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His, her, heresy: The bitter debate over who can claim to be female

Danyl McLauchlan
By
Politics Writer/Feature Writer/Book Reviewer ·New Zealand Listener·
13 mins to read


In April 2023, broadcaster Sean ­Plunket asked then-prime minister Chris Hipkins: “How do you, and how does this government, define a woman?” Footage of Hipkins struggling to answer went viral. He eventually gave the accepted progressive response: “People define their own genders.”

The question may sound odd but it’s celebrated by an unusual coalition of conservatives and feminists who believe Hipkins was wrong: the simple and true answer is “an adult human female”, a contested definition at the heart of

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