The one-year-old “What Is A Woman?” documentary by The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh has amassed more than 177 million views in less than a week on Twitter. / Credit: Matt Walsh/YouTube
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 7, 2023 / 13:45 pm (CNA).
The one-year-old “What Is a Woman?” documentary has amassed more than 177 million views in less than a week on Twitter. Despite pushback from transgender activists, the documentary has had enormous success since the film was offered on Twitter at the beginning of June. CNA took a look at what the film is about and why it’s amassed so many views recently.
What is the film about?
The documentary, which stars popular culture and political commentator Matt Walsh and is distributed by The Daily Wire, tackles questions related to the transgender movement, specifically delving into the question posed in the title, “What is a woman?”
Walsh interviews a variety of people, including politicians, doctors, a professor, and a therapist, asking them whether they can explain what a woman is. When met with unclear and nonspecific answers, Walsh presses the question further.
At one point, he asks Dr. Patrick Grzanka, a professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Tennessee, to explain the differences between sex and gender. When Walsh presses Grzanka about wanting to know the truth and the reality of whether someone is a man or a woman, the professor expresses that he is uncomfortable.
“I’m really uncomfortable with that language of like ‘getting to the truth,’” Grzanka said during the interview. “It sounds actually deeply transphobic to me and if you keep probing, we’re going to stop the interview.”
During the documentary, Walsh also speaks with women who have been forced to compete with biologically male athletes who identify as women. This includes women who placed behind their transgender competitors in both swimming and track and field and believe wins and better finishes were taken from them.
Why is the film going viral?
The film is a year old and was initially released by The Daily Wire to its paid subscribers on June 1, 2022. To celebrate the one-year anniversary, The Daily Wire made the film free on Twitter for a limited time, which began on June 1, 2023.
“What Is A Woman?” has amassed about 177.2 million views on The Daily Wire’s Twitter post since it was released for free. The film has received a lot of publicity and positive feedback from conservatives but a lot of hostility from transgender activists.
Because the film deals with the highly contentious issue of gender identity and gender ideology, it has gained publicity from both sides of the issue.
The documentary has not received many reviews from movie critics, but it received an 83% approval rating from six movie critics listed on Rotten Tomatoes and an 86% approval rating from more than 10,000 users rating the film.
“Our film has been banned from most platforms,” Walsh said in a Tweet. “Mainstream movie critics refused to even review it. It’s been blacklisted and suppressed and yet still reached a massive audience. But how many more could we have reached without the deck stacked completely against us? It’s no use lamenting these things.”
How did it survive content moderation on Twitter?
Twitter initially entered into a deal with The Daily Wire to help broadcast the documentary but ultimately backed out of the deal and began suppressing the film as soon as it was posted on the social media platform.
When the documentary initially aired on Twitter, it was given a content warning, which flagged the video as “hate speech” and limited its visibility based on accusations that it was transphobic.
Walsh and other members of The Daily Wire’s team sparred with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on Twitter about the restrictions. They also directly appealed to Twitter owner Elon Musk by tweeting at his account.
Musk ultimately intervened and put a stop to the suppression efforts, which included getting rid of the “hate speech” warning. He then tweeted out the documentary, saying “every parent should watch this.” He pinned the tweet for a brief period.
What have Catholics said about it?
Walsh is a practicing Catholic and the film was well received by some Catholic viewers.
CatholicVote, a Catholic political advocacy group, recommended the film for viewers aged 16 and older and suggested that high school students should discuss it with a trusted adult.
“The question ‘What is Woman?’ is a hook — to catch a bigger fish, as it were,” Erika Ahern of CatholicVote wrote on June 2, 2022.
“Yes, it’s one important question that trans ideologues have refused to tackle,” she continued. “(We hear multiple interviewees replying the Walsh with, ‘Why are you asking that question?’) But there are a number of other questions that could be posed. What is a man? What is gender? What is sex? But the central question is much deeper. Fisherman Walsh tackles it even before he lands his first interview: ‘What is truth?’”
Ann Schneible, a freelance journalist writing a review for National Catholic Register, gave the film a B+. She said it is a good starting point for this issue but would not recommend it as a tool for understanding someone with gender dysphoria.
“While it may not be persuasive to anyone who does not generally agree with Walsh, it may still be a valuable starting point for anyone who wants to delve deeper into an issue that is affecting an increasing number of individuals and families,” Schneible wrote. “From this perspective, I would recommend this film.”
Mary Rice Hasson, the director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, tweeted out her support for the film and criticism of the initial restrictions.
“Matt Walsh’s documentary has had a powerful impact, sharing the truth on an incredibly important issue,” Hasson said.
Oli London, a man who formerly identified as a gender-fluid trans woman but has since detransitioned and converted to Catholicism, also tweeted about the film and the previous censorship.
“Despite Twitter censoring [Matt Walsh’s] ‘What is a Woman?’ [The Daily Wire’s] documentary this evening and Elon issuing several tweets adding to the confusion he has now tweeted that the censorship will create ‘The Streisand effect,’” London tweeted. “The Streisand effect is an unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information where it instead leads to increased awareness of that information.”
Sachin Jose, a Catholic journalist and social media influencer, encouraged others to step up and discuss this issue.
“Matt Walsh is one the greatest evangelizers in the West and Catholic Church today,” Jose said on Twitter. “He is able to save the lives of thousands of kids. We need priests, bishops, and laypeople who are not afraid to speak the truth.”
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Trump is actually being consistent with the Dobbs Decision. The Supreme Court, given its current makeup, seems to think that abortion is an issue for the states. A national ban would not likely pass muster with this Court.
I wonder if he will also say that each state should determine for itself whether slavery should be permitted or not?
Some evils should be universally condemned.
We have two “evils” happening here.
Pres. Trump is saying that abortion’s availability should be decided by the States, not the Federal Government or the Supreme Court.
That comment has the potential for evil, as there will be states who will permit legal abortion for any reason right up through 9 months of gestation. But it also has the potential for good, as there will also be states, in all likelihood, many states, who ban abortion entirely or at least place very stringent limitations on who can receive an abortion, taking into account fetal age.
Pres. Biden has made it clear that abortion should be available in EVERY STATE for EVERY WOMAN for EVERY REASON and has also hinted that opposition to this could possibly be an appropriate reason to ban certain pro-life medical professionals and hospitals from continuing to offer medical care.
Which man has proposed the “greater evil?”
We need to be wise when we vote for POTUS in 2024. Voting for a third-party candidate who doesn’t have a chance of winning will, barring divine and miraculous intervention from God (which I hope will happen!) most likely mean re-electing Pres. Biden, who has made it clear that legal abortion for any reason in any state is near the top of his “”Must Do” list. I don’t know how Christians can live with the knowledge that their 3rd Party vote enabled such evil to happen in our country.
OK … so you’re fine with evil, as long as you can point to a greater evil than the one you have chosen?
That’s how we got here. Your two parties have each told themselves that the other guy’s evils were worse, whereas THEIR evil choices were necessary and minimal.
If you sell your soul, maybe you can get Trump into office. Even if it works, though, it won’t be worth it — not for you, and not for this country.
Lo thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao king or Egypt to all that trust in him.
It is uncharitable and false to accuse someone of being fine with evil when they are acting to minimize it the best way they know how.
The only way to vote for someone who is NOT the lesser of two evils is to write in Jesus. But I doubt He’d serve even if elected. Should everyone who is pro-life do so anyway, and guarantee that the only *effective* voters are pro-murder?
Universally condemning an evil is a good thing. Losing over 600,000 lives wasn’t the best way to end it. Other nations were able to accomplish the same thing without bloodshed or civil war.
State by state is better than where we were with Roe.
Suppose a man has decided to climb the north face of the Eiger. Halfway up, he realizes that this is stupidly dangerous and dangerously stupid, and he wishes he were back at the bottom again. Well, there’s a quick and easy way to get back to the bottom! Simply pushing himself off the cliff face, however, comes with some undesirable consequences. The best option for him is to spend several hours of hard, careful work to bring himself SAFELY back to the bottom. It might seem that just remaining where he is would be a compromise that avoids the immediate consequences of jumping down and the care and effort of climbing down, and it might well be necessary for a few moments of rest and planning. A climber who advocates it as an ideal, final solution, however, has taken leave of his senses.
It seems to me that Trump is right on this. Maybe that is why Biden is coming on so strong with his ridiculing/demonization of Trump.
1) Pathetic
2) Predictable
Next question.
I think Mr. Trump managed to take some wind out of the Democrat scare campaign.
There may very well be a federal limit on feticides one day & Donald Trump in office would make that more likely than another Biden administration would. But for now Mr. Trump’s holding his cards closely.