From the Harsanyi article:
"not only do the sexes have immutable physiological differences, down to their genetic matter, but they observe, act, and think differently as well".
That kind of summarizes the issue IMO.
If a biological female feels like she observes, acts, and thinks more like a male than a female then wouldn't it be accurate to say she identifies as a man?
The purpose of language and definitions is to aid in meaningful dialog. At one time a ****** was a cigarette, but today that word is a derogatory term for homosexuals. If you were having a dialogue with someone and they used that word, it is unlikely you would assume they were talking about a cigarette.
In Old English, 'awe' referred to “fear, terror or dread”. This later morphed into a solemn or reverential wonder, and 'awful' and 'awesome' were synonymous with awe-inspiring. Later, 'awful' took on a solely negative connotation, and the word found its modern-day usage to mean extremely bad.
So in the same way as the above example, if you were very impressed with, say a concert, and told your friend that the show was awful, meaning awe-inspiring, he would incorrectly think you meant very bad, because that's the modern definition of awful.
Myriad used to mean exactly 10,000 of something, now it just means "a lot".
When a person identifies as the opposite gender what do we think they mean by that assertion?
Obviously a male that identifies as a female doesn't mean they believe they have a vagina. Right? So what DO they mean?
If we desire to better understand each other, wouldn't that force us to re-examine our current definition?
If we demand that female and woman have the same exact definition, then aren't they redundant and less useful for dialog?
Again, going back to the male that feels like a woman, we can hopefully agree that he isn't talking about his biological sex.
Can't we be okay with "female" being defined as biological sex and "woman" being defined more in line with "gender roles"?
Wouldn't those differing definitions better assist dialog?
12/17/2022 7:31 PM (edited)