"so why wouldn't everybody just comply, there's hardly any cost to being polite and caring."
I think the point, which you've explored some of here, is that there's actually a fairly heavy cost to complying with this. Most simply, it's not true. Next, it makes it almost impossible to protect women in law. Third, it makes any attempt to exc…
"so why wouldn't everybody just comply, there's hardly any cost to being polite and caring."
I think the point, which you've explored some of here, is that there's actually a fairly heavy cost to complying with this. Most simply, it's not true. Next, it makes it almost impossible to protect women in law. Third, it makes any attempt to exclude these women from places they don't belong, sport, say, easy to conflate with "hate."
The distinction needs to be clear so that we can talk about these issues honestly. So that future generations don't grow up so confused the they genuinely don't understand the difference between a male and a female (as I said recently, there are a surprising number of people who no longer understand this).
The number of times I actually need to explicitly state that a trans women is a trans women is vanishingly small. So for trans women who find hearing it offensive (which sounds like internalised transphobia to me) it's a minor issue. But the people who chant it like cultists don't do it for the sake of the trans women who hear it. They do it to signal their alignment with a reality-denying cult. And to brainwash people outside the cult into this belief.
"so why wouldn't everybody just comply, there's hardly any cost to being polite and caring."
I think the point, which you've explored some of here, is that there's actually a fairly heavy cost to complying with this. Most simply, it's not true. Next, it makes it almost impossible to protect women in law. Third, it makes any attempt to exclude these women from places they don't belong, sport, say, easy to conflate with "hate."
The distinction needs to be clear so that we can talk about these issues honestly. So that future generations don't grow up so confused the they genuinely don't understand the difference between a male and a female (as I said recently, there are a surprising number of people who no longer understand this).
The number of times I actually need to explicitly state that a trans women is a trans women is vanishingly small. So for trans women who find hearing it offensive (which sounds like internalised transphobia to me) it's a minor issue. But the people who chant it like cultists don't do it for the sake of the trans women who hear it. They do it to signal their alignment with a reality-denying cult. And to brainwash people outside the cult into this belief.
Coercion is fun! ;-)