Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Declines To Define 'Woman' Because She's 'Not A Biologist,' Sparking Memes Amid Supreme Court Confirmation

March 23rd, 2022 - 2:48 PM EDT by Aidan Walker

19 comments | Contact Newsroom

Ketanji Brown Jackson, and a tweet from Manu Raju with a transcript of her exchange with Senator Blackburn.

Yesterday on the second day of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennesee asked Jackson to define the term “woman,” to which Jackson refused to do, saying “I’m not a biologist.” The response subsequently went viral, causing the word "biologist" to trend on Twitter and ignite viral discussions as people responded to her remarks with memes and hot takes into today.


Jackson’s answer was widely criticized and mocked by right-leaning commentators online, who argued the definition of "woman" was very clear. The topic of gender identity is top-of-mind for many as states around the U.S. consider (or have already passed) laws that would define what a woman is — potentially excluding transgender people from that category in some places.


For Senator Blackburn and others, the problem with Jackson’s response had to do with its perceived wokeness. Pundits online offered their own definitions of “woman,” asserting that, in their view, the answer to Senator Blackburn’s question was obvious. As such, jokes followed in the wake of the discussions.


Many on the other side of the aisle have argued that conservative critiques of Jackson have centered around issues of gender and race, with Republican senators like Ted Cruz asking more questions about Critical Race Theory and LGBTQ+ issues than about legal practice or principles. Some Republicans also rallied around what Democrats call a “debunked” claim by Senator Josh Hawley that Jackson is “soft” on child pornography offenders.


Supporters of Judge Jackson mostly memed about her qualifications compared to those of her GOP questioners, arguing that Blackburn is not as intelligent as Jackson.


A Washington Post chart comparing Jackson’s qualifications to those of her predecessors also circulated widely. If confirmed, Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.


Most observers seem to believe that Ketanji Brown Jackson’s chances of confirmation are very good. Due to the Republicans’ so-called “nuclear option” filibuster reform in 2017, Supreme Court nominees only need 51 votes for confirmation (which, with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as a tiebreaker, the Democrats have). According to a recent Gallup poll, Jackson also enjoys significant public support.


For the past few years, Supreme Court confirmation hearings have been a reliable way for Senate Judiciary Committee members to earn national media attention (then-Senator Kamala Harris famously trended in 2018 following her questioning of Justice Brett Kavanaugh) and so the hearings tend to produce more memes than other legislative proceedings. As the hearings continue this week, expect more viral tweets and partisan squabbling.


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Jill
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Jill Moderator

in reply to Sumarios

None of those are as obvious as you might think. Is a cluster of mineral particles that falls apart in your hand a rock? When referring to a sunflower flower is it one individual floret, or is it the collection of hundreds to thousands of them as in the vernacular? Is the steam from a kettle legally cloud? Is someone who looks young guaranteed to be such and therefore ignore alternate evidence to the contrary?

When one is in a position to legally define something, this is important. What "real answers" are you you going to use to objectively include everyone you consider to "be a woman" and exclude everyone you don't? People who were born intersex but did not know until adulthood and appear female "not women"? Are people who physically appear female but naturally have higher than average testosterone level "not wemen"? Are people who appear to be standard girls in their youth but do not undergo standard female puberty and find out they are chromosomal XXY "not women"? If you limit it to undergoing puberty "as a male" do you mark people who thought they were FtM but then did not continue/retransitioned after feeling that wasn't right for them as "not women"?

Even independent of trans women, if you were to legally define women by one of these metrics, you would be excluding people that most people would not seriously question if the people was female or not.

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