Do Women Exist?

Attacking women with language that denies our existence

February 22, 2025

On February 11, the New York Times published a piece titled, “How Trump Uses Language to Attack the Idea of Transgender Identity.”

It lightly critiqued the language contained in recent executive orders issued by the Trump administration. The article was somewhat balanced; it acknowledged that the fight about so-called “gender identity” is “divisive” and that the recent executive orders are popular across the political spectrum. Both observations are accurate. But the article also used language that, I would argue, erases women and girls as a sex class.

There’s a battle going on about whether women exist at all, and the battleground is the language society uses to discuss matters related to sex and gender. Read on to learn more.