Staniland Question is so good. Can we think of others?

[aliasundercover]

The Staniland question:
Do you believe that male-sexed people have the right to undress and shower in a communal changing room with teenage girls?
is so clever. The fact that so many people refuse to engage with it - let alone answer it - means it's a quick, powerful, way of showing how ridiculous the TWAW position is.

Can we think of any others that would be as effective? Maybe we could come up with 5 or so really sharp questions that TRAs could refuse to answer. My first thoughts are something along the lines of:
Why is it racist to identify as another race but stunning and brave to identify as another sex?
I'm sure somebody can word that better.

So any suggestions? The questions need to be short and clear.

"What is the difference between a man and a woman?"

I think this is better than asking 'What is a woman?' because it side-steps the tiresome bad faith arguments against any clear definition of 'woman'.

I think Helen Staniland is great, but I don't think the question is effective on people who don't already 'get' the problem.

The problem is that many people genuinely don't mind mixed sex spaces.

You have to be able to make the leap to understanding why somebody else might experience a situation differently, and that is something that many find very difficult.

"What is the difference between a man and a woman?"

I like this question.

I've just realised why my question isn't very good: It doesn't require a yes or no answer. Anything that allows someone to waffle loses something.

Is it possible to identify as another race? might work better.

Why is it (rightly so) unacceptable to identify as a different race but acceptable to identify as the opposite sex?

We never get an answer to that one.

I think there was a good version of this question based on healthcare: do you think your vulnerable elderly mother should be able to request and be provided with a female healthcare professional for intimate care?

Do you believe that women should be allowed to have boundaries over who touches them in a medical setting? Should they be allowed to specify that they will only accept a female nurse/doctor rather than someone who 'identifies as a woman'. And if not, how do you square that with the notion of informed consent in medicine? Do you not believe in informed consent?

"If we ended up with a Parliament which was half men and half transwomen*, would we have achieved parity in political representation between men and women?"

*adapting noun as preferred.

Cross post. Thats a better way of putting the question aliasundercover

If a twenty year old is wearing a dress and had blood between their legs should you be worried ?

"What is the difference between a man and a woman?" is a great question, but it doesn't work on TRAs - they simply answer "a woman identifies as a woman, a man identifies as a man".

Now that's a rubbish answer of course, but the question hasn't forced them to openly admit something they'd rather not - which is why so many refuse to answer the Staniland question.

"If you believe people can change sex, do you also believe they can change species? If not, why not?"

The academic lawyer Alessandra Asteriti had a good question on Twitter. (She has now been banned, of course, even though she was always polite and reasonable.)

This is it:

If you see an eight-year old girl going into a public toilet, and shortly afterwards you see a man go into the same toilet, do you:

a) go in after them to make sure the girl is safe
b) assume that the man identifies as female and do nothing?

"What is the difference between a man and a woman?" is a great question, but it doesn't work on TRAs - they simply answer "a woman identifies as a woman, a man identifies as a man".

Yeah, that's a good point, but I think that a lot of the time you ask questions for onlookers, to encourage them to have a think. The obfuscation about VSDs/intersex conditions can create a kind of fog in people's heads so they don't end up reasoning it out in their own minds.

Do you believe trans men convicts should be placed in a male prison even if they don't want to be?

@royalcorgi I think I'd assume the man is her dad.

Sports is a good one IMO.

I think there's something to be said about infamous figures.

So "does everyone have the right to self identify as a woman, even if they happen to be, say, Ted Bundy?"

Can you name a single characteristic of having a female gender identity that isn't a stereotype?

I've asked this multiple times and never had an answer. It's impossible to do.

Should a male sexed person, convicted of penetrating rape with their penis, be allowed in a prison with female sexed people who have been victims of rape.

Should I, in my role as a youth leader, allow a trans individual and a non trans individual share a room, as they are the same 'gender', knowing they may be in a relationship?

“If female sexed people are menstruators/cervix-havers, do you classify all male sexed people (including transwomen) as prostate-havers?”

The wording might need a little refining but this question has two aims:

1. To show that transwomen are male sexed and not female sexed, and therefore have male biology despite any surgeries and so should be grouped that way.
2. To point out that ridiculous terms like “menstruator” don’t have male equivalents.

Ideally I’d like to find a way to word it point out bigger differences between female and male sexed bodies that are not affected by hormones or surgery, such as body size and socialisation.

"At what point does a man become a woman?"

I've used this before on people not aware of the situation, and they usually answer with "when they have the operation"

It's more a leading question than a definitive question as it then opens up the discussion to "so if no physical changes are made, is being a woman merely an identity?"