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But trans activists' whole thing is to alter cultural and linguistic norms so that "she/her" or "woman" no longer imply anything factual about people's reproductive organs. We want a world where everyone knows that some "women" have penises rather than vaginas. There is no deceptive intent, as there would be in the Michael Jordan example. Moreover, until the linguistic expectation that a "man" necessarily has a penis becomes as universally quaint as using "gay" to mean happy, which I grant might take some decades yet to filter through from the wokest Blue hubs, I am generally in favour of trans people actively making their transness transparent in any context to which sex is relevant. And frankly, so many trans people are (physically or digitally) bedecked in pins and pride flags that we're a solid chunk of the way there already.
Well, my main reason isn't so much a positive argument as the root preference-utilitarian claim that it is generally morally good to treat people the way they wish to be treated, and that any exceptions to this require a proactive case for why normal rules of courtesy should be suspended. Going along with trans people's preferences constitutes being nice to them; misgendering them constitutes being mean to them. I believe in being nice to people unless there are overwhelming reasons not to, and I've never seen a conservative make a convincing case as to why trans people, as a bloc, should constitute such an exception. (They occasionally make cogent utilitarian arguments about specific situations; I can respect the opposition's view re: the convicted-rapist problem, for example. But that would only justify making exceptions to the general refer-to-trans-people-as-their-preferred-gender rule in those highly specific contexts; it is not an argument for ignoring them all the time.)
Well, suppose for the sake of argument that pro trans people got their way and "woman" and "man" get redefined. And suppose further that a couple of new words come out, let's say "X24" and "X25" which mean basically what man and woman previously meant. And the new words become so commonplace that you might hear a Christian Pastor say something like "This X24 and X25 will make a great husband and wife" Or you might see a sign at nightclub: "Free admission to X25s!!" In your view, would trans activists be okay with this situation?
Ok, so if a worker is having a conversation in the office and refers to "Bruce Jenner" and uses the word "he" to refer to this person, can we agree that it would not be "nice" -- and in fact it would be "mean" -- to criticize, shame, discipline or otherwise sanction this worker. Because it's better to treat the worker the way he wishes to be treated and Bruce Jenner (or whatever you want to call him) is not in the room to be offended?
Well, not as such, but neither would many old-school feminists. I suppose an unstated background assumption of my worldview, here, is that generally speaking it is bad to treat human beings differently due to their biological sex except in contexts where genitalia are directly relevant, eg sex itself. In this trans activist's optimal scenario, therefore, the widespread adoption of trans-style definitions of "man" and "woman" should be part and parcel of (indeed, it should be a footnote to!) a gradual shift into of a properly non-sexist, indeed a properly sex-blind society, a culture where, by default, nobody cares what you've got in your pants any more than they care about the shape of your earlobes. (With any luck, this shift will be expedited by a Singularity that makes old-school physical bodies themselves optional, but we'll see.)
Accordingly, I would regard a widespread adoption of 'X24' and 'X25' as unfortunate because it would constitute a backslide in that respect, not so much because of how it would reflect on trans issues in particular. Outside of a dating context, "this person has a vagina" should not be a fact on the forefront of anyone's mind any more than "this person is Asian" or "this person is left-handed"; it is deeply unpleasant that our culture trains people to mentally divide human beings into Vagina-Havers and Penis-Havers as the two foremost boxes, with anything else as parallel subcategories. Introducing new euphemisms for Penis-Havers and Vagina-Havers would reopen that Pandora's-box and risk reintroducing all those petty, demeaning sex-based biases to people's default way of perceiving the world around them.
Broadly, yes; I'm rather big on free speech. By the same token, of course, if there are people in that office who disagree with the worker on how it is appropriate to refer to Jenner, I do think they retain a right to criticize him however they like. But certainly I don't think the worker should get disciplined for it, whether by the employer or by the state.
Right, so when you said the following, it was not entirely accurate:
The real goal is to have a world where, generally speaking, people DON'T distinguish between men and women as those terms were traditionally defined, but instead distinguish between men and women based on the new definitions: A man is someone who self-reports to be a man and a woman is someone who self-reports to be a woman.
Agreed?
Well according to the principle of "treat people how they want to be treated," it would be inappropriate for anyone to criticize this worker who referred to Bruce Jenner as a "he." Agreed?
I don't think the passage you quoted actually conflicts with your restatement; they're different facets of the same thing. See also the nuance about whose "real goal" we are talking about. Trans activists' primary goal is a specific subset of the broader goal of anti-sexists. But your restatement sounds fair enough on the merits.
That depends on what you mean by "inappropriate". In a hyper-analytical sense, you can, in theory, try to calculate how ethical it is to make any statement at all in conversation based on whether it will heighten or lower other participants' happiness, but I am not so much of a utilitarian as to think "ethical microtransactions" of this kind are useful to keep track of. The mild emotional inconvenience of a good-faith disagreement does not meet the threshold necessary to even start talking about morality, and is, in the grand scheme of things, trumped by other concerns like the society-wide benefits of free speech, and most people's preference for people to be honest when talking with them rather than insincerely walking on eggshells all the time. Criticizing the worker would be no more or less "inappropriate" than the fact that you're criticizing me right now, or that I'm criticizing you; neither of us is acting unethically, because I think we both prefer to live in a world where disagreements can be discussed openly in good faith.
Ok, thank you for answering that question.
I mean the same thing you mean when you say that "it is generally morally good to treat people the way they wish to be treated"
i.e., according to your principles, it is -- generally speaking -- morally good to refrain from criticizing someone who refers to Bruce Jenner as a "he" in a conversation where Bruce Jenner (or whatever he calls himself (or herself or whatever)) is not around.
(And to make my example even clearer, I will stipulate that the worker has expressed that he does not believe in gender ideology, and that he would prefer it if nobody corrected him or criticized him for referring to Bruce Jenner (or whatever he calls himself (or herself or whatever)) as a "he.")
Agreed?
Yes. It's not nice to start beef with people about their beliefs when they've explicitly stated that they don't want to have an argument about those beliefs, and people shouldn't do it, especially in the workplace. (In theory, attempting to persuade a person with harmful beliefs could be worth the discomfort to them if you think it has a genuine chance of convincing them to change their minds; but people systematically overestimate how likely they are to persuade people, never mind people who've already said they don't want to argue the point.)
Of course, to the extent that it causes you discomfort for the worker to misgender Jenner in your earshot, the optimal equilibrium is for you to communicate that fact to him, and for both of you to avoid discussing Jenner at the office altogether, or, if bringing them up becomes absolutely necessary for some reason, to default to their last name and avoid gendered language. If such a gentleman's-agreement is in place, your coworker would be breaking the non-aggression pact slightly by letting a "Bruce" slip through, and you might therefore be justified in retaliating with a mild criticism to reestablish balance; but even then you should be careful not to escalate, and it's often better to just let it go by unless it becomes a pattern and you start to suspect that your coworker is trying to boil the frog. This framework has served me very well at extended family dinners re: the trans issue, and it's the time-honored way to handle value differences between coworkers in general: don't talk politics at the office, don't talk religion at the office, generally don't start arguments with people minding their own business and avoid doing things that might provoke others into starting arguments with you.
Ok, thanks for answering that question. It occurs to me that the principle of "treat people how they want to be treated" goes further than that. For example, if someone is communicating with me, I prefer that they not refer to Bruce Jenner as "Caitlin" "she" or anything like that. Can we agree that under your principle, people should, generally speaking, respect my desire?
In theory. Terms and condition apply, of course - starting with the fact that it might cause me discomfort to refer to Jenner as male, and if that discomfort is equal to or greater than your discomfort at hearing them referred to as male. For example, I might have trans people in my life who would be saddened if they could not trust that I always respect trans people's chosen names, and not want to be keeping secrets from them. At the end of the day, if hearing the words "Caitlin Jenner" irritates you more than the ability to have a mutually-honest conversation about Jenner would please you, we round back to the fact that we are probably not two people who stand to derive much happiness from discussing Jenner with one another, and should probably talk about something else if we talk at all.
(In the event, of course, I think Mottizens, by virtue of participating in the Motte, declare themselves to be people who would prefer to confront political and ideological disagreements head-on, at least within the context of the Motte. And generally I think true friendships require that sort of mutual-preference-for-the-other-guy to be honest, which is why the topic-avoidance strategy is most relevant to contexts where people are forced to interact regardless of personal inclinations, such as coworkers.)
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