Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our Publishing Guidelines.
Dear Editor,
Interesting to read Meredith Doig’s take on men becoming women (or being accepted as having done so) as a feminist issue (RSA Daily, 11 April, 2024).
I can see how allowing men to occupy spaces that women have been able to win – both physical, as in safe spaces and shelters, and institutional, as in sport and politics – is a feminist issue, and I can imagine how such encroachment by men would be alarming and indeed threatening.
I don’t think that because Meredith happens to land on the same side of the argument as those from the Right automatically makes her part of team “conservative backlash”. I “identify” as a leftie but I also reject the Orwellian restructuring of language that we are seeing.
My take is that it’s a science issue. Sex is fundamentally binary (the ability or potential to produce large or small gametes). Denying it is to deny reality.
My feeling is: if a man identifies as a woman, and wants to be referred to as “she”, it’s only polite to do so. I shouldn’t also be forced to accept that the said individual is literally female. They’re not. They’re a man experiencing dysmorphia.
Great to see Meredith having the courage to engage with this issue. It makes her a target, but she clearly isn't intimidated.
Aaron
Play time or danger time?
Dear Editor,
I foun...
