But there is a space between “any way you want” and “only one possible way”.
Is Mona Lisa (the painting) a woman? Paintings do not have chromosomes, and many of them do not even have sexual organs. Yet if I say “Mona Lisa is a woman”, it is true in some meaningful sense… and false in some other meaningful sense.
Sometimes you use one bucket for things, and then you find out that you need two. Which one of the new buckets should inherit the original name… is a social/political choice. I may disagree with the choice, but that doesn’t make it wrong. If you want to be unambiguous, use an adjective, for example “trans women are not biological women” or “trans women are legally considered women”.
(Just like tomato is biologically a fruit but legally a vegetable; carrot is legally a fruit in EU; and ketchup is legally a vegetable in USA.)
Can you say exactly which claims Zack is making without showing enough evidence? Is it one or more of these
Or something else?
I agree with all of this.
But there is a space between “any way you want” and “only one possible way”.
Is Mona Lisa (the painting) a woman? Paintings do not have chromosomes, and many of them do not even have sexual organs. Yet if I say “Mona Lisa is a woman”, it is true in some meaningful sense… and false in some other meaningful sense.
Sometimes you use one bucket for things, and then you find out that you need two. Which one of the new buckets should inherit the original name… is a social/political choice. I may disagree with the choice, but that doesn’t make it wrong. If you want to be unambiguous, use an adjective, for example “trans women are not biological women” or “trans women are legally considered women”.
(Just like tomato is biologically a fruit but legally a vegetable; carrot is legally a fruit in EU; and ketchup is legally a vegetable in USA.)