cAn YoU DeFiNe wHaT iS a wOmAn?¿?
It's a meaningless, stupid question.
I see people “ask” this question fairly often. Zach, unprompted, asked me (he wasn't the only one this week), but it's not uncommon to see it asked of others in the comments, and all throughout far-right media. It’s like they’re obsessed with this question. I guess it's a fun thought experient for them to engage in while they avoid spending time with their kids and families.
I put the word “ask” in quotes because even though they’re technically asking a question, they’re not actually asking a question.
This is the type of question asked by someone who is not trying to genuinely engage. They’re trying to get you to genuinely respond with a nuanced explanation, so they can then cherry pick what they desperately want to be true based on their overly simplistic understanding of the world and troll.
There are some stupid questions
The question itself presupposes the answer is important or relevant.
It's a meaningless, stupid question.
I can’t think of a question whose answer is more inconsequential than “what is a woman?”
I say it’s inconsequential because I’m able to think ahead to the next step. Why is this information important? What are you going to do with this information? What impact does this information have on your life?
Think about why they would care about the definition. Does it change how they would treat a woman? Does this mean they treat women differently than men?
Is this even a question they would know to spend energy thinking about if the ruling class didn't incessantly bring it up?
Of course, like most “arguments” on the internet, it comes back to the stupid culture war between Democrats and Republicans.
Why is the ruling class constantly talking about something that is a non-problem in your life? Is it possible they're using this to distract you and get you engaged in a culture war so you don't join the working class in fighting a class war? (Hint: that’s exactly what they’re doing.)
Part of why this is such a popular refrain with men (it’s almost always men “asking” this) is because a lot of men are of discovering that they are sexually attracted to someone who outwardly has feminine traits but has a penis. A lot of men are afraid of the concept of them being “gay” (since they think trans women are men).
Humans tend to hate what we're afraid of, and thinking is hard (I mean this genuinely - it takes effort, and learning new things actually causes some discomfort in your brain).
Another part of it is men who ask this question view anyone with a penis as a "man" (regardless how the individual chooses to identify). And similar to a lot of women, a lot of men are afraid of other men, because they know how dangerous they can be.
People have also come to expect simple answers to complex questions, and people don't necessarily recognize when a question is complex.
Maybe it's an autism thing for me, but I definitely felt like things I was taught in school were all hard, indisputable facts. I remember being told in Mrs. Howell's second grade class that Native Americans 'decided to move out west to give the new settlers more space' despite it being labeled the “Trail of Tears.” My brain registered it as a “huh, well that’s weird and doesn’t make sense” moment but didn’t really think about it much until I was older.
The notion that the answers people were told as kids were incomplete, misleading, or sometimes outright false forces people to confront their own cognitive dissonance, which is certainly uncomfortable. It’s not easy to accept that the world we were told existed as kids is quite different for us as adults.
This question is absolutely a trap, but for some reason, progressives fall for it almost every time. To be clear, the trap is that the converstive will ask a seemingly benign, and simple question, then their opponent will fall on their face in rage while refusing to answer it. They will insult, mock, and otherwise make themselves look the aggressor in the conversation.
In a debate or discussion, you aren't really try to convince who you are talking to. The audience is the true target of your rhetoric.
Now imagine the conversation from the outside, to someone who isn't really plugged into internet culture. The average person who kind of has a vague idea about whatever culture war topic is going on. They know trans people exist, but they don't really follow the conversation, especially not to the point where they understand the current talking points . They know the debate is something about bathrooms, sports, massage parlors, or whatever.
To that person, they see someone ask "What is a woman" and then the other person, in their eyes, goes absolutely insane, responding in a completely disproportionate manner. Do you think that response will convince this random person their side is right? That it is just?
If you think the other person in a conversation will cherry pick your answer.... just let them. What harm comes from that? You aren't going to convince that person. To the others watching the conversation you just have to point out they aren't listening to your answer or are misconstruing it. You can even make it more difficult by just replying with a simple answer.
A simple question doesn't always need the most nuanced and detailed answer. When a child asks you what things are made of, you don't have to explain quantum mechanics to them.
The thing is is that there's only two words that describes the male species and that would be male and man. It's all psychological. A man wants to know that he's a man, but when the definition of a male literally includes the size of their spermatozoa, it makes them feel that they're weak. When they look at the definition of a man, it also includes the definition of any adult human. It's detrimental to them. They have a fear of losing masculinity just because their gender and/or sex does not coincide with the actual definitions that they read. Therefore, the only way to combat that is to ask and define what a woman and/or a female might be. Unfortunately, women are described as adult female beings. Females are described as those that can bear offspring. Which kind of makes women look like the stronger sex. That can confuse and aggravate a weak man's mind.