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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022

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Most people use the scientific definition of male and female as sexually dimorphic species. Some use a religious context, God having made male and female to compliment one another.

This new definition comes from power. I declare an X can now be a Y if Power says so.

Rachel Dolezal had at least as good of an argument for being black as any man ever had to declare himself a woman.

She grew up with black siblings, immersed herself in black culture, went to an HBCU, married a black man, had black sons, and began living in the world as a black woman, tanning her skin, learning to braid her hair, etc. She got everything good and bad that came from living as a black woman in society.

Power has decided that one is desirable and the other undesirable. Not logic or science or the arc of history.

With your men vs. non-men argument, I'm sure you'll agree that a white Scottish bagpiper in a kilt who got off the boat five minutes ago IS a Black American descendant of slavery. If he identifies as one, then he always was one.

It's not his fault we're still laboring under regressive notions that one's ancestry is linear and genetic. Ancestry is fluid! Foster parents exist, which proves parenting isn't necessarily related to genes. And of course, "black" isn't a real thing either: there are some 'black' people with lighter skin than some 'white' people! And again, ancestry is fluid! And it's not about culture. That's fluid too! There are black ballet dancers, white rappers, nothing we think 'belongs' to a race or a culture holds true in all cases. "Scottish" and "American" also have unclear boundaries. Once we didn't think of Hawaii as being in America - now we do! "Slavery" doesn't mean just American slavery - it can mean many different things throughout history. And historical records aren't always accurate and only go back so far.

Anyone can do the "define woman" or "define a true Scotsman" gallop. But that only works in a world where nothing means anything. In that world I can state with certainty that your post was not at all related to sex or gender but was actually a glowing review of Taylor Swift's new album, because the words you wrote are merely an arrangement of symbols that society has arbitrarily assigned certain sounds and meanings, and just ignore your arguments enitrely.