REVIEW: What is a Woman (2022)

Movie Reviews

What is a woman?

That question has become quite the meme. Back in March of this year, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked that very same question by Senator Marsha Blackburn during Jackson’s Judiciary Committee hearing. She couldn’t (or wouldn’t) answer it other than to say, “I’m not a biologist.”

Uh… what?

It’s a simple question, really. One everyone should be able to answer. Except that doesn’t seem to be the case, as Matt Walsh finds out in The Daily Wire’s  documentary What is a Woman?

When Walsh asks this question, he’s greeted with answers like this:

“A woman is someone who claims that as their identity. It could be many things to many people.”

“If you ask women across race, across identities, across class, across culture, you’ll get a different answer.”

“Some of it is based on biology, some of it is based on hormones, some of it is based on what you wear.”

“It’s a curious question.”

Turns out, it’s not that easy of a question. The experts can’t even give him a straight answer.

What is a Woman? has caused a lot of controversy over the last two weeks, mostly from left-leaning viewers. The documentary is almost like a real-life version of the movie Borat, where actor Sacha Baron Cohen pretends to be a clueless journalist from Kazakhstan making films about America and its culture. Except, in this case, it’s Matt Walsh, and the topic is finding out what a woman is, and it’s real life. I’ll admit, this one took time for me to get into. It’s got a slow start before it grabs your full attention; it took me two weeks to get about 35 minutes into the film. Once the ball gets rolling, however, it goes at full speed, and you learn more than you probably ever cared to on a topic like this. For instance, you learn that everyone Walsh interviews actually believes what they’re saying.

As a whole, What is a Woman? isn’t an award-winning documentary. Objectively, it’s a mediocre film, it’s got a bit of a slow start, and Walsh’s personality can be off-putting at times. But the subject matter is extremely important, and once the film gets going, it’s balls-to-the-wall and leaves your head reeling. I learned some things from this film that I’d rather have never known – for instance, what Doctor Alfred C. Kinsey did in his research of human sexual behavior. (Seriously, I would like to go back to remaining ignorant of that terrible, evil person.) The fact that there’s a movie about him (starring Liam Neeson) where they most likely leave out the worst parts of his research sickens me.

The most heartbreaking part of this documentary is Scott Newgent: a transgender male who regrets transitioning and has turned into an activist against promoting transgenderism to children. Scott, formerly known as Kellie King, transitioned to a man at the age of 42. He specifically mentions the fact that he was always a more masculine female, and hearing friend after friend say comments like “You’re born in the wrong body!” got to him until he convinced himself that he was, in fact, born the wrong gender. Newgent goes into brief detail about his surgeries and how he’s almost died several times, with no help from the doctors that cut him up. He’s in tears during his interview with Walsh, and you really get to see the severity and the gravitas of what this thinking can do to a person. Newgent has since started his own campaign, TREvoices, that goes through his journey and warns of the dangers of transgender reassignment surgeries.

One of the highlights of What is a Woman? is when Walsh travels to Africa. His quest to find out what a woman is has failed him in America, so he figures he’ll try his hand in a different country. He speaks with the Maasai tribe, a famous nomadic group that spans across Kenya and Tanzania. They’re friendly and more than willing to answer his questions. To them, a woman has their duty, and a man has their duty, and they do not cross; if you want to cross, that means there is something wrong in you or in your family. It’s clear cut; there is no such thing as non-binary or transgender: men have a penis, women have a vagina, and it has never been any different. They laugh at Walsh when he asks, “What if it’s a woman with a penis?” It’s a lighthearted sequence, and you can’t help but chuckle along with the Maasai, though it suggests this idea of gender fluidity is primarily a Western culture ideology.

What is a Woman?, despite its slow start, is an eye-opening film about a topic that is very controversial. It’s one that needs to be viewed, no matter what your view is. It’s important to get all the information we can to determine whether we stand by or against this ideology. Walsh does a good job of letting both sides speak for themselves, and what they’re saying is shocking. Contrary to popular belief, Walsh doesn’t trick the people he interviews into giving him these answers; they genuinely believe the science they’re teaching, what they’re saying, and the responses they’re giving to his questions.

Sidebar: My favorite answer to Walsh’s question is this one: “An adult human female who needs help opening this.” She’s not at all wrong.

What is a Woman? is now streaming only on the DailyWire.com.