# J K Rowling and the trans furore **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 16, 2020, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-k-rowling-and-the-trans-furore/855795 "2020-06-16T18:05:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 107
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-k-rowling-and-the-trans-furore/855795/107 "2020-06-18T16:17:27Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > But she also made some really irrational claims, such as the following: > > - including transgender women in the category “woman” somehow degrades or threatens cisgender women; 😕 What defines a woman? If your definition is something other than this [one](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/woman), can you explain how it isn’t either circular, reliant on stereotypes, or excludes some subset of people who are actual biological female? Women have a valid reason to be concerned about redefining their sex-gender category so that it affirms ideas that historically have been used to oppress and limit us. I’ve actually seen transwomen say “anyone who plays the social role traditionally associated with the female gender is a woman”. Okay, so does this mean female combat soldiers who are the primary breadwinner of their households and don’t wear make up aren’t actually women? What about men who are stay at home fathers and enjoy baking and knitting…are they women? > [@](#): > > - it’s somehow disparaging to cisgender women to refer to people who menstruate as “people who menstruate” or “menstruators” rather than “women”; 😕 I don’t like being referred to as an menstruator, and I don’t know why it’s wrong or illogical for me to have a negative opinion about a term being used to refer to me. You have the right to accept it if it doesn’t bother you, but can you respect the fact that others see it as objectifying and dehumanizing? For no other biological function do we speak like this. “People who menstruate” is less bothersome, but it still smacks of politicizing a concept that shouldn’t be politicized. _Women_ menstruate, because only women have the ability to menstruate. Girls and women in many of parts of the world suffer greatly with their periods not just _because_ of their periods, but because they are marginalized from power and aren’t able to advocate for accommodations that allow them to be full participants in society. This gets lost if it becomes taboo to talk about sex-based oppression and womanhood. > [@](#): > > - not requiring transgender women to physiologically transition somehow increases danger to women from male predators in women’s restrooms etc. 😕 😕 😕 (and what happened to not requiring gender-norm conformity in order to qualify as a “woman”?) I took from her point that without any kind of gatekeeping (hormones or surgery or therapy), there is nothing stopping any regular male sexual predator from identifying his way into women spaces. And she’s right. TWAW means we are not to question or complain if a man insists he’s a woman. That’s what self-identification allows. > [@](#): > > Those arguments AFAICT simply make no sense, and I don’t see anything wrong with criticizing the self-described “gender critical” activists who advocate them. Oh come on. They make plenty sense. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/j-k-rowling-and-the-trans-furore/855795)._