Critics on social media lambasted USA Today on Thursday after the newspaper cited "science" to suggest that "there is no simple answer" to the question, "What is a woman?"
What are the details?
The paper was responding to a widely publicized moment from Senate confirmation hearings earlier this week when President Biden's Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson told Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) she couldn't provide a definition for the word "woman" since she's "not a biologist."
The exchange quickly went viral on the internet as conservatives expressed shock and anger at the judge's absurd embrace of anti-scientific progressive gender politics. Ironically, Jackson's own womanhood was a primary reason that she was nominated for the court in the first place.
During the hearing, Blackburn spoke for much of the American populace when she chided Jackson's non-answer, saying, "The fact that you can’t give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education" being taught in school districts across the country.
Yet, in a lengthy report published Thursday, USA Today offered a defense of the judge's answer. The headline of the report said, "Marsha Blackburn asked Ketanji Brown Jackson to define 'woman.' Science says there's no simple answer."
"Scientists, gender law scholars, and philosophers of biology said Jackson's response was commendable, though perhaps misleading," USA Today reported in the story's opening paragraphs. "It's useful, they say, that Jackson suggested science could help answer Blackburn's question, but they note that a competent biologist would not be able to offer a definitive answer either."
"Scientists agree there is no sufficient way to clearly define what makes someone a woman, and with billions of women on the planet, there is much variation," the newspaper confidently told its readers, later adding, "While traditional notions of sex and gender suggest a simple binary — if you are born with a penis, you are male and identify as a man and if you are born with a vagina, you are female and identify as a woman — the reality, gender experts say, is more complex."
To articulate its point, the paper trotted out not scientists but prominent progressive gender studies scholars such as Barnard College's Rebecca Jordan-Young, UCLA's Juliet Williams, Wheaton College's Kate Mason, and Harvard-educated "philosopher of biology" Sarah Richardson.
At one point, Jordan-Young pointed to at least six "biological markers" of sex in the body, including "genitals, chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive structures, hormone ratios, and secondary sex characteristics" to proclaim "there isn't one single 'biological' answer to the definition of a woman."
"There's not even a singular biological answer to the question of 'what is a female,'" she added.
What was the reaction?
Not surprisingly, the article was mercilessly ridiculed on social media.
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck called the report "truly insane," adding, "This isn't a column, editorial, guest op-ed, or even one of those you might see labeled as 'analysis.' This is a news article from USA Today's 'Health & Wellness' section."
This isn't a column, editorial, guest op-ed, or even one of those you might see labeled as "analysis."\n\nThis is a news article from USA Today's "Health & Wellness" section.
— Curtis Houck (@Curtis Houck) 1648162125
Conservative commentator Erick Erickson mocked USA Today's inability to determine womanhood in light of archaeologists' comparative ease in doing so on thousand-year-old skeletons.
This USA Today story is amazing. It posits that scientists cannot determine what a woman is, but we can dig up 9000 year old skeletons and make that determination. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/03/24/marsha-blackburn-asked-ketanji-jackson-define-woman-science/7152439001/\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/Bu2GCrfgYI
— Erick Erickson (@Erick Erickson) 1648219767
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said, "If USA Today had any credibility left (they don't), they laughably lost it in this utterly nonsensical 'story.'"
If USA Today had any credibility left (they don't), they laughably lost it in this utterly nonsensical "story." Real science has an answer.\nUSA Today: Science says there\u2019s no simple answer to the definition of \u2018woman\u2019 https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2022/03/24/usa-today-science-says-theres-no-simple-answer-to-the-definition-of-woman/\u00a0\u2026 via @twitchyteam
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@Gov. Mike Huckabee) 1648221246
"There is no sufficient way to define what makes someone a woman, of which there are billions," Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy quipped.
there is no sufficient way to define what makes someone a woman, of which there are billions. https://twitter.com/usatoday/status/1507093018234347520\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/uRIj7V00U1
— Jerry Dunleavy (@Jerry Dunleavy) 1648163869
The mockery only continued from there:
Those quotation marks need to be taken off the word, woman, and put around the word, science
— Gavin \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 (@Gavin \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7) 1648162880
'Set phasers to cringe': Leftist GA gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is president of the United Earth on 'Star Trek' — and viewers head to sick bay
You don't suppose the movers and the shakers connected with "Star Trek: Discovery" care one way or another if left-wing darling Stacey Abrams wins the Georgia gubernatorial race in November, do you?
Because they gave the Democratic candidate some extra attention by casting her in the role of president of the United Earth for Thursday's season four finale.
What are the details?
One clip shows the Federation president greeting Abrams' character and saying she's looking forward to diplomatic discussions getting started. “Nothing to discuss,” Abrams character replies. “United Earth is ready right now to rejoin the Federation, and nothing could make me happier than to say those words."
Her character then engages in a brief chat with other characters, including U.S.S. Discovery Capt. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), after which the clip ends.
A decidedly starstruck Martin-Green told Deadline that she's "still floored when I think about Stacey gracing us with her presence in our Season 4 finale."
Martin-Green added to the outlet that Abrams "is a legend in the making and a civil hero" and that "it was an honor for me as a black woman to stand with her in the story."
Deadline called Abrams "the woman widely regarded as having saved American democracy," presumably for her work getting Democrats elected in 2020.
How are folks reacting to the clip?
A number of Twitter users who watched the clip of Abrams playing president of the United Earth seem well aware of the political parallels at play — and they almost unanimously slapped their palms against their foreheads:
Anything else?
Abrams announced her bid for Georgia governor in December. She lost the 2018 governor's race to Republican Brian Kemp by a small margin, after which Abrams infamously claimed voter suppression and said Kemp's victory was tainted.
"We had this little election back in 2018, and despite the final tally and the inauguration and the situation we find ourselves in, I do have one very affirmative statement to make: We won," Abrams said five months after her defeat.
In early February, Abrams was called out for the hypocritical optics of a photo showing her without a mask in a classroom full of young children forced to wear face masks — and soon the photo was gone from social media.