One of the greatest accomplishments of FEMINISM has been the amelioration of women’s role in the workplace and in opportunities for education. Women are therefore to be considered equal to men in terms of their ability to provide value to the corporation and consequently, the family. A better word could be equivalent. In equivalence, women can afford to bring their own gender uniqueness and still be of use but it is still the responsibility of the corporation to accommodate or endorse their unique faculties such as the appropriate restroom facilities for them from their monthy cycle to nursing mothers. With shows such as the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Grey’s Anatomy, ER, Law & Order: SVU, The Good Wife, Scandal and 30 Rock, we have seen the brilliance of women on display at work and all their corresponding conflicts in their personal lives that arise to due to their intensified professional engagements.

However, over the years, the shadow to this emergence of women in the workplace by Hollywood’s depictions has been a pretty damning assumption. That the men in the workplace especially in the leadership positions are mostly incompetent especially if they happen to be white males. Not saying here that white males are immune to criticism. However, if women can only be presented as worthy of professional ascension due to white male incompetence as opposed to a natural continuity between the generations we have to be willing to face the consequences down the line. This is evident in shows like 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, The Good Wife, and to an extent Scandal.

Newton’s Third Law states; “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

What is the reaction you say? The battle for women’s sovereignty of their restrooms, over their sports competitions and their exclusivity in medical care.

Let us backtrack. Why the rise in men who transitioned to women seeking to take up space created by women who were born women? If most of the programming a young man watches on TV, movies or social media suggest that men are no match for women in the workplace and he happens to have some vulnerabilities in his identity while harboring a deep desire for acclaim, it should be no surprise that such a one should seek wholeheartedly to identify himself what what the image of excellence is: Women on TV. If women are to be referred to as the standard of competence while men are the progenitors of mediocrity it should be of no surprise when some men request to transition.

This conundrum is accelerated by all the political momentum that has grown over the years to acquiesce to this growing phenomenon among men of a certain predilection. We have seen municipalities in uproar over bathroom restrictions as parents cry out over the safety of their daughters. With major Hollywood entities like Disney stand up to the governor of Florida, North Carolina and the state of Georgia over any attempts at restricting any measures that protect the men becoming women.

Truth be told, women’s excellence in the workplace is to be celebrated. Women have made key discoveries and accomplishments in science and the arts; Jane Austen, Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Joan of Arc, Queen Isabella of Spain, Virginia Woolf, Hedy Lamarr, Shonda Rimes and the list goes on. But how often is it seen as complement to men’s excellence such that we have a man and woman on principle against another man and woman on an opposing principle?

“We battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities of spirits.” (Eph 6:12)

Have incompetent and powerful men been a stumbling block to women in the workplace? Absolutely. But did they do so because they were men or because they were incompetent jerks? If the messaging focused on character instead of gender we could protected the very aspect women have been using to ascertain their vulnerability – GENDER. With gender becoming a fluid concept, the very men women had to fight against because they were jerks are now being subjected to accommodate because they can now be jerks while calling themselves women.

The real enemy here is JERKS (incompetence) who are consumed by envy; not men or trans-women. But when certain evils are let to roam, it will put on a face of the one we most desire to protect to keep us from taking action against it. As long as we remain beholden to identity over character we will continue to protect depiction over consequence.