Maya Forstater

There isn’t an binary biological category of being black either. But lots of people identify as black.

Arthur. Ethnic differences began to evolve 60,000 yrs ago and ppl put labels put on them much more recently. These are surface differences. There were males and females *before* there were humans. Millions of years. Not everything is binary. But sex is.

I’m not saying that race and gender are identical, I’m just saying that categories work without being underpinned by biology. When I say ‘I met a woman’, you know I mean that I met someone who presented to me as a woman, not ‘I looked at her genitals’.

No. I bet you get it right 99.9% of the time, including where you politely agree to go with someone's preferred presentation. Think for a second about the difference between 'I met a woman' and 'I met a man'...

... In a dark alley, on a blind date, at a conference, giving me a lift etc. Women take different precautions. Now social convention is telling women, even when you know someone is male you must ignore that, they pose no additional risk than any other woman

But I don’t see why you have to refuse to acknowledge their womanhood in normal life to do that.

Because the places that women and girls get assaulted and harassed are *normal life*!!! At school. At work. In churches. At sports centres. On dates. In bars. On trains. In lifts. At conferences...

I honestly am very concerned about anything we can do to prevent abuse & assault of women and girls. I just don’t see how saying trans women are not women does that. If a woman feels threatened by a trans person, they don’t need to get in a car with them.