- This is circular. It only seems sensible because you know what a woman is. If I said “a splurdydovina is anything that identifies as a splurdydovina”, would it help you to know what a splurdydovina was?
- How is this useful as a definition for legal purposes? How could we tell if someone ACTUALLY identified as a woman, or was just pretending to do that to gain some advantage for themselves?
- How does “identifying as a woman” alter someone to make them less of a physical threat to women, or less able to beat them in sport?
Re 2, yes, this does happen. See below. A good case to cite is Karen White, who identified as trans and raped and sexually assaulted several women when transferred to women’s prisons. Transactivists now claim that Karen White was not trans – but that isn’t the gotcha they seem to think. It only proves that no one – not even the prison service – can tell if a male claiming to be trans is “really” trans or not. The barrier to appearing to be “trans” is very low.
Men commit the overwhelming majority of sex crimes – data is hard to get, but in one set of government figures, 100% of serious sex crimes against women were committed by men (see here: table 2.4). The Prison population in England & Wales is 96% male. There is NO peer-reviewed evidence that this pattern changes due to identification as the opposite sex, and some evidence that the pattern of violence remains the same.
Allowing men to claim to be women also causes confusion throughout the justice system. For one excellent example, see this tweet. Lots more on Women Are Human.
The fact is, a penis is a penis. They are not more welcome to girls and women, especially those who have been traumatised, just because the owner is trans. Are CSE victims supposed to say “Oh! It’s a *trans* penis! Whyever didn’t you say? They are always welcome to pop up here!”? Of course not. Only a misogynist would think so.
Forward to “transwomen feel like women.”
Back to introduction