Using the word “women” to mean both cisgender (ie, actual biological) women and transwomen (ie, men who would like to be thought of as women) is not a “simple linguistic shift” - it’s the direct basis for such things as:
- biological men in womens’ prisons (any male prisoner at all who simply declares himself to have a female gender identity, with no need for any surgery or hormones) threatening rape (Edna Mahon prison), actually raping (Yorkshire,England; Clark County, Indiana) or having a history of rape (loads of places, but it’s now made it to my own home state of Victoria).
- Women being prevented from having single-sex services, single-sex services including rape crisis centers being shut down or defunded (Vancouver rape relief, Sydney womens’ legal center, Bristol rape crisis center and so on)
- Male predators going into womens’ unclothed spaces and getting women chucked out when they complain (WiSpa, Port Townsend YMCA etc)
- The continued promotion of medicalisation to “transkids” including puberty blockers, while in the actual science-based reality-based world (Sweden, Finland, UK) they’re being rolled back because of their harmful effects and total lack of knowledge of the long-term consequences.
Now, probably most people here don’t know that this stuff is going on, because corporate left-wing media is now as much of an information bubble on this issue as Fox News is on whether Trump won the election. But while you’re all shaking your heads, mystified at how many people continue to vote Republican and “have their panties in a bunch” - well, you’re going to continue to be mystified until you realise that a lot of these people know stuff that you actually don’t.