What is a Woman?

Having just finished an intellectual evening, in which I caught the end of "Sex and the City" and then watched "Desperate Housewives", I am at a loss to answer this question. I had thought that I was one and thus, understood a bit about it. I also know lots of women, all different kinds: women who shave their legs; women who have careers; have children; prefer rice to pasta; worry about their weight; don’t go to the hairdresser; like gardening; hate driving... I thought I knew a fair range of the women available. But it seems that there is a whole range of ‘plastic women’, who look like Barbie. Are they real? Are you one of them? Am I being narrow-minded?

OK, biological sex: woman. What are the distinguishing features? It’s more difficult than you may think! I know women with and without breasts, fertile and infertile, with and without a beard (put those tweezers down and concentrate!). So, what is the difference? Ahh, says the feminist in the corner, it’s about Gender! OK, so I belong to the Gender ‘woman’, do I? And what do I have in common with the desperate housewives? And where is the husband of that one with the twins anyway?