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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023

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You tell me. You told me that transwomen never pretend to be ciswomen. I mentioned Semenya because she is a male (or at least nonfemale, if you think her disorder disqualifies her from being a regular male) who against all objective facts insists she's the same as ciswomen. Objectively, Semenya should be competing with other males, because she is genetically and phenotypically male. She isn't female in any way except the fact that she was incorrectly assigned female sex at birth, and these are facts she continues to deny to this day.

The trans activist motte is that “womanhood” is separate from being male or female. But then the bailey is that all privileges that have been granted to ciswomen based on their female biology must also be extended to transwomen because “transwomen are women” and distinguishing between ciswomen and transwomen based on their biological sex is bigotry.

This doesn't make sense in any of the main debates around gender. We have women's sports divisions because males are stronger than females because of biological differences; therefore it makes no sense to include trans-identified males in the women's division. If we did, males would win both divisions and biological females wouldn't be able to compete, which was the whole purpose of introducing a women's division in the first place.

You told me that transwomen never pretend to be ciswomen.

No, I didn't. That doesn’t make sense. A transwoman is a person who is biologically male but who identifies as a female. A ciswoman is someone who is biologically female who is biologically female who identifies as female. A transwoman does not claim to be biologically female; the whole point is that they are NOT biologically female.

I mentioned Semenya because she is a male (or at least nonfemale, if you think her disorder disqualifies her from being a regular male) who against all objective facts insists she's the same as ciswomen.

Again, Semenya is not transgender. So s/he is irrelevant.

The trans activist motte is that “womanhood” is separate from being male or female. But then the bailey is that all privileges that have been granted to ciswomen based on their female biology must also be extended to transwomen because “transwomen are women” and distinguishing between ciswomen and transwomen based on their biological sex is bigotry.

Yes, I agree. But what does that have to do with the issue that we are discussing, which is whether the claim, "a 'woman' is anyone who identifies as a woman" is irrational?

This doesn't make sense in any of the main debates around gender. We have women's sports divisions because males are stronger than females because of biological differences; therefore it makes no sense to include trans-identified males in the women's division. If we did, males would win both divisions and biological females wouldn't be able to compete, which was the whole purpose of introducing a women's division in the first place.

Again, I agree completely. But, again, what does that have to do with the issue that we are discussing, which is whether the claim, "a 'woman' is anyone who identifies as a woman" is irrational?