What Is a Woman?

This article is about the online film. For the song, see What's a Woman?

What Is a Woman?
Directed by	Justin Folk
Produced by	Justin Folk Dallas Sonnier Charlotte Roland
Starring	Matt Walsh Scott Newgent Gert Comfrey Marci Bowers Don Sucher Michelle Forcier Patrick Grzanka Miriam Grossman Rodrigo Lehtinen Jordan Peterson Naia Ōkami Carl Trueman
Narrated by	Matt Walsh
Edited by	Jarrod Leesland
Music by	Scott McCrae Ryan Rapsys
Distributed by	The Daily Wire
Release date	June 1, 2022 (2022-06-01) (The Daily Wire)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

What Is a Woman? is a 2022 American online film about gender and transgender issues presented by conservative political commentator Matt Walsh. The film was released by conservative website The Daily Wire, with direction by Justin Folk. In the film, Walsh asks various people "What is a woman?". Walsh said he made the film in opposition to "gender ideology".

The film was released to subscribers of The Daily Wire on June 1, 2022, coinciding with the start of Pride Month. Walsh's approach garnered praise from conservative commentators, while drawing criticism from other sources, including advocates of transgender medicine. Some transgender activists and others who starred in the film alleged that Walsh had invited individuals to participate in the film under false pretenses. Walsh's tour to showcase the film at college campuses sparked protests. In June 2023, during the subsequent Pride Month, the film gained further attention when Elon Musk promoted it on Twitter.

Summary

The film features Walsh asking "What is a woman?" and related questions to a variety of people. It discusses topics such as sex reassignment surgery, puberty blockers, transgender youth, and transgender athletes in women's sports.

Interviewees include politicians, a pediatrician, a gender studies professor, a psychiatrist, a gender-affirming family and marriage therapist, a transgender person opposing medical transition for minors, a surgeon specializing in gender-affirming surgery, a father of a 14-year-old transgender boy, and Canadian author and psychologist Jordan Peterson. Walsh also discusses non-binary and transgender concepts with a Maasai tribe in Kenya and the film features a gay man practicing public nudity in San Francisco. Walsh mistakenly attributes the term gender identity to the psychologist John Money, when it was actually coined by Robert Stoller, although making this mistake is common.

In one segment, the film features a speech by Walsh during a Loudoun County School Board meeting in Virginia (he is from Tennessee). The meeting was called to provide a platform for people to express their views on Policy 8040, which instructs staff members to use the preferred name and pronouns of transgender students and allows the students to access school facilities that correspond to their gender identity. During his speech, Walsh strongly criticizes the board, stating, "You are all child abusers. You prey upon impressionable children and indoctrinate them into your insane ideological cult, a cult which holds many fanatical views but none so deranged as the idea that boys are girls and girls are boys."

Production

Matt Walsh, the main presenter of What Is a Woman?

Walsh said he made What Is a Woman? because he thought that its titular question had not been adequately answered after a tweet he had made four years prior.

In February 2022, transgender activist Eli Erlick raised allegations that Walsh had invited dozens of people to participate in the film under false pretenses. Kataluna Enriquez, Fallon Fox, and several other transgender public figures corroborated the account. Walsh had formed a group called the Gender Unity Project, which the activists asserted was an attempt to lure them into participating in the film. Subsequently following the emergence of these allegations, the Twitter account and website associated with the Gender Unity Project were taken down. According to Erlick, there were allegedly at least fifty other individuals recruited for interviews, including a 14-year-old transgender girl.

In July 2023, NBC News reported that three people who starred in the film claimed that its producers misrepresented how the film would portray transgender issues and were inserted into "gotcha" moments.

Release

A YouTube advertisement for What Is a Woman?

What Is a Woman? was released to subscribers of The Daily Wire website on June 1, 2022, to coincide with the beginning of Pride Month.

The Daily Wire reported that they were hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack during the premiere. However, an article by The Daily Dot cast doubt on the DDoS claim, noting previous technical problems with the website.

On June 14, Walsh published a book and self-narrated audiobook based on the film, titled What Is a Woman?: One Man's Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation, through DW Books, the publishing branch of The Daily Wire.

In May 2022, a transgender man alleged that Walsh used a topless image from his Instagram account in What Is a Woman? without his permission. Twitter refused a request to take down a trailer containing the image.

In September 2022, The Daily Dot reported that Eventbrite, an event management website, was refusing the use of its platform for showcasing the film, citing violations of its community guidelines, including the prohibition of hateful content regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. On September 7, Walsh claimed that website had been refusing screenings since July, describing the categorization of the film as 'hate speech' as absurd and indefensible. Some supporters of Walsh accused Eventbrite of censorship. Walsh also accused Eventbrite of hypocrisy, pointing out that the website permitted the screening of drag shows.

Walsh screened the film on his What Is a Woman? college tour at the University of Houston on October 13, 2022. Police estimated that 435 people attended, with 400 protesters (including transgender rights activists) and counter-protesters outside. A screening by Walsh at the University of Wisconsin also was met by protesters.

On June 1, 2023, the start of Pride Month, The Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing complained that Twitter had canceled a plan to promote the video, reportedly because of misgendering, and said that the video was being suppressed. Twitter CEO Elon Musk initially agreed to lift only some restrictions, but after being pressured removed all restrictions and personally recommended the video, tweeting on June 2, "Every parent should watch this." Chiefs of Twitter's trust and safety division, Ella Irwin and A.J. Brown, left the company on the same day. According to Twitter the film amassed over 170 million views in less than a week. Walsh called Musk's promotion of the film a "huge win".

Reception

The film has received mixed reactions in news sources and publications. It has been described as anti-transgender by NBC News, Science Based Medicine, and Intelligencer, and as transphobic by The Independent, The New Republic, and Pink News. AJ Eckert wrote in Science-Based Medicine that the film "has been widely advertised by pundits, traditional media, and social media platforms opposed to gender-affirming care and especially the use of pronouns, restrooms, and locker rooms" aligning with trans people's gender identities. Texas state representative Matt Schaefer, a Republican, promoted the film on Twitter, encouraging his followers to "ask your Senator or Representative if they have watched".

Rich Lowry of National Review, although he had only watched clips of the film, found them "mesmerizing and extremely disturbing." Rod Dreher of The American Conservative argued that the film shows that Walsh had "the courage to ask the questions and demand the answers" from his opponents. Kaylee McGhee White of the Washington Examiner said that the film reveals "the effort to erase the female identity and objective truth ... harming individuals, their families, and communities." Leor Sapir of City Journal compared the film to other books and movies that "sparks a demand for social reform", such as Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed, and said that it "has been virtually ignored by the left-of-center media." Karol Markowicz of the New York Post praised the film for "expos[ing] the lunacy of pro-trans extremism", calling it "a cross between Michael Moore's 1989 documentary Roger & Me where the filmmaker pursued General Motor's CEO Roger Smith, and the Borat movies in which Sacha Baron Cohen pretends to be clueless journalist Borat Sagdiyev from Kazakhstan making films about American culture." Author and journalist Matt Taibbi said that Walsh "tries and fails to get trans activists, academics, and medical professionals to offer a definition of womanhood" and in doing so, he "pranks the pants off America's silliest intellectuals." Transgender YouTuber and political commentator Blaire White praised the film in The Spectator Australia.

Laura Dodsworth of The Critic argued that the film's "success lies in its determined pursuit of the answer to one question", but criticized it for not "interrogat[ing] the meaning of gender as much as it could". Debbie Hayton of The Spectator argued that it shows "the naivety of the gender identity brigade", but said that "while Walsh is critical of gender identity ideology, he did not explain why such a bizarre idea has captivated society." Nina Power of Compact said that "The documentary presents a searing and unforgettable indictment of today's gender ideology that should rouse action across the political spectrum", but added that "Walsh's framing doesn't always do justice to the possibilities of such a cross-partisan alliance in defense of woman, man, and reality." Jo Bartosch of Spiked called it "a must-watch documentary" that "captures a strange moment in time when politicians, clinicians and the corporate world are gleefully promoting the lie that humans can change sex", but criticized it for ignoring the contributions of feminists who have been critical of the transgender movement.

Movieguide called it "lively, provocative, informative, and brilliant" with an entertainment rating of four stars. Samuel Sey of The Christian Post called the film "both hilarious and haunting" and "truly fantastic", adding that "Walsh's infamous ability to maintain an impeccable level of satire and seriousness is what makes [the documentary] so compelling." Erika Ahern of CatholicVote.org said that "While [the documentary] is about exposing the culture of 'sexual justice' for what it truly is, it is more profoundly a film about Pilate's last question to Christ, 'What is truth?' And it's about what happens when we answer, 'I am my own truth.'" Amy Welborn of The Catholic World Report called the film "well-produced, amusing, and frustrating", but said that Walsh "fails to drill down into the more potent questions for his topic". Mathew De Sousa of The Catholic Weekly said it "provides a fair scope of both leftist and conservative beliefs on core gender issues", but that it "could be a more robust resource for Christians if a little more time was given to those arguments against gender ideology and the transgender agenda." Brett McCracken of The Gospel Coalition praised it for a "basic but brilliant narrative concept", but added that "a bit more empathy could have strengthened Walsh's case", criticizing his "name-calling" of transgender people as "not a great tactic in persuasion, nor in evangelism."

Ann Schneible of the National Catholic Register gave the film a B+, praising "how easily it breaks through the cognitive dissonance exhibited by supporters of gender ideologies and their inability or unwillingness to answer the simplest questions on this topic", and opined that "Walsh's interview style works well in this context", but criticized the film for its "stylistic and narrative choices", and criticized The Daily Wire for limiting its distribution by putting it behind a paywall on the Daily Wire site, while also opining that doing so "gives the appearance that they intend to be exclusionary."

Kai Burkhardt of the German newspaper Die Welt called Walsh a "conservative Michael Moore" and praised the film for stirring up America's "gender war" by efficiently asking seemingly effortless questions to supposed experts in the field, who are unable to answer.

Both Hayton and Bartosch wrote that the film would have benefited from interviewing gender-critical feminist critics who have also looked askew at similar gender concepts over the years, such as American feminist Janice Raymond, English writer Julie Bindel, Irish journalist Helen Joyce, British philosopher Kathleen Stock, American journalist Abigail Shrier and WDI USA president Kara Dansky.

Claire Goforth of The Daily Dot called What Is a Woman? transphobic and argued that "duplicity is central to the creation of this documentary". John Kendall Hawkins of CounterPunch called the film "more conservative silliness", concluding that it "just adds to the relentless white noise we can't seem to escape and adds nothing to our humanity. The film is not worth watching, but its posture is worth noting." Malcolm Harris of Intelligencer argued that the film is a part of "the right's dangerous 'just asking questions' anti-trans campaign", concluding that "the plan is working: this year's Pride month looks to have a casualty count. If Walsh and his ilk are successful, next year's will be higher. They're begging for it." Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs argued that the film shows "conservative ignorance" and treats "cruel, mindless prejudices ... as 'common sense'", concluding that "debunking this stuff is easy.", but that "slick propaganda like What Is A Woman? will cause real harm to trans people, and while I generally consider censorship counterproductive, we should not understate the toxicity of a film like this." Katie Kadue of Gawker opined: "For Walsh and other patrollers of the gender boundary, trans women are a contamination risk. They stand accused of infiltrating not only physical women's spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms but also the clean conceptual space of the category 'woman': they are, according to this transphobic logic, men who fraudulently claim to be women." Tamma Moksha of The Hindu called the film a "twisted exercise in narcissism", adding that "The quality of research and editorial choices of the filmmakers are jarring and ... Walsh's journey in finding out the true definition of a woman seems to come from his decades-long affair with misogyny and not genuine curiosity".

AJ Eckert of Science-Based Medicine called the film "every bit as much of a science-denying propaganda film disguised as a documentary as antivax films like VAXXED or the anti-evolution film Expelled!, and such films tend to be potent messaging tools", concluding that "Walsh clearly did not set out to honestly seek answers to a perplexing question, even if they are complex. Instead, he started with a conclusion and then sought out sources to support that conclusion, no matter how dubious the source, making this film an exercise, not in honest truth-seeking but rather motivated reasoning."

Erin Rook of LGBTQ Nation called the film "propaganda" that is "full of transphobic lies", adding that "Walsh paints a frightening image of mutilated children and confused professionals – of an immoral ideology threatening the Western Christian way of life", and that it "provides ammunition for those who seek to deprive transgender people of access to affirming and life-saving healthcare." Gwendolyn Ann Smith of the Bay Area Reporter and co-founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance argued that "the point of the film, of course, is to paint transgender people and those who support us as deluded, foolish, or both", concluding that "people like Walsh want to paint us as monsters rather than people." Eli Erlick, founder of the organization Trans Student Educational Resources, told Rolling Stone that "to believe what's in [the documentary] requires a fantastical hatred of trans people" and that it shows an "appalling lack of research on the trans community".

Dimitrije Vojnov of Radio Television of Serbia said that Walsh could become the American right's equivalent of Michael Moore, and just as biased. Sasha Stone of Awards Daily said that the documentary is "more or less a profile of Matt Walsh" that "reflects his past year of asking the question to activists, 'what is a woman' since apparently this is a difficult thing to explain."

Jennifer Graham of Deseret News said that Walsh "may be trolling all of us with the film," but that "he could be asking the question that turns the culture war." Jason Whitlock of Blaze Media called the film "great" and its ending "clever", but criticized it for not mentioning God or Christianity, saying that "it fights a spiritual war on secular terms" and that "before we answer 'what is a woman,' we need to relearn the meaning of being Christian." Adam Zivo of the Canadian newspaper The National Post praised the film for "reveal[ing] activist absurdity", but said it "ultimately fails" because "Walsh seems more interested in capturing 'gotcha' moments with his interviewees" and argued that Walsh used "bad-faith storytelling to rile up audiences while oversimplifying complex issues." Zoran Janković of the Serbian magazine Vreme praised it for acting as a "complementary counterpoint" to films on the other side of the LGBT debate and praised Walsh's presentation, but also argued that it was "propaganda".

See also

• Transgender rights in the United States
• Anti-gender movement
• Johnny the Walrus, a children's book written by Walsh which allegorically compares being transgender to pretending to be a walrus.
• When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, a book critical of the modern transgender movement by socially conservative philosopher Ryan T. Anderson.

External links

• Official website
• What Is a Woman? at IMDb
• What Is a Woman? at Rotten Tomatoes