The sex/gender distinction of the 20th century and now deeply popular among LGBT+ circles in the 21st century was one step forwards, two steps backwards. Although it provides a simple “explanation” of trans people, it ultimately cements sex and thus patriarchy as the natural state of things. Human sex has always been a social concept with biological justifications applied retroactively and selectively. The proletarianization of women and advances in medical science lay bare the absurdity of sex and for the first time in human history create the conditions for the world-historical abolition of sex and male supremacy. As the proletarian revolution self-abolishes the proletariat, so too does the transsexual-feminist social revolution self-abolish the woman and transsexual. Down with cisgenderism!
Thank you for this post times a billion!
Funnily enough, around four nights ago, I was ranting about this to my friend who is a trans woman, and we both agree that this “Man/woman’ are for describing gender, but ‘male/female’ are for describing sex, so trans women are women, but they’re not female!” is performative shit that harshly showcases the energy of liberals trying to advocate for trans people but failing miserably in the process.
“Biologically male” and “biologically female” are also just transphobic euphemisms. There is no ‘set’ definition, even among biologists and geneticists, of what constitutes a “biological male/female.” Multiple factors are considered to be aspects of sex, and that includes things that trans people can, and often do in fact, change, such as hormones, genitals, and secondary sex characteristics.
It’s the strangest semantic hill for these people to die on, and I saw a trans man doing it that same four nights ago in an Instagram comment section, arguing so hard that he’s “biologically female but still a man,” even when people tried to validate the position that I’m validating now as a response to him insisting that he is a “biological female.” That’s what prompted me to talk to my trans friend about this.
There is no reason why we have to adhere to the weird gender/sex distinction other than giving a half-assed attempt at appeasing transphobes (half-assed because “Gender and sex are different!” isn’t even a satisfactory argument for them).
“Cis” and “trans,” at least for the time being, are good enough distinctions. We don’t need convoluted shit like “Trans women are not female, but they’re women!” or “Trans women are socially women but not biologically female!” If people can’t be satisfied by “Trans women are women who happen to be trans, and they are also female.” and “Cis women are women who happen to be cis, and they are also female.” as the prime distinction, then that’s their damn problem and not mine or any trans person’s for that matter.