• @[email protected]
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    26913 days ago

    Lol. Normally Elon just posts cringe that isnt funny in any way. But this is hilarious. “I love your transphobia, but have you tried thinking about literally anything else?” Like he wants her to start posting great replacement shit

      • @[email protected]
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        6513 days ago

        Awards are just bespoke emoji. You can still react to a comment with a picture or emoji if you want.

        IMO your comment, actually expressing explicit and specific approval, is worth more than, like… a picture of a little whale with money coming out of its blowhole, or whatever.

        • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥
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          4513 days ago

          🤣🤩💯✨😸❤️🧠🫀👀👁️👄👁️👍🙌🤟💆🫅🍃🔥🌋🌈🌠🐳🍑🍆🚨🏆🎖️🥇

          • Kaity
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            1213 days ago

            Awards or any other monetarily focused system inherently balance discussions towards the inclinations of wealthy people. We already have too much of that in the world, that they can buy law, buy awareness, buy support, it is a bad idea to let them buy opinions and discussion. Everyone gets one vote, nobody is special enough to be worth more than any other.

            There isn’t any truly stopping them however, they can buy users, buy botnets, buy influence anywhere. Fuck it I guess, nothing is sacred, everything is tainted.

            • :3 3: :3 3: :3 3: :3
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              413 days ago

              I mean, sure. My comment was entirely tongue in cheek. I didn’t like awards, especially those that are more than just a glorified emoji (such as those I mentioned)

              But, truth be told, the wealthy can just straight up buy discussions and opinions. User farms/bots aren’t free, and neither was Twitter currently X. Nothing can hide from the cruel hand of capital. The fediverse isn’t immune to this either: it’s too small for anyone rich to buy out, but there’s very little preventing them from just buying one of the larger instances. And even without that, it still privileges those with money - hosting isn’t free.

              The most we can do is to stay vigilant, I suppose. Be aware of the inherent biases in the world and refuse to engage with systems that are too strongly captured - Twitter currently X, the zuck platform, Reddit soon (probably).

        • @[email protected]
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          1013 days ago

          Haha Lanny. Here I go, checking my Lanny stance on the photoverse hahaha

          I’m just having fun, obvious autocorrect mixup

          • @[email protected]
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            713 days ago

            Hahaha what a weird autocorrect—it’s never done that before! Absolutely leaving it. Photoverse made me giggle.

        • @chetradley
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          413 days ago

          The thing that always bugged me about awards, especially Reddit gold back in the day, is occasionally I would comment about something wrong with the world, and someone else would see that and give three bucks to Reddit when they could have donated it to an organization trying to solve the issue I was commenting about. Like, I get that you’re showing appreciation for my comment but I’d rather that money go to something other than Reddit premium.

      • Panda (he/him)
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        1012 days ago

        reddit would instantly go bankrupt if lemmy added the yeah button from miiverse

  • @PrinceWith999Enemies
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    17613 days ago

    Biologist here. The main problem with this argument is that Rowling is trying to win her argument through scientizing, and is not only doing it in an inept way, but in a way that’s completely ironic.

    She’s invoking biology, but infortunately she’s adopting an approach that incorporates a high school level of biology. When we start teaching science, we start with highly simplified presentations of the major topics, then build both in breadth and depth from there. If you really want to get down the rabbit hole of sex determination (and multiple definitions of genetic and phenotypical “sex”), you really need to get into molecular biology, genetics, and developmental biology. She’s been advised of this multiple times by multiple experts, so at this point it’s willful ignorance.

    The painfully ironic part is that she’s relying on an area where she has no expertise in order to make her point, while ignoring the fact that, as a world-known literary figure, she should know that the applicable part of the definition of “woman” is linguistic and semiotic - which is to say it’s cultural. The definition of “woman” was different in the 1940s South, among the 17th century pilgrims, the Algonquin tribes, cultures throughout sub-equatorial Africa, and so on.

    • @TheCheddarCheese
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      3013 days ago

      The definition of “woman” was different in the 1940s South, among the 17th century pilgrims, the Algonquin tribes, cultures throughout sub-equatorial Africa, and so on.

      Can you give an example? Not trying to be a bigot, just curious.

      • clara
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        3713 days ago

        here’s one example for you (click here) exploring igbo gender norms

        here’s a second report that’s worth reading too (click here)

        i don’t have much knowledge about the other cultures suggested, others can provide info for those

        • @Flummoxed
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          1113 days ago

          In examining sex and gender in Igbo society today, it is evident that colonisation was not just an event. Colonisation is a structure, an unhealed wound that remains open to this day, in the form of Western gender norms among multiple other manifestations.

          Thank you for this article. Deeply interesting.

        • @[email protected]
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          912 days ago

          However, this was weakened by the flexible gender system of traditional Igbo culture and language. As Ifi explained, a major component of this gender framework was that “male roles were open to certain categories of women through such practices as “nhanye”- “male daughters” and “igba ohu” – “female husbands”

          What, you’re telling me that boywives were real all along!?

      • @PrinceWith999Enemies
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        713 days ago

        There’s entire branches of research on this, but I think one of the easiest ways to approach it for starting out is to think of the word “womanly.”

        having or denoting qualities and characteristics traditionally associated with or expected of women.

        I would strike the word “traditionally” from that definition since we’re talking about a comparative and differential analysis and concentrate on the “qualities and characteristics” part. Although most people in the US today wouldn’t think of it this way, imagine the perception of a woman army officer commanding male troops in 1845. You can take the same approach when looking through history or across cultures. What roles, qualities, and characteristics are associated with “women” and how do they differ and evolve?

        There’s some complexity when you get into the details - indigenous cultures change when they come into contact with, say, colonialism, and the people who studied them might themselves be observing through their own prejudices. History is replete with examples of British colonialists being unable to properly deal with things like the egalitarian democracies of the northern indigenous peoples or the matriarchal social structures. Picture the used car dealership where the salesman still insists on engaging with the man even though it’s the woman buying the car.

        Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, and semiotics is the study of symbology. When we’re talking about these things, we’re talking about how the ideas and symbols associated with the idea-token “woman” differ.

        The reason why this is important is that this is the crux of the transphobic argument. Their argument is cultural, not biological (although like I said, even their biology is sketchy).

        I think a great study that includes cross cultural anthropological analysis of the role of women, as well as politics and economics, is David Graeber’s The Dawn of Everything.

    • @HauntedCupcake
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      Sorry if this question seems stupid, but you seem to really know what you’re talking about.

      My understanding is that the main issues TERFs have is protecting women’s spaces, and that by having a vague or arbitrary definition of womanhood it erodes those spaces.

      I personally would like to see a society that’s far less focused on gender and minimises that kind of segregation outside of medical necessity. But I know that’s quite extreme and I don’t have a “perfect” solution, assuming we’re going to keep things like women’s only gyms, domestic violence shelters, and professional sports.

      Judging based on “passing” is clearly transphobic and ignores any kind of intersex/non-binary presentation. As well as some masculine featured afab women somehow failing. And basing on biology is clearly flawed. So if it’s not too much trouble what would your suggestion be?

      • @[email protected]
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        613 days ago

        The person you asked your question of claims to be a biologist, but you dismiss the relevance of biology.

        …basing on biology is clearly flawed…

        It sounds like you might be more interested in an answer from a sociologist. Or are you asking the biologist to argue that basing it on biology is not flawed?

        • @HauntedCupcake
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          112 days ago

          The biologist is arguing that segregating based on biology is flawed. I think I was agreeing with them.

          Sorry if that wasn’t clear. And you are right my question doesn’t make sense, they’re just saying you can’t segregate on biology

  • TheHarpyEagle
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    13 days ago

    Jesus, it’s way more dehumanizing to be thought of only in relation to checks notes Large Gametes than it is to simply accept that people of the same gender can be born with different bits.

    • @TotallynotJessica
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      9113 days ago

      It’s even worse than that. Individuals are a vessel for those gametes, not the gametes themselves. I’m sorry, but sperm aren’t fucking people Robert Rowling. You aren’t your cum or your period. Inhaling pollen during spring isn’t killing trees.

      Joanne Galbraith’s conservative gender ideology values genes and bloodlines more than people. Living a good life doesn’t matter, only reproducing like e coli.

      Phobes want the world to make sense because they think it’ll fill the emptiness in their soul. It’ll never work. The void can’t be filled that way.

      • @deltapi
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        1413 days ago

        Who are the people you’re talking about?

        • @[email protected]
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          6613 days ago

          Joanne Rowling has released books under the name Robert Galbraith, and the poster above has mixed up the names for humourous effect.

          Also Robert Galbraith Heath was a psychiatrist who was a big proponent of conversion therapy for queer people. Probably nothing to do with why Rowling chose that name…

          • @[email protected]
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            1013 days ago

            I always thought it was a way to stay relevant, cause she cant think of any more film franchises to copy, but clearly its been an issue for a while.

          • @someacnt_
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            613 days ago

            It’s so sad how this kind of people succeeded. Or, is the society designed this way? Ugh.

            • @TotallynotJessica
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              513 days ago

              Eh. Despite its problems, Harry Potter was fairly decent, especially in terms of having characters people care about. The world building was mid and there was bigotry against people outside of England, but there is a lot to like about it. It had a huge Fandom, many of whom were queer. That series earned her most of her wealth and popularity originally.

              I think it was possible for her to have grown out of her conservative worldview if she was willing to. Unfortunately, it’s hard to critically examine your beliefs. Her financial success probably affected the chances of her knowing queer people personally, which decreased her motivation to understand us. If she wasn’t successful, she might have been a better person than she is now. Then again, maybe not. At least she wouldn’t have caused as much harm.

              • @someacnt_
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                312 days ago

                Yeah, I am more curious about if e.g. being a bigot even helps your chances in success. Bleak…

      • @unreasonabro
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        213 days ago

        it is, however, inhaling TREE JIZZ. Put THAT in your pompous pipe and smoke it!

    • @unreasonabro
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      -113 days ago

      Well, no, the way you’ve phrased it is super fucking wrong. You’re not “born with” a social construct, how would that even be possible? Carts and horses really exist and you’ve put the one in front of the other. Now your horse has wandered off cuz you stuck an obstacle in front of it but you’re gonna bitch at me that it’s my fault, i just know it

    • TerribleTortoise
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      11113 days ago

      As a 58 year old, JK Rowling is, by her own definition, very unlikely to be a woman any longer.

    • @John_McMurray
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      1813 days ago

      I mean at least read what she said. “Belongs to the sex class” doesn’t mean you’re a man at menopause.

      • Tar_Alcaran
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        4513 days ago

        She forgot to define “sex class”, which could be all sorts of things. She did that because either she doesn’t know shit about classes, or because she wants to just say “women are women goddamnit” without actually saying it.

        • @[email protected]
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          1913 days ago

          A sex class is defined by the material conditions of the exploitation of labor it’s members experience while producing their respective gametes. Obviously.

          • Tar_Alcaran
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            1013 days ago

            I did. She doesn’t define “sex class” anywhere.

            And of course she doesn’t, because she can’t. She has a middle-school grasp of the subject, and she’s trying to define “woman” as “woman” by using the weasel word “class”.

            I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others.

            I can only deduce that “sex class” is some kind of group where you produce large gametes, but it doesn’t matter if they’re viable.

            I don’t have ovaries, but I had them at some point in my life. I can only surmise I’m not in the “sex class” woman according to Rowling, since I don’t produce large gametes, viable or not.

            • @bitchkat
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              113 days ago

              irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible,

              Sounds like being born with a condition that makes your bits not develop the same as your brain would qualify?

              • Tar_Alcaran
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                313 days ago

                Yeah, except I’m pretty sure she disagrees. Weird, it’s almost as if any rational definition actually is actually automatically inclusive, except when you jump through a million hoops to make it less so.

                • @bitchkat
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                  113 days ago

                  Of course she’ll disagree.

      • @[email protected]
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        2513 days ago

        What’s a sex class? How is it defined? Does it include age groups? How about hermaphrodites?

        • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥
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          613 days ago

          What’s a sex class?

          There’s an in-depth documentary about this on pornhub, featuring acclaimed scholar Lisa Ann.

        • @captainlezbian
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          113 days ago

          It involves stuff like if you’re a magical or a martial I assume

        • @John_McMurray
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          -113 days ago

          I mean you could just read what she said. Do hermaphrodite produce large gametes? Idk, probably not. Go look it up.

          • @[email protected]
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            2713 days ago

            Yeah see the thing is she didn’t say anything like that. She just assumes everyone knows what a “sex class” is to avoid having to define it herself.

            • @John_McMurray
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              213 days ago

              It’s literally in the posted picture. Read it again.

                • @John_McMurray
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                  13 days ago

                  Are you some sort of idiot needs a definition of each word used? That’s what dictionaries are for. Anyways she defines what she meant in the complete sentence. Arguing with me about whether or not she’s right is pointless, I didn’t make the statement, merely pointed out she did define it.

          • @captainlezbian
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            113 days ago

            It’s case by case, the category of intersex sometimes called hermaphroditism (though many dislike the term) is usually accompanied with sterility though. It’s also very rare as far as intersex conditions go

      • @[email protected]
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        2313 days ago

        Of which the “class” of women after menopause would not be women then.

        We haven’t yet got a definition of a man though, so presumably most older ‘women’ are non-binary in their world

        • @Takumidesh
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          1013 days ago

          Conservatives learn about set theory, transphobes in shambles.

          • zea
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            12 days ago

            trans men ⊆ men

            trans women ⊆ women

            nonbinary people ⊈ men + women

            me ∈ your mom

  • @then_three_more
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    10113 days ago

    So as a likley post menopausal human. JK Rowling no longer belongs to the ‘sex class woman’ and likely has no ‘sex class’.

    • @[email protected]
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      8413 days ago

      Given she spends like 80% of her free time talking shit about a marginalized minority, she also has no class in general

    • @TotallynotJessica
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      3013 days ago

      “But I could in the past” or “I was meant to” or some other contrived bullshit that gets the end result she wants.

  • @Got_Bent
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    9913 days ago

    Of all hills to die on that ruin your reputation and legacy, why this one? I just don’t get it.

    I am a gen x cis heterosexual white male.

    Transexuality is strange and foreign to me. I don’t understand it. This gives me exactly zero right to take any stand against it. I’d say it gives me less right to express an opinion as how could I be knowledgeable on something I’ve just admitted I don’t understand?

    Let people live and go enjoy your billions.

    • @[email protected]
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      4113 days ago

      Sup, fellow XCHWM here. My first thought was to agree and say something about how people’s right to exist and live the life that is normal to them doesn’t depend on anybody understanding or approving it. And assuming it’s peaceful and all that. You know, decent human stuff.

      But then I reread your last line and got saddened by imagining the mental state of JKR. Imagine you are not just rich, but an adored famous artist, an American Dream success story, and doubly mega fucking rich to the point that you could just walk around giving random people life-changing amounts of money all day while funding other big amazing shit… and your mind is distracted by anger and fear towards the existence of other people you don’t even know. And now your famous name is attached to that awful attribute.

      • androogee (they/she)
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        3513 days ago

        Completely agree with your broader points, and I know it’s kinda nitpicky but

        an American Dream success story

        Dis lady hella British.

        • @[email protected]
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          1713 days ago

          Irrelevant from the American perspective! People all over the world have access to the American dream!

          /s for me. I capitalized it for extra snark. Totally not /s for others in this country though.

        • @Cryophilia
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          313 days ago

          The whole Hogwarts series is fascinatingly British. Half of the problems could be solved by an American coming in and going “why the hell would you do that? That’s dumb, just don’t do that.” As Americans do.

    • @gmtom
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      1313 days ago

      Mostly attention issues. She had her big hit, was very famous then that started to fade so tried a dozen different things to stay in the lienlight from bad sequels to bad prequels to publishing bad stories under a fake name, but none if it got her enough attention. So she did what basically every other washed up celebrity does and just be controversial to get attention.

      And also I think part of it is that rich, steisght white women, are very privileged but being a woman gives them 1 point in the oppression Olympics so they think their opinions on these issues matters more. Which is why almost all the most outspoken term are middle class strisght white women.

    • @samus12345
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      12 days ago

      Transexuality is strange and foreign to me.

      Also XCHWM. Like most other things, it gets less strange and foreign the more exposure you have to it. My biggest old man Gen X hurdle so far regarding gender was remembering to use “they” when referring to a non-binary person. It felt weird for a while, but they more I did it, the easier it got.

      • @Got_Bent
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        612 days ago

        In a different comment, I talked about the difficulty I have with pronouns. It’s not because it offends me, it’s because the traditional usage is so hard wired in whatever part of my brain oversees language.

        • @[email protected]
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          612 days ago

          I think most people are fine with it as long as you’re genuinely trying to make the effort to be better.

          It’s when your age becomes an excuse to not bother that it becomes a problem.

  • key
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    9813 days ago

    “belongs to the sex class”… The heck. Such a meaningless circular definition just to provide a veneer of justification for her transphobia.

    • @roguetrick
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      13 days ago

      When you have to make an argument you’ve already lost, make it as structural/functionalist as possible to reduce how much surface area you have to defend.

  • @[email protected]
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    6513 days ago

    She’s so transparently working backwards from her original knee jerk judgement on her views on gender. I’ve never understood why people feel the need to die on this hill, change is scary sure, but it’s not THAT big a deal is it?

    • @Seleni
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      1213 days ago

      Some people need a very structured, simple, well-defined worldview in order to function. Sort of like a computer has to follow a set program or it bluescreens.

      ‘This person coming towards me is a man. I can tell by his bowler hat and dapper suit. Therefore the correct action is to say ‘good morning sir, nice weather today’.’ And ‘This person coming towards me is a woman. I can tell by her dress and long hair and makeup. She is married based on the ring I see. Therefore the correct action is to say ‘good morning, ma’am, nice weather today’.’

      And so on.

      A person not presenting clearly as either gender, or isn’t the gender they’re expecting, means the ‘script’ no longer works. They no longer feel sure of what to do, and that lack of control of the situation makes them panicked.

      Really, a lot of this, and conservatism in general, comes down to simple structure and control, so these people feel they always know what to do and where they stand.

      Because our society is a social contract, and to act wrongly means you get ostracized from society. In ancient times that was practically a death sentence, and I don’t think these folks have ever gotten over that. They fear becoming the ‘outsiders’, left to the wolves and lions.

    • @captainlezbian
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      713 days ago

      It’s hard and it hurts. Self improvement, especially when you’ve been publicly vocal, requires humbling yourself. It involves accepting shame. And it sounds like in her case it involves reprocessing some trauma. I know who I choose to be, but on a much lesser scale I’ve met plenty like her. Folks who make the choice not to reevaluate their beliefs

  • Kalkaline
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    6214 days ago

    Just because people are famous doesn’t mean their opinions are valid.

  • nifty
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    4513 days ago

    I am not sure that just because someone produces sperm vs eggs delineates them as male vs female. You could produce sperm but have endocrinological phenotypes (driven by genes) affect your physiology, so it wouldn’t make sense to keep insisting that one is male then.

    Also, how does this definition take into account intersex people who produce both types of eggs? They’re a man? Or woman? What subcriteria would you use to define them, and then why wouldn’t you use that same subcriteria on single-cell producers?

    At a socio-political and cultural level, it seems useless to worry about how someone’s sex is defined. There’s no purpose served other than to create a class of people who can conveniently be othered and used as a means to distract from people who are truly damaging to society—the greedy and resource hoarders.

    • @captainlezbian
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      3413 days ago

      Cissexism often relies on denying the realities of intersex bodies. Or underplaying how common they are.

      The reality is biological sex is clustered bimodal traits.

      • @unreasonabro
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        113 days ago

        or knowing anything at all. about literally anything

    • @[email protected]
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      2813 days ago

      At a fundamental level her argument appears to be “I define biological sex and gender as the same thing, no other definition may exist”.

      • nifty
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        1813 days ago

        I am saying that sex is not necessarily binary either.

        • @[email protected]
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          1313 days ago

          Sorry, I didn’t mean to take away from your point at all, you’re very much undermining her entire argument.

          • nifty
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            1113 days ago

            No apologies needed, I was just clarifying what I meant ^^

      • @[email protected]
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        613 days ago

        and she’s using only one characteristic that can be used to determine sex when it doesnt even work alone (other characteristics have to be met, and even if most of them are met, theres probably still exceptions cause biology is fun like that)

  • @[email protected]
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    4112 days ago

    I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes.

    TIL my grandma isn’t a woman anymore.

    • @Glytch
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      1912 days ago

      That depends on which sex class she attended and whether or not her teacher was accredited.

    • @John_McMurray
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      2113 days ago

      Nah he just calls them pedos when they irritate enough