J. K. Rowling has gotten into a major fight with supporters of transgender women. The argument is about whether transgender women are actually women. Rowling's position, I believe, is that transgender women have some but not all the experiences that shape women, so they aren't women. The counter claim is that trans women are women, which is what they believe.
On a superficial level (often my level) this has been an argument about diction. How do we define the word "women"?
The categories into which I put people depend on my purpose. Do I want to reject someone or anger her? Or do I want to accept her?
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