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Nov. 15th, 2024 02:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Asking “Is a trans woman a woman?” is like asking “Is grilled cheese a sandwich?” The answer is generally yes, because we created a useful category of “sandwich,” and grilled cheese fits it for most purposes. Then you get to someone who doesn’t fit into a gender that easily, and asking their gender is like asking “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” The best way to respond to that is “Why is it important whether it’s a sandwich? What purpose is served by placing it inside or outside the category of sandwich?”
Humans made categories based on general observations of distinct groups. Categories can shift, blur, or become useless depending on the situation. And I think for a lot of purposes, we don’t need to treat “male” and “female” as particularly important categories. People can just do what they want.