Bobbi Kumari responds to Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year feature with both love and biblical conviction. She invites Christians to hold fast to God’s unchanging design for womanhood while extending Christlike compassion to those navigating confusion and pain in today’s culture.
The theme of this year’s Glamour Women of the Year Awards is “Sisterhood; a celebration of women being seen, heard and uplifted by other women.” Ironically, to make the trans community feel more seen, heard and uplifted, the magazine, has taken to redefining womanhood altogether, and featured nine biological men, who now identify as female, on the cover of their ‘Awards’ Issue. Dubbed “The Dolls,” sporting slogan tees, glossy make up and heels, the award winners were celebrated for their trailblazing work in fashion, music, charity and activism.
In an accompanying article, they reveal some of their achievements, as well as their deep longings to “work, love and exist with dignity’ and their pain, fears and sense of marginalisation. A marginalisation that has intensified, following the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, clarifying gender as biological, and subsequently, excluding trans women from womanhood. As I have read the article, my heart has ached, considering their pain and how the Supreme Court ruling, has no doubt increased the trauma, and insecurity they have felt.
READ MORE: ‘We are not meant to “pick” our gender’
Yet as painful as this Supreme Court ruling has been for the transgender community, it is a ruling rooted, not just in law, but also in basic biology, in reality itself - and most importantly, in the Word of God. Because the truth is that as heart breaking as the torment of gender dysphoria is, hormone replacement therapies, puberty blockers or gender affirming surgeries are unable to turn a man into a woman or a woman into a man. Cosmetically, one can attempt to feel, dress, behave or sound like the opposite gender, but at the core of our biological and spiritual make up, our sex and gender are unchangeable. They are defined by God (Genesis 1:27-28) and our gender is intricately woven into our very divine purpose here on earth.
READ MORE: As a female athlete, I support the new ‘open category’ for trans women in elite sport
And when we deny this fundamental reality, one that has existed for thousands of years, and choose instead to play God and redefine gender, this can never truly bring wholeness.
And when we deny this fundamental reality, one that has existed for thousands of years, and choose instead to play God and redefine gender, this can never truly bring wholeness. It may temporarily satisfy a much deeper need, but ultimately it feeds a delusion, which will only lead to further brokenness. And this is essentially what Glamour Magazine is doing, in its bid to be inclusive, it is carelessly celebrating men as women, and far from advancing the cause for women, it is in fact presenting a lie. Yet this is unsurprising, given Webster defines the word ‘glamour,’ as “a spell or charm, as one which deceives the sight.” This word ‘glamour’ was once deeply associated with magic and the occult, and even in its modern sense, it relates to “an exciting and often illusory and romantic attractiveness”
And this unfortunately is precisely what this Award is. It’s an illusion. Much like the trans ideology altogether. And to go along with such a damaging illusion is cruel and immensely costly for everyone involved. And of course, for publications such as Glamour and worldly structures in general, there is much gain to be made, by commercialising, glorifying and misrepresenting people’s pain and brokenness.
READ MORE: Lex Renick on faith, identity, and transformation: ‘God removed my dysphoria and renewed my life’
as politically incorrect, harsh or unloving, as it may appear, upholding God’s truth about gender and sexuality, is the most loving thing we can do.
But for Christians, not only must we show deep compassion and love for anyone grappling with gender dysphoria, but we must be willing to challenge the lie that is being perpetuated in the guise of transgenderism, because as politically incorrect, harsh or unloving, as it may appear, upholding God’s truth about gender and sexuality, is the most loving thing we can do. Because God created every human being in his image, carefully and lovingly designing every fibre of our original design, to bring him glory, fashioning us for a life of purpose, fulfilment and significance. And culture’s redefining of womanhood does not change this truth.
And despite the great accomplishments ‘The Dolls’ are being celebrated for, they pale in comparison to the divine purpose God has wired them for, found in a relationship with him. Ironically, Glamour global head of editorial content Samantha Barry has coined this year’s theme as a “love letter to the sisters we’re born with—and the ones we find along the way.” Yet, there is a greater love letter written to the trans community, by God, in the Bible. Where, despite the confusion, grapples and brokenness experienced in this fallen world, they are “seen, heard and uplifted” by God himself. And if they can courageously reject the glamour of this fading world, to pursue an imperishable eternal award, of being God’s deeply loved sons and daughters, I believe they will discover, so much more, than the mere illusion of ‘sisterhood’.
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