Woman enough? Trans women are held up to the same scrutiny all women are subject to, says Freiya Benson
PHOTO LYNDSAY MCADAM
There’s a quote by Simone de Beauvoir that goes along the lines of, “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”. The first time I heard this it jumped out at me, in part because it made such sense, but mostly because it felt like someone was finally describing how I felt.
As a trans woman, I’ve got used to people questioning my identity as a woman. Sometimes it would be through an ill-thought-out question, or a glance in the street that turned into a stare. Sometimes it felt like the whole process of coming out was one long interrogation, designed to trip me up, and expose me as some gender variant charlatan. It felt very personal, like my female identity was always under question, and always under scrutiny, so to hear someone say that being a woman is actually about the journey rather than the starting point was revolutionary and incredibly affirming to my own sense of self, and ultimately my own journey.