Maya Forstater

Maya, are you saying that trans women are not women? I’m a bit confused...

Yes I think that male people are not women. I dont think being a woman/female is a matter of identity or womanly feelings. It is biology. People of either sex should not be constrained (or discriminated against) if they dont conform to traditional gender expectations

this is really disappointing. trans women are women. In fact trans women face much more discrimination than cis women do, and we should be elevating their voices. (PS "biology" is as complex as economics and there is no use trying to apply high school bio to the real world.)

Many groups of people face more discrimination than women as a broad group. Elevating their voices does not require that we call all of those people 'women'. Smashing stereotypes is great. Erasing the category of female people is not.

trans women are particularly vulnerable women, and since the push to include women on panels is about supporting the voices of women as a group, and trans women's voices actually need particular support, we should be specifically championing their inclusion.

Hi Rachael - obviously there are much broader societal questions in play than the #manels scenario (I asked it as a practical example to see what people think is definition of women, & whether commitments made specifically to women as a group include men who identify as trans)..

.. I think you are conflating two different things 1)transwomen are vulnerable people & therefore should be protected, championed etc.. Yes I agree. 2)Transwomen are women. No this is not true. Its not GCSE biology. People w male bodies who say they are women do not become women

interesting, what is your definition of a "male body"? again, if you suddenly found out you had a lot of Y chromosomes in your body, would you suddenly have a "male body"?