Jordan Peterson makes an appearance to clarify things, as he often does. Male and female traits appear to some degree in almost all people. It’s a sliding scale that has existed as long as humanity and isn’t such a big deal in the end. Wherever you are on this scale, make the best of it, accept yourself and try to live a good life without drugs or disfiguring operations.
In all, Walsh has done a fantastic job here, adopting Michael Moore’s strategy of going on a search for truth with the viewer. But unlike Moore, the truth is actually on Walsh’s side, making the film more powerful. The Daily Wire pundit has a big future as a filmmaker should he want it.
The Daily Wire, too, is to be commended for financing this documentary, just as The Epoch Times is to be commended for its recent film about Jan. 6, 2021. The left still dominates the film medium and, even more ominously, the means of distribution, but we are making inroads.
To continue this trend, support movies like “What Is a Woman?” See it. Tell your neighbors, friends, and family to see it. You will be doing yourself and the world a favor.
