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Re: Should transwomen be legally treated as women?
To say women are women because they act or feel a certain way (rather than because of a biological reproductive difference) is saying that women can only be feminine, and this is sexual discrimination. This would be akin to defining race by taste in music rather than ethnic heritage, or defining age by maturity level rather than chronology. Such views are false, prejudiced, outdated, vary by time and local culture, and should not be used to define gender, and definitely shouldn't be used to define laws.
You are attributing things to the "experience of being a woman" that are considered as such due to traditional gender roles, but have little or nothing to do with biological sex. Which stereotype you identify yourself with isn't important, because the stereotypes are wrong. A woman has ovaries, a man has testicles, there is no more to being a man or woman than that. These other things you attribute to men and women, ie masculinity and femininity, are false stereotypes dating from a culture before sexual equality existed.I have already discussed it, but to repeat:
The condition of being a woman is based on more than just a composition of chromosomes, and the nature of a person's reproductive system. This is easily demonstrated by THE FACT than some women have the chromosomal structure as males and do not have the organs necessary for reproduction. While it is true that such instances are exceptions, they are there nonetheless, and these individuals do not feel that they are not women as a result. In fact some do not notice it until they note that they do not experience the phenomenon of menstruation.
Swyer syndrome
Rather the condition of being a woman can be more accurately described as an experience characterized by such things as
1. Sexuality
2. Tastes in the presentation of appearance, such as choice of clothing
3. Biological functions
4. Anatomical structures
5. Tastes in activity
6. Tastes in aesthetics
Although there is variance among women within these items, when we note a strong presence of some or all of these that are common to women in general, then we can say that the person is indeed undergoing the experience of being a woman. As such, it is not unrealistic to treat them in that way, at the very least in the legal sense.
http://www.debatepolitics.com/polls/221321-should-transwomen-legally-treated-women-w-65-a-18.html#post1064512300
So a few points
1. Although one can put forward the notion that a women is someone who has XY chromosomes, we observe that there are women born with male chromosomes who identify themselves as female.
2. Although some women who have the biological characteristics of female chromosomes and sexual reproductive organs, they still identify themselves as being male.
3. Altering biological characteristics does not necessarily result in the self identification of being a woman.
Therefore we can conclude that the experience of being a woman, although it is related to biological characteristics, is not necessarily dependent on them, i.e. there is more to being a woman than having female biological and anatomical characteristics.
To say women are women because they act or feel a certain way (rather than because of a biological reproductive difference) is saying that women can only be feminine, and this is sexual discrimination. This would be akin to defining race by taste in music rather than ethnic heritage, or defining age by maturity level rather than chronology. Such views are false, prejudiced, outdated, vary by time and local culture, and should not be used to define gender, and definitely shouldn't be used to define laws.