Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

There has to be a word...

40 replies

BlueRaincoat1 · 08/03/2020 10:01

...for biologically female people, i.e. people who are of the sex class which produces large gametes, generally have xx chromosomes, and have common biological traits of having a vulva/ vagina and associated other biological characteristics.

There has to be language which easily allows for people with these characteristics to be grouped together. Obviously this word has (and still is) women /girls, but in expanding the meaning of these words to include people without these characteristics the words become meaningless as the biological category.

Do people who want to expand the meaning of the word woman think it is entirely unimportant that there be a word which easily allows people who have these characteristics to be easily classed as a group?

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
SomeDyke · 09/03/2020 17:10

The only reasonably intelliegent and necessary use of the word identify I can recall was back in the day when safe sex advice needed to also be aimed at men who had sex with men but who didn't identify as gay men (or bisexual if they were also married to a woman, say). So material aimed at gay or bisexual men wouldn't be noticed by such men. The point being though that the objective issue was whether or not they had sex with other men, and that their subjective labelling of themselves as non gay men might hinder communication. That their subjective experience was hindering important communication about a very real issue.

Whereas nowadays, why should we care about what 20 special labels you want to chose to label yourself? And why shouldn't we object when you try to use one that is already taken and does not apply. Whether it is about an objective fact of sexuality, sex, or ethnicity...............

DickKerrLadies · 09/03/2020 16:56

That text identified as something more coherent before the rewriting.

DickKerrLadies · 09/03/2020 16:55

The word women literally only applies to me if it is sex-based.

I do not 'identify' as a woman because I have no idea what it means to do so.
I have never felt feminine.
The closest thing I have come to 'feeling' like a woman was when I was pregnant, giving birth and breastfeeding. Which obviously doesn't work for gender-based definitions.

But just because I don't feel like a woman doesn't make me a man.

So if woman is now gender-based, then I am not a woman.

So to all those who think we're terrible people because we say that transwomen are male - what's the word for me that also includes transwomen?

Women are not people-who-are-not-men. Once again, I am astounded that this viewpoint is seen as progressive and not sexist claptrap.

SittingAround1 · 09/03/2020 13:54

Woman is the word. It's taken and not up for negotiation.

No ifs no buts (and no willies)

NotTerfNorCis · 09/03/2020 13:34

TRAs saying we need one word for everyone who identifies with the female gender.

Not sure what that word could be, without ruling out all women who don't identify with female gender stereotypes but who don't claim not to be female/a woman.

Essentially they want a word that covers people in a group plus their imitators.

LadyMadderRose · 09/03/2020 12:53

Totally agree Harriet. Gray Crosbie who was given a hard time on Twitter for that poem about their non-binary haircut, has another poem out about trying to pin down their identity correctly. The blurb says something about how they weren't sure exactly what the right labels were for them or something.

It makes me want to scream! Maybe you don't actually need a load of labels (none of which can ever accurately sum up your personality anyway)? Maybe you could just be a human being, which would make you unique anyway just like everyone else? But lots of people now seem to require a special labelled identity and to require everyone else to know about it.

I'm from a generation/culture where being labelled and bleating on endlessly about yourself were both seen as a bad thing, so hey what do I know...

LadyMadderRose · 09/03/2020 12:45

While I think woman and girl are taken - by us - and we should get to keep them, that's not working at the moment in terms of legislation and other situations where an authority insists that TWAW.

Female is a good word, as it isn't new and it's harder to argue that TW are female. Even my totally cult-brainwashed NB TRA family member grudgingly admits they TW are male for medical purposes.

I was also thinking I quite like "wom" , if it didn't sound so daft.

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 09/03/2020 12:41

I can’t tell if your op was being facetious or not but my radar is a bit off as not feeling well.
As you know, there is a word. We just need to continue fighting men who want to appropriate it and twist its meaning to suit the misogynistic men’s sexual rights agenda.
We are women.

Mner2000 · 09/03/2020 12:38

I like the slogan on the Six parties thread and it seems fitting for this situation.

#TheWordWomanIsTaken

HarrietThePi · 09/03/2020 12:33

I think as well, and maybe it's just me, but "identity" has kind of morphed too. I have a feeling now that it's more common to sort of latch on to aspects of your personality or physical characteristics and make them your identity if that makes sense, whereas before I don't really remember that being a thing?

Sort of the difference I think I mean I suppose would be like me saying "Hi I'm Harriet, I'm a woman and I'm autistic and I'm a gamer." or me saying "Hi I'm Harriet" and the person I'm getting to know will eventually learn that I enjoy playing games in my free time (well I don't really anymore) and maybe work out or be told that I happen to be autistic and that I happen to be a woman (well I think that one would be fairly obvious).

I don't know if I'm saying what I mean very well because I'm really not sure how to word it, but I feel that there is a shift from "just being" to "identifying as" and it's not just related to gender identity but to other things too. Maybe it only exists online, I'm not sure if it's such a thing in the real world - though I wonder if it is more common in the real world with younger people.

Soubriquet · 09/03/2020 12:25

Let’s just reclaim bitch and be done with it

We are seen as bitches for being terfs and what not, so let’s just call ourselfs bitches and done.

wrongsideofhistorymyarse · 09/03/2020 12:22

As I said on another thread, cis is superfluous.

We aren't a subset of the category 'woman'. We are the whole damn category.

Double3xposure · 09/03/2020 12:19

Cis (as I understand it) means that your gender identity matches the sex which you were observed to be at birth. But what about people who simply cannot have a gender identity- babies, people with severe cognitive disabilities. They cannot have a gender identity as presumably, by anyone's logic, you need to be able to have a sense of yourself in the world to have a gender identity

But what about people who choose not to align themselves with any gender identity? Don’t they have the right to do this? Can’t their “ sense of themselves in the world “ be unrelated to gender?

What about those whose “sense of themselves” is about sex / class / occupation / hobby/ ethnicity / whatever ?

Otherwise it’s like insisting that everyone must have a religion and refusing to accept that anyone could be atheist.

DickKerrLadies · 09/03/2020 12:08

It's almost funny that a thread celebrating IWD was derailed by a discussion on the definition of the word 'woman', yet this thread is like tumbleweed.

I wonder why?

Qcng · 08/03/2020 22:21

Genderism doesn't have a word for adult human female

Unfortunately, they say AHF doesn't need a word, that on the off chance or in the unlikely situation you might ever need to refer to adult human females, just say "adult human females".

So ok, logically minded non-botherered people will accept this to a point probably, so that the word "woman" is inclusive of transwomen and might not always mean someone who is an AHF, because hey, we've all heard TWAW and going along with it is cool and trendy.

Where TRAs have caused the most harm to their own cause is actually claiming that transwomen are adult human females. That's the moment for the average generally accepting, not bothered person, where they fall down the rabbit hole and take the red pill.

BlueRaincoat1 · 08/03/2020 21:42

I absolutely agree that the word is woman.

I wonder though what word people who think that the word woman is unrelated to biological sex think should be applied to people with certain biological similarities. Or do they think such a word is unimportant?

I dont see that 'cis' works, but I can see that female could possibly, but not if female is also meant to include male bodies (e.g. the female penis as mentioned above).

I think it's extremely important that words having discernable, agreed meanings, and I think it's imperative that women's sex based rights are protected. I just wonder where this is all going to end.

OP posts:
MangoesAreMyFavourite · 08/03/2020 21:13

There is a word. It's WOMAN.
However far we budge, it won't be enough - so best not to.

HarrietThePi · 08/03/2020 21:01

I suppose we could go with "female bodied humans" - though for short hand we really could do with a word...

I'm going to stick with "woman", no explanation needed. If one is asked for or assumptions are made then I will clarify.

I did actually get told off for calling a customer at work a woman rather than a lady recently Blush. But woman isn't a bad word to me, it's my natural word to use.

BlueRaincoat1 · 08/03/2020 20:18

@HarrietThePi
I see what you mean, I hadn't thought of that.
That a female dog has a word, a female horse has a word etc. For a female human not to have a word would be strange.

OP posts:
HarrietThePi · 08/03/2020 20:06

I've asked this before and don't think I got an answer. Cis doesn't cut it. Not only does it exclude women such as myself, it also excludes women who identify as trans.

BlueRaincoat1 I don't think "female" gets as much attention, but we do have "the female penis" and so on, so female may as well mean (I don't have a word to end this sentence.. it may as well mean anything).

Also, as female can be used for any female of any species, I find it quite dehumanising in some contexts.

BlueRaincoat1 · 08/03/2020 19:58

About the word 'cis'. I don't like it for the reasons usually explained here- I don't associate myself as having a gender identity, it doesnt make sense to me, and I don't think it's reasonable to attribute words to me that I find logically incoherent.

That aside, even if one accepts the word cis to a degree, it can't sensibly replace woman/girl on a biological level. Cis (as I understand it) means that your gender identity matches the sex which you were observed to be at birth. But what about people who simply cannot have a gender identity- babies, people with severe cognitive disabilities. They cannot have a gender identity as presumably, by anyone's logic, you need to be able to have a sense of yourself in the world to have a gender identity.

So that word girl/woman has to have a meaning without a gender qualifier.

And if the words cis woman and trans woman are both descriptions of women again, the word woman needs to mean something.

So there still remains the need to have a word for the biological sex class set out in my first post .

Is the word female as problematic for some as the word woman? Are women and female used interchangeably in this debate?

OP posts:
SpaceDinosaur · 08/03/2020 19:04

Feymale for “other”?... subtle acknowledgement of that pesky genetic Y

We retain female. Because we fucking are.

DickKerrLadies · 08/03/2020 19:01

'terflogic'

Otherwise known as 'logic'

You couldn't make it up.

NotTerfNorCis · 08/03/2020 18:56

No answer, just accused of being 'linguistically confused' and using 'terflogic'.

DickKerrLadies · 08/03/2020 18:50

a certain TRA not best known for honesty

I mean, that could be any of them. No answer though, huh?

Banned from here for being unable to remain within talk guidelines and #bekind? I guess I'll continue to wait.