What is a woman? My discussion on a Freedom From Religion Foundation website (Coyne)

[C C]

https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2024/12/2...s-website/

EXCERPTS (Jerry Coyne): So here’s the story. I’m not only a member  and supporter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, but am also on its Honorary Board.  Thus I was doubly distressed when I saw the post below on their website Freethought Now!, a post that completely ignores the widely-accepted biological definition of a woman—one based on the possession of a reproductive apparatus evolved to produce large immobile gametes—in favor of a definition based on self-identification.

[...] Recently-confected and ideological definitions of “woman” not only offend me as a biologist, but they have nothing to do with the mission of the FFRF.  So I asked if I could make these points in a response...

[...] in the comments section below my piece, I am accused of all manner of perfidy. Yes, some people agree with what I said, but it’s amazing that a piece on the biological definition of “woman” can elicit stuff like this... (MORE - details)

[Syne]

They're only pro-science when it affirms their bias, pro-America when they're in power, pro-free speech when it agrees with them, etc., etc...

[confused2]

In socialist (communist?) UK the state allocates resources like maternity wards based on the number of potential child bearers in their catchment area. NOT the total number of folks identifying as female. Females identifying as male continue to be potential child bearers regardless of their mind set at the time.

[Magical Realist]

It sounds very good on paper, that we all agree on what a woman is defined as. But in the messy everyday real world it will not matter in the long run. Just as it always has been, if it looks like a woman, walks like woman, dresses as a woman, and calls itself a women, then it's a woman. Nobody questions this identity except where it involves gender exclusive situations like going out for the women's sports team or using a women's public restroom. But that's a very rare occasion.

[Syne]

It matters in medical diagnosis. But if people are fine with others dying so those with gender dysphoria can try to mandate speech like fascists...
One way or another, fascists always end up killing people.

[C C]

Followup....

The FFRF removed my piece on the biological definition of “woman”
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2024/12/2...-of-woman/

EXCERPTS Several things are clear, including a point I’ve made before: the FFRF has a remarkable ability to place any kind of antiwoke ideology under the rubric of “Christian nationalism.” That’s why I wrote in my now-expunged piece, “As a liberal atheist, I am about as far from Christian nationalism as one can get!”  And of course I support LGBTQIA+ rights, save in those few cases where those rights conflict with the rights of other groups, as in sports participation...

[...] But it’s the last six paragraphs of the FFRF’s post where they explain why they took down my piece. It is because it caused “distress” and “did not reflect [the FFRF’s] values or principles.”  ... Does the FFRF think that sex is really a spectrum, that there are more than two sexes in humans, or that the most useful definition of biological sex doesn’t involve gamete size? I don’t know, nor do they say.

I’m distressed that it’s come to this, as I’ve always been a big supporter of the FFRF and its historical mission [...] But when they start censoring my words because, though biologically justifiable, they are ideologically unpalatable, that is just too much....

[...] How sad it is that one of the nation’s premier organizations promoting “freethought” won’t permit that kind of thought on their website, but instead quashes what they see as “wrongthink.” (MORE - details)