They’re cheesy wotsits
Suzanne Moore on the strange mystery of what the word “woman” means:
I guess it would be funny if the consequences of this evasion were not so deadly serious. On Woman’s Hour – on International Women’s Day – the redoubtable Emma Barnett asked Anneliese Dodds a simple question.
You know the one – “wossa woman?”
Dodds prevaricated for what seemed like hours. Stuff like: “Well, I have to say that there are different definitions legally around what a woman actually is. I mean, you look at the definition within the Equality Act, and I think it just says someone who is adult and female, I think, but then doesn’t see how you define either of those things.”
How about defining them the usual way, and defining women that way too? Wouldn’t that solve the problem in a stroke? Granted, “adult” really is more social than physical, and varies according to purpose and circumstances, but “female” is just as precise as “male,” and you don’t see people drawing back in horror and confusion when asked what a man is.
Barnett tried again. “What’s the Labour definition?” Dodds answered “Oh, I think, with respect, Emma, I think it does depend what the context is, surely. I mean, surely that is important here?”
And yet, does the definition of “man” depend on what the context is? If “man” doesn’t then why does “woman”? Maybe the definition of woman is “blob that doesn’t even have a word to describe itself.”
Trans activism and lobby groups like Stonewall and Mermaids have been phenomenally successful in persuading corporations, institutions and political parties to adopt a language in which the word “woman” is verboten as it may “trigger” someone who feels themself to be a woman, even though they have male anatomy.
But not the word “man.” There is nothing like the same level of taboo and coercion around the word “man” as there is around “woman.” It’s almost as if the whole thing is just another way to keep women down.
I always think of this when the subject of what a woman is comes up.
https://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/sojour.htm
And so the Sun sank slowly in the west, until it gently touched the horizon; which was a line gently dividing the sky above from the sea of pure and fashionable bullshit below.
There’s a similar taboo around the word “man” — it’s just not as widespread. Yet. Is it likely that transmen like Chase Strangio will accept a definition involving reproductive development? It’s the nature of the phenomenon to keep spreading outward into territory which was once over the dividing line.
Whenever TRAs talk about the meaning of “woman” changing depending on the context, they seem to act as if they’re referring to a well-known principle that existed before the idea of Gender Identity gained traction. But although we can easily think of homonyms like “bat” and “bark,” the only examples I can think of where “woman” is used to refer to something other than adult females are all insulting. “Jack’s a woman, he’s useless” or “Jack’s woman came up from servants’ quarters to deliver a message from the cook.” Workmen don’t look through boxes of tools looking for the woman. Drag queen “women” still reference the females they consciously imitate.
It’s not similar though, because “not as widespread” is a drastic understatement. The difference in quantity is so large it’s a difference in quality. It’s not random, it’s misogyny in action.
The context of that conversation was that it took place during Women’s Hour, on the International Women’s Day.
I heard that whole exchange as it happened, and it was absolutely astonishing. The word “woman” is in her job title, and she can’t tell us what it means? Then how can she do the job? This was only days after I listened to the episode of Newscast where two fully grown men danced around the words “girls” and “women” for almost the entire discussion of the effect of the HPV vaccine on cervical cancer in “people” who might get it. The main presenter in particular sounded like a hostage, reading out his kidnapper’s demands with a gun to his head. Funny thing is, I wondered yesterday if it really was as bad as I remembered it, and the episode has disappeared. I wonder if some kind of fuss was made.