The strategy of relinquishing the word "woman"

[GratedExposure]

This is something I wonder about in a number of contexts (I'm not advocating it, just wondering): is anyone thinking that the best strategy here is to leave the word, and begin to label certain awards/events as "natal female" awards/events?

I know there are many arguments against this (first, why should we be having to start fighting anew for things which should never have been taken?). But at what point do we walk away and start again? The most obvious example is sport, because if there were "wom*n's" events (increasingly colonised by males) and "natal female" events, most of the strong female athletes would surely opt into the latter?

Are any organisations working towards this?

It's basically the same as the third space idea, but we'd be having to be the ones moving to a third space (wrong, but maybe better than the alternative...)...?

Is this crazy talk?

No, for the reasons mentioned. I understand where you are coming from, but it won't work.

No it's our word and nobody else's

Boundaries comes to mind. Girls are so often brought up to be so “kind” and polite and to put others before themselves. We are not less than others. We can say no and mean it. We can have boundaries. If we stand together we can enforce our boundaries, even against men who hate us and seek to destroy us. We are women. We can’t just keep moving up for them until we fall off the edge of a cliff.

All the nopes in Nopeland

I don't see that 'natal woman' is any better than cis, to be honest. The adjective sets up the idea that there are women who are not 'natal women'. But there aren't.

What you're suggesting has already been adopted in certain quarters and it legitimises the hounding of women like Rosie Duffield when they use the word woman 'wrongly'.
No.

@InflamatoryWrit

All the nopes in Nopeland

😂

I work for a global Bank I won't name. One of the biggest in the world. Their internal womens network thing posted the following sentence recently : "[we] will continue to collaborate more closely with other employee networks and increase focus on intersectionality - recognising there may be additional barriers to inclusion by gender for people who identify as ethnic minorities, LGBT+ or having disabilities"...

Firm no.

Can we change 'strategy' in the thread title to 'surrender'?

And then we can spend the thread wondering why we would surrender when we are winning and who would want us to. Right up there with Operation Barbarossa for me this, 'strategy'.

Also can we just have some fucking basic respect for the concept of language?

And again, this idea that women who are involved in this ridiculous debate over language can decide on behalf of everyone, and then what, issue a bulletin?

All the nopes in Nopeland

This.

Just keep using the word woman to mean woman. Men know it doesn't apply to them, no matter how much they whinge about it.

For example, in a discussion with someone who believes in gender identity/men being female yesterday, I said "I am offended that the Labour Party put a man on an all women's shortlist". He didn't ask me to explain that, because he knows full well who I was talking about and that they are actually a man.

MondayYogurt

Bleurrghh! That account is always illuminating.