Quote:
|
No it really isn't the truth. I really see it as the most organic way forward, as I've tried to explain, especially since many people use this new flexibility to be unconventional with gender, which blurs the line further. I don't think you're too categorical; you're being too theoretical. In practice, as I've said before, we use 'woman' differently in different contexts (law, social interactions, medicine etc) and treating those all the same just won't do. There are categories, but there is not a single mode of categorisation. I think your nifty little theorising (and I've been there, except I did accept trans people) simply doesn't reflect the reality of how we think about and use gender.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marie Monday
In other words, what we mean by 'woman' often amounts to gender. Saying 'from now on we'll just mean sex' is not realistic and will not work. And it's also not true that acknowledging a trans girl you're chatting to as a woman necessarily implies getting the law involved in acknowledging gender. And anyway, in cases where distinction by sex is important, categorising as 'female sex' often works fine and you don't need to talk about 'women' at all
|
Yes, thank you. I completely agree. Like, I have to look up medical information specific to male-born people all the time, I don't get angry about it, I acknowledge that I was born male, and I acknowledge that my cultural upbringing was different than cis women.
And as for "legal consequences for forgetting to say the correct pronouns", like, if you actually forgot, most trans people in my experience are cool with a quick "oh, oops, sorry", and such. And like, cis people can get misgendered too. If I started just referring to an established cis man as "she" that would also be dickish. And if I refused to use that cis man's correct pronouns and repeatedly misgendered him despite him making it clear that he does not want it and it makes him uncomfortable, then I think that would fall under harassment. So why is it a great and bold statement to harass trans people and a dick move to harass cis people? Why does the way people feel comfortable presenting and referring to themselves need to be rigidly bound to the genitalia they were born with?
Like Marie said, for practical situations where the biological sex is relevant, then yeah of course I'll have to go with the "male" category. I don't think most trans people have a problem with acknowledging the way they were born.
You don't have to like trans people, but we deserve to be able to exist with the same basic level of respect and comfort in public life that cis people get by default.