.png)
What Is a Woman? A Christian Response on Truth, Compassion and Reality
- Mark Neugebauer - FCP Australia
- Mar 22
- 5 min read
In March 2026, a moment in Brazilian politics drew international attention.
Fabiana Bolsonaro, a state deputy in São Paulo, appeared in a legislative session wearing darkened makeup. She described it as a demonstration, an attempt to argue that just as one cannot change race through appearance, one cannot change sex.
The reaction was immediate and severe. Accusations of racism and transphobia followed. Legal complaints were filed. Others defended it as political expression.
I do not raise this incident to reduce it to its method. While many have focused on how it was done, it is clear that it was intended as a deliberate argument, an attempt, however controversial, to make a point about the limits of identity and appearance.
But it also reveals something important:
When serious questions cannot be spoken plainly, they are often expressed in ways that provoke reaction, and the underlying issue is left unexamined.
And yet the question remains:
Are we still able to say what a woman is, and why that matters, clearly, carefully, and without fear?
I write this not as an activist, but as a Christian man shaped by responsibility.
I am a husband, a father of daughters, and a grandfather. I am also a son of an inspirational elderly mother.
The women in my life are not ideological categories. They are people I love, protect, and am accountable for.
So when I see increasing uncertainty around what it means to be a woman, legally, socially, and culturally, I cannot treat that as abstract.
It is personal. And it is moral.
Women Are Grounded in Reality
For most of human history, “woman” has referred to something concrete, an adult human female, an embodied reality with social consequences.
Women’s rights emerged in response to that reality:
the capacity for pregnancy and childbirth
physical differences between men and women
patterns of vulnerability shaped by those differences
These are not ideological claims. They are features of the world as it is.
When that foundation becomes unclear, it is not unreasonable for women to ask:
What, then, are these rights anchored to?
The Australian Context: When Clarity Becomes Difficult - What is a Woman?
We are not insulated from these questions in Australia.
When Alex Antic asked Brendan Murphy in a Senate hearing to define what a woman is, the answer was deferred.
That moment was revealing, not because the question is unanswerable, but because it has become increasingly difficult to answer plainly in institutional settings.
In Tickle v Giggle for Girls, the courts were asked to consider whether a platform designed specifically for women could exclude a transgender woman.
This was not simply a legal dispute. It raised a prior question:
What does it mean to create a space for women?
Is that category grounded in sex, identity, or both?
And how should competing rights be weighed when they do not fully align?
These are not settled questions. They are being worked out in real time.
In sport, the example of Flying Bats FC has become a point of discussion.
For some, it represents inclusion and progress. For others, it raises concerns about fairness and the purpose of sex-based competition.
What matters is not forcing a single conclusion, but recognising that:
when biological differences intersect with shared spaces, the tension is real and cannot simply be dismissed.
A Christian Understanding of the Human Person
As Christians, we understand that human beings are created with meaning, not ambiguity.
“So God created mankind in his own image… male and female he created them.” — Genesis 1:27
Jesus affirms this:
“At the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’.” — Matthew 19:4
This distinction is not about hierarchy. It is about created order and embodied reality.
Men and women are equal in dignity, but not interchangeable.
This is reflected in the most fundamental aspect of life:
New life begins through the union of male and female.
Even where modern medicine assists, it does not replace this reality—it works through it.
To acknowledge this is not to exclude or diminish anyone. It is to remain truthful about the nature of human life.
Compassion That Does Not Erase
At the same time, this conversation must be approached with genuine care.
Transgender individuals are not abstract ideas. They are people, often navigating complex, deeply personal realities that deserve to be taken seriously.
They should not be mocked, dismissed, or treated with contempt.
They deserve:
dignity
safety
and to be treated as neighbours, not opponents
As Christians, this is not optional.
But compassion, if it is to remain whole, cannot require us to set aside distinctions that matter, particularly where those distinctions relate to the protection and recognition of others.
The Cost of Silence
One of the more concerning features of this moment is not disagreement, but hesitation.
Many people, especially women, feel increasingly uncertain about whether they can raise questions at all.
Professionals become cautious. Institutions defer clarity. Language becomes strained.
This does not create understanding. It creates distance.
A society that cannot accommodate careful, good-faith disagreement will struggle to arrive at truthful and durable solutions.
Holding the Line Without Hardening the Heart
This is not a call to conflict.
It is a call to clarity, responsibility, and restraint.
We can say, without hostility:
that biological sex is real
that women’s rights are grounded in that reality
and that those rights deserve protection
While also affirming:
that transgender individuals deserve dignity
and should be treated with care and respect
Holding both requires maturity. It requires humility. And it requires the willingness to resist simplistic answers.
Final Reflection
The Brazilian incident shows how quickly serious issues can become obscured when they are expressed through provocation rather than clarity.
But the response to it shows something else:
We are losing the ability to speak plainly about reality without fear of mischaracterisation.
For Christians, this is not a moment for outrage, but for steadiness.
We are called to remain faithful: to truth, to conscience, and to those entrusted to our care.
As Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching… then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)
If we lose clarity about what is real, we will not become more compassionate.
We will become less able to protect those who depend on us.
And that is a responsibility we cannot set aside.
Comments