As for why the language matters - there are all sorts of ways in which women are disadvantaged in our society. They all go back to our biology. If we have to keep talking about menstruators, chestfeeders, pregnant people, menopausal people, it dilutes things, surely. Far better to have one word so it's obvious that we are discriminated against because we are women. How can you discuss and tackle sexism if we're not pointing out all the problems that affect one of the two sexes?
Fab post, and worth repeating. Women are disadvantaged in our society due to sexism/misogyny - that is discrimination (or harassment) on grounds of our biological reality/potential, perceived or actual. Unlinking language around female biology from the words woman/girl - how we describe female humans - takes away our ability to name the oppression and therefore fight it.
I understand the argument that some transmen find being perceived as a woman distressing - but that is the reality we live in and fudging words doesn’t change it. All the content warnings and wokeness in the world can’t mandate widespread belief that how an individual identifies internally trumps biological reality. We (society) still assess and assume sex based on a person’s perceived or actual biology, “people who menstruate” still instantly falls into “woman - lesser sex to be discriminated against”. So not only does this altering of language to appease transgender ideology have a negative impact on women as a whole, in taking away our ability to name our oppression, it doesn’t even have the intended effect of neutralising perception of sex in favour of individual gender identity. Transmen are still seen as women, by society as a whole.
I empathise hugely with transmen, or young women identifying as ‘non-binary’ because I recognise that were I 15-20 years younger I would be identifying as one. And I don’t believe that is because I have a male brain/soul/essence in a female body, but because I carried such a strong sense of internalised misogyny combined with mental health issues and emotional abuse. I’m not saying that all transmen fit that description btw. But it would have been me. Denying I am a woman wouldn’t have changed any of the underpinning factors for my distress as an adolescent and young adult, that would all have still been there, just plastered over.
So I hope that goes some way to explaining why a gender-critical take on these matters, and objecting strongly to this twisting of language, is not throwing anyone under any buses. I don’t believe it achieves its aims; I do believe it is harmful to women.