Opinions on Gender & Terminology

I want to clarify that this not meant to hurt any feelings or step on toes or talons or flippers or whatever you have. Gender is a hot topic at the moment & everybody seems to have very strong opinions. And very strong reactions towards other peoples opinions.

I personally have no problem at all with transgender people or any of the things they do in regards to their own bodies or gender. I hate all these weird laws coming out in the US that limit the freedom of transgender people- The government needs to stay out of peoples personal business. I'm fine with people wearing whatever they want or using whatever pronouns they want or even using whatever bathroom they want as long as it applies to everyone.

But I don't support the spread of the new idea that "having a uterus does not make you a woman". Which I honestly tend to see being pushed by non-trans people.
An example of this can be seen where Comedian/Journalist, Desi Lydic said on the Daily Show “I am so sick of this ‘trans women are not real women.’ Having a vagina does not make you a woman".
(Interestingly, no one seems to have an explanation of what DOES make someone a woman. If you do, please share it.)

This belief was most likely sparked from good intentions of making transgender people feel better, but it's really disrespectful and dismissive of all the women who consider themselves women due to their bodies. Which is the vast majority of women both now and throughout history.

I know this will make some people upset, you don't have to read these definitions if you don't feel up to it, but here they are:
Dictionary.com defines "woman" as "an adult female person."
Merriam Websterdefines "woman" as "an adult female person"
Cambridge dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dict...Dictionary defines "woman" as "an adult female human being" or "an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth"

I would argue the last definition is a DIFFERENT meaning of the same word. Similar to the way "birdie" could mean "an avian creature " OR "a piece of equipment used to play badminton". BOTH are "real" birdies, but the word means 2 different things.

It's fine that we can use the same word for 2 different things. I personally think it's fine to use "woman" for both "female adult humans" and "trans people who consider themselves womanly". But it's important to reserve a word specifically for people who are physically female. Throughout history a significant amount of discrimination against women has been due to their bodies. Because of their female-ness, not their femininity & gender expression. It's important to be respectful of this and how being physically female affects people's lives and world views.

And I firmly believe this reserved word for natural, biological females should be "female". Because that's the literal meaning of the word.

Oh no. A can of worms I really don't want to open.

The idea's not "new" if by new you mean within the past year or just emerging, and biology ain't that simple.

I think that's all the further I personally want to go with this.

Language changes and has changed throughout the years. What's most commonly referred to as "females" now are simply cis women. While trans women are simply women who were not born "biological females". I don't think we need to call anyone "females" nor "males". That stuff doesn't really matter unless talking about stuff with doctors. Because trans men, including myself, are technically "biological females" but I would never ever refer to myself as that; and neither would other people. (If anyone saw me irl, they would not go "female". They would simply just see me as male or as a guy. Because I am one.) Same goes for me referring to my physical biological species. I'll never refer to myself as human even if my physical form is one.

The addition of you asking "what does make someone a woman" is going into really terfy territory. And you're sounding a lot like Matt Walsh; known transphobe. So I'm not going to get into that at all because I personally don't know what it means to be a woman because I'm not one.

I also find it funny when people only mention trans women when talking about this kind of stuff. Seems as though they forget trans men exist. I don't mind that for me personally because I wish I didn't exist at all.

WELL. My 'daughter' is trans. But, not really, they're actually Aro-Ace. I feel they decided to be trans to fit in the queer community, which gives Aro-Ace people shit, for not being 'queer' enough. Go figure. I was Aro-Ace but passing as Cis was all just a part of my masking as autistic survival protocols. We both are lying, each for our own generation's expectations and demands for 'normal'.

Ultimately, a 'Female' can give birth. A 'Male' can impregnate a 'Female' to become pregnant. That's not bias, it's biology. That's not social gender, it's biological gender. If one does not want to have children, none of that matters. Some humans want to have biological children, and they deserve true functional biology.

(2023-05-07 7:21)Sedim Haba Wrote:  Ultimately, a 'Female' can give birth. A 'Male' can impregnate a 'Female' to become pregnant. That's not bias, it's biology. That's not social gender, it's biological gender.

I agree. I consider the ability to become pregnant or to impregnate the most logical definition of male & female. I don't consider reproductive parts themselves to determine male/female for the reason that some people are sterile.

(2023-05-07 7:21)Sedim Haba Wrote:  If one does not want to have children, none of that matters.

Here's where I disagree. For a person who cannot become pregnant, MAYBE none of this matters if they don't want biological offspring.
But trigger warning:
People who CAN become pregnant don't always get to choose whether or not they become pregnant. And in the US now, there's not even access to abortion care. We literally had a little 10 year old girl get r***d & impregnated & doctors refused to help her, so she had to travel to another state. And still adult male politicians offered no support. This didn't happen because she identifies as a girl. This happened because she is a female.

This is why it matters what kind of body you have. This is something no male will ever have to experience or worry about. Maybe a trans-man will experience it, but not a male. This is something only females have to worry about.

And this is why I believe it's disrespectful to call yourself a female if you don't have the potential to suffer from female-exclusive issues like this.

Gender is a human concept and, ultimately, pointless. It shouldn't matter: you're YOU.

I'm physically female and I don't care what you call me, so long as you don't call me late for dinner.

This next part may upset some people: but using other nouns in place of proper pronouns drives me crazy as an English major. You can't just pick a random noun and use it as your gender; that doesn't make sense! If you don't like the male/female/trans/nonbinary/etc. choices, just go with "other".

But me saying my gender is "cat" doesn't make any sense; cat is my species and is not a gender!

That said, I don't care what pronoun you choose to use, just tell me so I know.