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Here’s the thing: there’s a real answer to that question.
What makes a trans woman a woman is her brain has developed as a woman’s brain. This development is set in progress while still in utero, and can become apparent as the relevant parts of the brain develop later. This is why many tabs people report realizing they were the opposite gender between the ages of 3 and 8.
Here are a number of studies that show the biological reality of transgender people. It’s important to note that although some of these studies suggest causation (ie, HOW a person is born transgender) we can’t know if there’s more than one cause, and therefore using any one test to see if somebody is “biologically trans” is impossible.
Sex vs Gender and the role of the SRY gene specifically (as opposed to the Y chromosome generally) in the development of each, as well as the possible role of AR (androgen receptor) gene https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6505576/
A correlation is found between AR allele repeat length and a person being transgender https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3402034/
The brains of trans people more closely resemble those of their chosen gender identity than their natal sex https://www.ese-hormones.org/media/1506/transgender-brains-are-more-like-their-desired-gender-from-an-early-age.pdf
A trans person’s brain more closely resembles their chosen gender as demonstrated by their brain’s response to olfactory stimulation with androstadienone https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2014.00060/full
Estrogen signaling pathways identified which tell the brain to develop as one gender or the other, as well as mechanisms by which physical development can happen in one way while brain development can happen in the other https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53500-y
Cornell University summarizes 72 studies regarding the effect of gender transition on transgender well-being (with links to all 72 studies) https://whatweknow.inequality.cornell.edu/topics/lgbt-equality/what-does-the-scholarly-research-say-about-the-well-being-of-transgender-people/
But just to be sure that i understand you correctly: you say its complicated, but you have no way to tell what a woman is, beyond (honest) self description?
Edit: thanks for all the comments guys. I am still not really sure what to make out of the individual points, but just that we have a forum to exchange ideas feels so much like what the internet is meant to be.
Short version: There’s no way to define “woman” using so-called “objective facts” such that you include all cisgender women while excluding all transgender women.
The whole man/woman categorization is a social construct trying to simplify something incredibly complex. Sometimes the simplification works better (with typical cisgender people) and sometimes it really doesn’t describe the underlying complexities well (with transgender/intersex/etc).
Isn’t that a pretty dangerous argument?
I don’t see any difference between male and female ability in regards to intelligence.
Saying that their brain develops differently seems like an invitation to the argument, that women aren’t mentally able to do the stuff men do.And I’m a cis-male - but I want to have every individual to live free regarding to their own will.
What do I care what you do in your bedroom and with whom or how anyone there identifies?Propaganda for “traditional” baby-bearing systems are usually fascist and prepare for war, because they need more people to die at the front.
How can anybody be interested what I’m fucking doing with myself or my partner?
It’s just my/our personal thing and it should be of no one’s interest.Else, where do we stop?
Should we make anal sex illegal, because we need babys?Fuck all this shitheads trying to influence everybodies lives, just because everyone should live the same life as they do
Ok, got maybe a bit of topic, but I’m a bit picky, when it comes to differences between male and female brain development - and in the end capacity
I don’t see any difference between male and female ability in regards to intelligence. Saying that their brain develops differently seems like an invitation to the argument, that women aren’t mentally able to do the stuff men do.
This is a pretty slippery-slope-ish argument. Brains have plenty of differences that don’t have anything to do with general intelligence. There’s a lot going on in there.
It’s not just general intelligence that people discriminate on. For example it might be decided that emotional intelligence is what’s important, and that therefore one gender must be superior because they have more. It could be aggression or resilience. There are lots of reasons why people think that men or women are better besides general intelligence. So saying that there are any biological differences becomes something that either misandry or misogyny can exploit.
It may be exploitable, but it’s also the truth, and I prefer to be accurate. People can twist any truth to support bad policies or opinions; it’s the twisting that’s the problem, not the truth. But yes, we should be careful to try and prevent people from abusing these notions to further their negative agendas.
