Undefined

Everyone from Ellen "Elliot" Page to the White House and Vogue are outraged that Texas has "directed state agencies to investigate gender-affirming care for trans youths as 'child abuse.'" Because "gender-affirming" is the term they use now rather than "intentional dismemberment."

According to Merriam-Webster, "woman" is defined as "an adult female person." "Oh, come on, now, Stan, where are you going with this? Who really needs a dictionary to define 'woman'?" I know. It seems ludicrous. But if words are to have any use at all, they have to mean something. And, in order to mean something, they must distinguish something. For instance, I am a human being. "Okay, we got that." Sure, but what kind of human being? "Human being" is broad. Let's narrow it down. So, we can eliminate (roughly) half of all human beings by simply designating "man" or "woman." So, we could say that someone was either a "man" or a "woman" to more distinctively identify this person ... if we understood what a "man" or a "woman" was. So, we define it. "An adult female person." Fine. An adult is not really relevant to this, but that would preclude a "girl" as in a "not yet adult female person." So what is "female"?

Again, we go back to the dictionary. Merriam-Webster defines "female" as "of, relating to, or being the sex that typically has the capacity to bear young or produce eggs" or (not very helpfully) "the opposite of male." Of course, we've rejected that "capacity to bear young and produce eggs" version. That leads to the binary gender concept which we know is merely a social construct. That leaves us with "the opposite of male." And "male"? Rejecting "the capacity to fertilze the eggs of the female" version, we're left with "the opposite of female." (Which is why I said "not very helpfully".) So we end up in today's world with these two very helpful terms to help us distinguish between two types of human beings -- male and female -- by defining them as "the opposite of each other" and no other defining characteristics are allowed.

How is it, then, that we have guys who "feel like a woman" if "woman" is undefinable? How is it that we have parents and governments willing to have life-altering, irreversible procedures done to children who feel like "the opposite" of what they are when what they are and what they feel like is undefined? If "gender" is a social construct and can include no end of possibilities, in what sense can anyone be defined as "male" or "female" (or anything in between)?

Consider it from a slightly different angle. He says, "I feel like I'm a woman trapped in the body of a man." What does that feel like? I don't "feel like a man;" I am a man. In terms of "feel like," does this individual (avoiding "misgendering pronouns") feel, say, PMS or pregnant or menopausal or any of those physical aspects of "female" that science recognizes? (The same kind of question can be asked of the girl who feels like a guy.) If "female" does not feel like those things, what distinguishes it from "male"? We hear all the time (and I don't disagree) that men can never truly understand women and women can never truly understand men because of the genuine differences. And then we nod and say, "Well, if he feels like a she" (which he cannot possibly do, lacking the lady parts that make the difference) "then he is a she." This is simply not sensible. This is non-sensible. This is non-sense. You get the idea.

"You're just a hater" will be the obvious response. "Transphobic." We use these terms now as labels to insure an emotional response to reasoned questions that we will not allow to be examined or answered. So feel free to disregard all that reasoning and thinking stuff and go back to feeling like that stuff is real if you prefer. I say "feel" because "think" is not allowed in these kinds of discussions these days. You can just keep that "hater" stuff to yourself when my questions aren't about hate or even individuals, but reasons. If you cannot define "male" and "female," claiming either is undefined and meaningless. Encouraging that, in my view, is hate.