Really? Is it just me who doesn't get the Daniel Craig drag thing?

I don't think hermaphrodites is the right term, it's intersex. Hermaphrodites can reproduce without mating with anyone, all by themselves, which is pretty clever, but I don't think humans can do it!

The sex/gender thing is very interesting. I just typed a load of stuff and then realised that I was getting confused over sex and gender and so have rethought. I think that gender is on a continuum, totally. As much as gender is a social construct (men are like this and women are like that) the features of it are things that people actually want to do - grooming, being strong, maths, empathising, etc etc. In practice most people are a mix of the traits that are labelled "male" or "female".

Not sure where I'm going with this

Like Len I feel that for individual people, everyone should be able to live how they choose and label themselves how they wish, without discrimination or fear or anything like that.

When it comes to groups as a whole, in the same way that when I say "men" I don't mean "that actual bloke over there", when it comes to thinking about MTF trans as a group, there are problems for feminists, Again though it's not talking about "that person over there" - who I want to have a free and happy life, but from a political/theoretical POV, there are problems.

Personally I think that if someone has been raised as a female and treated as a female all their life then they almost certainly "get it". I do not think that someone who has been born male and raised male is really going to "get it". They will get how awful it is to grow up knowing you're different, and if they fancy males then they will get the feeling of having a different sexuality to the mainstream and may have experienced abuse and so on because of that.... I think that growing up knowing that you are different and feeling wrong in your body must be awful. However I don't think that experience is the same as growing up female and experiencing that particular, pervasive, and total experience. All the women n the country have been steeped in it, many don't even notice it, most play along even if they do notice. Most women have been sexually assaulted, and all will have been treated in a certain way by men all their life. I honestly don't think that someone raised as a man would absolutely get it, I mean really feel it. How could they?

So from my POV like men who support feminism that's all well and good, and for MTF trans people to support feminism that's great too but they shouldn't be setting the agenda. FTM trans people OTOH of course will get what it's all about. I know that this view is seen as discriminatory to many, but surely it's just logical?

And it's shocking how trans women cynically use the existence of intersex babies/people to pretend that you can erase your chromozonal make-up.
When you can't.
It's a lie
in order to muddy the waters
A cynical lie
At the expense of hemaphrodites
To further the ends of trans women

Yes if babies are born hermaphrodite, which some are, why don't they just leave them alone? Why can't they choose their own identity and align themselves with whoever they feel comfortable with or just ahve a third sex?

Children start choosing their gender very early on - by about 2 isn't it? Plenty of time for them to get used to being a girl/ boy/ other sex human.

Are we over-analysing this?

I bet they didn't come up with half these ideas...

I can't comment on the whole gender/sex debate that is going on. However, I loved the video.

My take on it was that Judi Dench asked before Daniel Craig changed something along the lines of do you know what it is to be a woman? He then went and changed into the stereo-typical representation of a woman - heels, dress long hair, make up, jewellery etc.

Judi Dench ignored this totally and continued with some pretty horrific statistics about what it is to be a woman - thye domestic abuse statistic, females attacked on the way to school etc. Craig then realised what a complete tosser he was for presuming being a woman was all about the way we look and removed wig.

Is gender really entirely socially constructed? Is it even possible to completely tease out biology and social influence do you think?

What about the menz?

Do they say that men don't exist as well?

but I understood that the masculinity/femininity thing is not about biological sex, but about gender, which is largely socially determined

Surely only a tiny, tiny minority of people are intersex and don't fit into a simple male/female biological divide?

Yes but gender's not sex is it?

I thought I was clear on the difference before this...

That really is an intellectual contortion isn't it.

I think a lot of feminists have to really bend backwards in their thinking to accept trans as female.

It's not like sexuality, where you can argue that we're all on a continuum and some people are further towards one end or the other. You do actually have xx and xy chromosomes. Is she saying these are irrelevant, like eye colour?