So... The story so far...
Attempts are made to legally redefine words such as "woman" and "female" based on dubious (unobservable) subjective metrics such as inner feelings, or (equally subjective) archaic repressive concepts such as "gender expression" (living as a woman? WTF does that even mean?)
When attempts are made to disambiguate by bringing back observable biological facts into the definition, the issue gets further confused by spurious counter arguments such as "but not all women can menstruate/have a womb/get pregnant".
Lack of logic skills prevents many from seeing such arguments for what they are (= ill-conceived and/or disingenious bollocks)
In order to effectively reach out to the general public, maybe it is time to be more "exclusionary", and boldly focus (when it comes to campaigning for specific legal changes, such as access to female only spaces) on defining what a woman is NOT, e.g.:
- a woman cannot make someone else pregnant (if you can make someone else pregnant, you are not a woman)
- a woman cannot forcefully penetrate someone else with her own sex organs (if you are equipped with penetrative sex organs, you are not a woman)
If someone wishes to identify as "not a man", and campaign for their own spaces, let them do so and wish them luck.
As "not a man" myself (by virtue of being female and not identifying as a man), we are, in a way, part of the same club. I can dig that.
But when it comes to access to "female only" spaces, let's stop pussy-footing around the bush, and let's call a spade a bloody shovel: these are penis-free spaces, have always been intended to be penis-free spaces, and should remain penis-free spaces, for obvious safety purposes.
"Female only space" is too mild, euphemistic, and currently ambiguous.
The signs should read "Rape-free zone. Penis-havers not welcome".
... and yes, not all men. And all decent, well-intentioned men understand why such blanket ban might be needed, just like they understand why they can't carry a gun or a knife on board an aeroplane, regardless of whether they would misuse it.
It's time to be blunt, and get the decent penis-havers in our lives involved in that debate. Because it is really about them.
