I think their point is that once biology is involved it’s no longer a social construct.
I also think that people conflate sex and gender and it makes things unnecessarily confusing.
For sake of argument let’s stick with binary for now.
There are words that describe sex. There are words that describe gender. And there are words that can be used as a shortcut for a combination of both.
For example (and if you don’t like my example substitute your own words): a masculine female is often called a tomboy or described as butch.
TERFs probably feel that the term woman is a shortcut for feminine females, and that those who aren’t female but are feminine are not Champagne, they are sparkling wine. And it’s easy to see why someone would be insulted by that opinion. Strictly speaking, being told “you’re not a woman” isn’t necessarily an attack, or stating that you shouldn’t exist. But yes (obviously!) people with extreme views jump onto that bandwagon and are willing to kill/oppress to make everyone the same cuz they can’t handle weird people.
Yes, trans people are weird (queer means weird!). But weird isn’t bad, and people who think weird is bad are not people I would want to hang out with, even if they also happen to be trans. Pride is about pride: own your weirdness.
I think their point is that once biology is involved it’s no longer a social construct.
I also think that people conflate sex and gender and it makes things unnecessarily confusing.
For sake of argument let’s stick with binary for now.
There are words that describe sex. There are words that describe gender. And there are words that can be used as a shortcut for a combination of both.
For example (and if you don’t like my example substitute your own words): a masculine female is often called a tomboy or described as butch.
TERFs probably feel that the term woman is a shortcut for feminine females, and that those who aren’t female but are feminine are not Champagne, they are sparkling wine. And it’s easy to see why someone would be insulted by that opinion. Strictly speaking, being told “you’re not a woman” isn’t necessarily an attack, or stating that you shouldn’t exist. But yes (obviously!) people with extreme views jump onto that bandwagon and are willing to kill/oppress to make everyone the same cuz they can’t handle weird people.
Yes, trans people are weird (queer means weird!). But weird isn’t bad, and people who think weird is bad are not people I would want to hang out with, even if they also happen to be trans. Pride is about pride: own your weirdness.