Re:Ask HN: What Is a Woman?
by jfengel on Wednesday April 27, 2022 @03:53PM
(#31184907)
The answer, as always, is "Once you know why you're asking the question, you'll know the answer."
People use the word "woman" to mean different things in different contexts. That's not surprising, because women are human beings, and human beings are complex. The only people who demand simple answers to complex questions are those who imagine that they benefit from the simple answer.
Should Person X be entitled to wear a dress? Sure, what the fuck do I care.
Should Person X be entitled to use she/her pronouns? Again, what the fuck does it matter to me?
Should Person X receive medical care for their uterus? Absolutely. I don't care what pronouns that person prefers. If they have a uterus, it's a medical reality.
Should Person X be eligible a scholarship originally intended for people who have been systematically excluded from a lot of other scholarships? I dunno. Probably. Trans women undergo lots of other kinds of discrimination, and so the intent is there. But I can see why you'd argue the other way.
Should Person X compete in sports with people whose performances are substantially difference because of a lifetime of lower testosterone? Again, I dunno. I think it's probably a much less big deal than most people want it to be. I think they argue about it mostly because they can't score any points on all of the other ones. They might actually be right about it, but I don't really think the question is anywhere near as important as the others.
Once you stop imagining that categories are the real things of the universe, and that we discover them rather than invent them, you can ask questions that matter instead of arguing semantics.
People use the word "woman" to mean different things in different contexts. That's not surprising, because women are human beings, and human beings are complex. The only people who demand simple answers to complex questions are those who imagine that they benefit from the simple answer.
Should Person X be entitled to wear a dress? Sure, what the fuck do I care.
Should Person X be entitled to use she/her pronouns? Again, what the fuck does it matter to me?
Should Person X receive medical care for their uterus? Absolutely. I don't care what pronouns that person prefers. If they have a uterus, it's a medical reality.
Should Person X be eligible a scholarship originally intended for people who have been systematically excluded from a lot of other scholarships? I dunno. Probably. Trans women undergo lots of other kinds of discrimination, and so the intent is there. But I can see why you'd argue the other way.
Should Person X compete in sports with people whose performances are substantially difference because of a lifetime of lower testosterone? Again, I dunno. I think it's probably a much less big deal than most people want it to be. I think they argue about it mostly because they can't score any points on all of the other ones. They might actually be right about it, but I don't really think the question is anywhere near as important as the others.
Once you stop imagining that categories are the real things of the universe, and that we discover them rather than invent them, you can ask questions that matter instead of arguing semantics.