Beat THIS for an answer to the question "what is a woman?"

[SerfnTerf]

First answer: "A woman is someone who is identified as a woman. That's why people say it's socially constructed"

Me "But that's circular. There must be a definition of what a woman is for anyone to identify or be identified as one"

Second answer: "If you give any definition of a woman, there are people who you could identify as "a woman" and who anyone on the street would say - "That's a woman" - and they would not fit that definition"

So... what, we can't define woman because we can't actually define the word in a way that encompasses men? So let's not bother? I don't have enough words or brain to take that any further. Just wow.

PoochSmooch that's pretty much exactly how I feel about the second answer. I know what each individual word means and I just about follow the sentence structure but the actual meaning completely escapes me

We have an expression to cover this in Yorkshire, which is "tha what?"

Roughly translated it means, whilst I understand the words you say, I cannot comprehend your meaning.

And if being a woman means going up in the loft to dig out the Christmas decs then I identify as the aforementioned cat.

I might encourage the cat to identify as a vegetarian pacifist. The local small wildlife population would be ever so grateful.

I identify as a gay Iranian refugee. All those cis refugees don't know how lucky they are to be locked up on Nauru. Any mention of their so called oppression is literally erasing me.

On reflection I would be a shit cat

They're not particularly convincing as women. Go for it!

Which is to be the master? Clearly not women.

I might start identifying as a cat. That could be fun - lie around all day, go everywhere at my own pace, suit myself at all times. I'm terrified of mice though. On reflection I would be a shit cat

Simply redefine 'cat' as an entity that is afraid of mice. Simples. You're welcome.

Or just redefine cat as adult human female who goes to work, walks the dog, takes kids swimming, drinks wine, but just feels like a cat

Ah OK, but does that not spoil the fun? I thought the whole point of the exercise was lying in the sun all day and having food on demand?

DH has been very supportive of my identification as a kitten.

He strokes my fur every night, buys me all the crayfish and salmon I want and laughs when I pounce on him from behind the sofa.

I would make an excellent cat. Snoozing in the sun all day, pestering human slaves for food and being fussed over and adored. (Well the cats I know are.)

Please use my preferred pronoun, her royal meowness.

Ive been identifying as a kangaroo now for the past 12 months. I hop around everywhere and try to help people in trouble.

What pisses me off the most is people assuming my name is skippy!

All this "identifying as" has gone to far.. cant people just like what they like and be happy with how they were born! Fusksake

It's just make me feel good isn't it??

That and catnip.

Oh xStefx you sound lovely. Can I jump in your pouch? Then I could be a kitten who identifies as a marsupial. You'll need not to mention that I can't nurture young in a pouch, because my marsupial-kitten feelings will be hurt if I am erased for my non-pouch bearing status.

You also cannot oppress me with a "pouch ceiling" to unfairly keep me out of your pouch. It is my constitutional right to get in your pouch. At all times it is also your duty to make sure I am never ever upset by my lack of a pouch.

How you choose to let me in your pouch without also at the same time reminding I don't have a pouch and upsetting me is TOTALLY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. Don't ask me for guidance EDUCATE YOURSELF AND CHECK YOUR POUCH PRIVILEGE YOU CIS-AROO. Burn in fire you MERK (Marsupial-kitten Erasing Radical Kangaroo)

And it is my right to keep my claws and whiskers too, I don't want top or bottom surgery to remove either but you must never ask me about them, even if my claws scratch your pouch or my whiskers tickle it.

Zazies, You can come into my pouch, I would love to have a kitten in my pouch as I love kittens. (its not the cute , fluffy, paws, whiskers and meowing I love) just the fact that you identify as one.

People laugh at me when I tell them im a kangaroo! its awful. Actually I should sue them!!!! Im so glad someone understands :-)

"A woman is someone who is identified as a woman."

That doesn't work within the ideology though. That sounds like it's saying a TW who doesn't pass isn't a woman, because they wouldn't be 'identified' as a woman. Using the word identified implies that it's other people who define whether an individual is a woman, rather than the individual themselves.

I know a good lawyer at the Kangaroo Marsupial-Kitten Law Centre xStefx. Ze specialises in KMK rights and Kangaroo-erasure.

I don't meow (ugh, it sickens me to even utter that noise), it's too species specific. Now I only zeow. So don't ever say the m-word again or I'll have to burn your pouch down.

Zazies, I must admit, im sorry I don't have a pouch (I lied)
I am hoping to have surgery to have one soon :-)
You see I was a bit offended by your assumption that I had one!
I realised I was a kangaroo when I couldn't stop jumping and felt the need to help people anyway I can, my mum said I was just a bouncy , helpful girl but research led me to believe that infact I identify as a kangaroo.
I may go and see that KMK lawyer, thankyou :-) (I could go on all day)

Do you have a crowdfunding page for your pouch surgery xStefx?

I am sorry I had such a pouch-centric definition of Kangaroo-hood. Must check myself into rehab to educate myself on cisspecism. I'm obviously making cispecious assumptions! I am guilty of mammalarchian privilege!

Well to be honest I feel its an NHS issue and that they should pay for it. I feel let down that as I was growing up my issue was ignored and I was sent to a school with children, made to wear clothes and not allowed to socialise with my Kangaroo friends.
Doctors kept telling me I was being silly and that I would "grow out of it "- so I feel they should pick up the tab IYSWIM?

Thankyou fro your apology RE: the pouch assumption, in your defence I get it all the time :-)

I know what you mean. I feel like my inner little kitten was repeatedly failed in childhood.

If it hadn't been for my loving pet cat guiding me as if I was one of her own litter, I would have been lost, forever condemned to view myself in an anthropocentric paradigm.

It is only her inter-special foundations that enable me to have the courage to explore my true marsupialhood.

Now, in your experience of identifying as a kangaroo without the biological confines of pouch-bearer, how do you find you relate to koalas and bandicoots? I don't want to tie my identity to one type of marsupial without exploring my true marsupiessence first.

I identify as a curmudgeon.

I'm very good at it and have had my actual fill of trans topics.

It's just a way to get us to focus all our energy on men in frocks and spend none of it on the things that need sorting.

(And yes, I am aware that it's possible to be involved in more than one thing but yeesh.)