“No I can’t,” said Ethan. “Because it’s not for me to say. Womanhood looks different for everybody.”
Addison asked Walsh, “What do you define a woman as?” Walsh indicated that he defined a woman as someone with female reproductive organs. Addison then asked Walsh about instances of women who do not have reproductive organs or who aren’t able to reproduce.
“I have answered the question,” Walsh replied. “You stood up here and said, ‘Trans women are women.’ Tell me what you mean. What is a woman?”
“Womanhood is something that, just as Ethan explained, I cannot define, because I am not myself a woman,” Addison began to reply. Walsh interjected and said, “You used the word, so what did you mean when you said that trans women are women if you don’t know what it means?”
“Womanhood is something that is an umbrella term. It includes people who,” Addison said before Walsh again interjected, “That describes what?”
“People who identify as a woman,” Addison replied. After some back and forth wherein Walsh pressed Addison to objectively define womanhood, he said, “What you want to do is appropriate women. You want to appropriate womanhood and turn it into basically a costume that can be worn.”
After the episode aired, Addison took to Instagram to share about the experience taping it.
“Since the taping, Ethan and I have been experiencing a heightened level of anxiety to the point that we’ve had numerous nightmares and depressions spirals over the last month (this week has been the [worst]),” Addison wrote in an Instagram story. “What ended up happening was much different than they discussed with us, and we left feeling attacked by another guest and played by the producers.”
Addison added, “Please send us both good vibes today, we could really use it. We tried our best with no preparation for what the Dr. Phil show actually had planned behind our backs, and we hope our visibility inspires viewers.”
On Thursday, Walsh tweeted screenshots of Addison’s Instagram stories, and said, “Contrary to my fellow panelists, I felt great after the taping and feel even better now. That’s because I’m 100 percent confident in my view on the topic and everything they said was blatant nonsense which did not for even a second cause me to second guess my own perspective.”
While Walsh’s tone when talking about gender identity is notably brusque, many conservatives have lauded him for his appearance on Dr. Phil, including some pastors. One tweeted, “Say what you want about Matt’s brash delivery/antagonistic nature, he’s fighting a fight many pastors don’t have the guts to fight but need to.”
