I had a lot to think about in terms of the rights of trans women. I used to watch “Pose” a lot, and it made me think about this whole “passing” thing. A common trope I’ve seen in a lot of movies and shows, mostly for shock factor, is showing transwomen and revealing they are “men.” By that, it means revealing to the audience that they have a penis. Or they have a scene where a guy hooks up with a woman while drunk and then his friend says something like, “Dude, that’s a man.” It’s supposed to be a huge shock because the character “passes” as a woman. It’s a sickening trope, and they use it to demean transwomen and make them feel less of a woman by outing them. Especially those who couldn’t afford to have a sex change. In “Pose”, I noticed the women who “passed” were treated far better than the ones who didn’t. And that’s something that happens to cisgender women. Women who have sharp masculine features. Women with short hair. Bodybuilders. It’s like to be a woman, you have to fit into this box. It makes me wonder how one even decides if one is a woman or not. What factors into whether or not someone is a woman? Because there are intersex women. Some women don’t have periods. Some women don’t have breasts and last but not least, some women can’t have children. So what makes a woman? And why do we give men the power to decide whether or not we are women?