I don't have to understand why one might pretend to be a man when really a woman. To me, the psychology of the thing is abstruse.

Thomas Beatie is a man with a uterus and a vagina. No, not really, she is a woman with a beard and amputated breasts. I'm unconcerned with her private life and her self-image. But I'm insulted by the media's conspicuous, though unapologetic misuse of the language.

Here's what I'm reminded of: I've a fairly brilliant 5 year old daughter whose altar ego is CrowGirl. There's a lot to this, i.e., costume, crow sounds, a baby sister side-kick called Egg (hold your plagiaristic pens, boys, I've already copyrighted it.) Thing is, there are days when, if I want to avoid unnecessary difficulties, I have to call her CrowGirl. I have to call her baby sister Egg. (the baby doesn't care, but CrowGirl does.)

So I go along with it. I indulge her little fantasy. (I also hope to profit from it as her adventures are quite engaging.) Sometimes I indulge her so well, she says, "You're only kidding mom, right? I'm really your little J****."

CrowGirl is five years old and knows that language-- what you call things-- how you describe things-- is important.

I know it too. The media wants me to suspend vocabulary and indulge Thomas Beaty's little fantasy.

No.

I've given birth a few times myself. When each baby is born, we check the genitals and make a gender ID. It works every time. The girls have vaginas. The boys penises. It's a fairly simple system. Natural law, and all that. Is Thomas Beaty a woman? Was she born with a vagina? Yes and she's still using it.

Care to explain your understanding (or lack thereof) of the difference between "sex" and "gender?"

Be careful here. Pointing out to some posters here that a vagina is a gender thing will have them label you a sexist. If you insist you are correct you will be accused of misogyny.

Just a friendly heads up.

NickD, thanks for the heads up but misogyny just won't do. Some of my best friends are women.

Gender: a. (in many languages) a set of classes that together include all nouns, membership in a particular class being shown by the form of the noun itself or by the form or choice of words that modify, replace, or otherwise refer to the noun, as, in English, the choice of he to replace the man, of she to replace the woman, of it to replace the table, of it or she to replace the ship. The number of genders in different languages varies from 2 to more than 20; often the classification correlates in part with sex or animateness. The most familiar sets of genders are of three classes (as masculine, feminine, and neuter in Latin and German

Sex: . either the male or female division of a species, esp. as differentiated with reference to the reproductive functions

Archaeopteryx, should I rewrite my excellent top post to satisfy your semantics or might you be placated with this? When we ID the gender of each child, the classifications are either male or female. So far, we've not had to investigate other languages to determine any of the other 18 possibilities. A quick peek is all it takes to differentiate between feminine offspring and masculine offspring.

ZeusBoy, a tuppenny shite? If I didn't see him dead with my own eyes, I'd swear you were my father. He wasn't my favorite either.

waltz

Waltz,

It does not matter if the accusation is accurate here. It just has to make the accuser feel rightous in their indignation.

Thanks Nick, for being a nice guy giving a friendly warning.

As for righteous indignations, my top post would demonstrate I've got a few of my own. But it matters to me that I'm accurate, as my top post would also suggest.

But what do you say-- I mean, if you had to give half a damn-- is Thomas Beatie a man?

Well if i was forced to care about what gender this individual should be classified under I would say that he is a woman. Regardless what gender operations she undertakes we now know that womens brains indeed are wired differently than mans. Until sex changes can rewire the brain then a man will always be a man and a woman will always be a woman.

cogent. concise. logical.

a fine summation.

I've a fairly brilliant 5 year old daughter

Oh Christ, not another one.

I tell ya, the Fray is in danger any minute now of slipping into Lake Woebegon (where all the children are above average ...)

We need Fraysters who'll talk about their kids like those wonderful bumperstickers do ...

My kid can beat up your honor-roll student any day.

Hi NT,

Just because you asked:

Read between the lines a little. The 5 year old's altar ego is a crow. Kismet, I'm telling you. She makes life miserable if I don't indulge her CrowGirl days because she can be mean as hell.

My kid can beat up your honor-roll student any day. We have him, too. He's the kid that we'll never look back and laugh. Instead we'll wonder how we survived. At 23, he's already been homeless for a year (he lived under a bridge) been missing for a year and a half (a private detective couldn't find him) hospitalized, evicted, hired, fired, beat up, overdosed, observed for 72 hours, and county jailed.

Here's a dating tip: if you've access to a dorm room shower, homelessness is not an obstacle to dating. College women living on their parents fifty are nuts for a guy who lives under a bridge. Homelessness, especially in the winter, can be a real dating pool plus. Suffer like you mean. it

In a line-up, our kids either look like they've been raised in the company of saints or they look like they were raised by wolves. We think the nature vs. nurture argument has been decided. Nature every time.

We don't take it personal.

Any thoughts on my original post? Besides that it's crap, I mean.

....that you can tell how someone's brain is "wired" without dissecting the brain. That's a pretty cool superpower. Except that it's only useful in very specific circumstances.

Any thoughts on my original post? Besides that it's crap, I mean.

It's not that the post was crap, WurlitzerCapstan.

It's that the whole incident that prompted it was not worth anyone's post about - it's another Pavlovian event in the kennel of Internet dogs waiting to salivate.

So that raises the question of whether a worthy post can be made about a post-unworthy incident.

Kinda like the question that TheBell and I were discussing - is it safe to evaluate a claim before evaluating its premises?

You still haven't defined "natural law." You haven't explained why your post "bears repeating." And now, I guess I need a definition of "excellent," because your post seems to me to be nothing but a demonstration of your own prejudices. I'm not sure how that's "excellent."

....that you can tell how someone's brain is "wired" without dissecting the brain. That's a pretty cool superpower. Except that it's only useful in very specific circumstances.

It's true. And under what very specific circumstances were yours dissected?

This is nice, Nairobi: WurlitzerCapstan. Lyrical, open to interpretation-- the sturdier twin to Musical Windlass.

As for the pavlovian event-- I concede-- almost. I'm not saying, "my father's brother" just yet. Consider this is more than 'man bites dog" story. A little social engineering I think.

You haven't explained why your post "bears repeating." because I originally posted it under another thread.

And now, I guess I need a definition of "excellent," because your post seems to me to be nothing but a demonstration of your own prejudices.
look it up. you'll see my post in the entry. as for prejudices, you're right. my prejudices are such: penis- masculine. vagina-- feminine. guess how they determined the sex of their new baby girl?

I'm not sure...
Yes, I can tell it's a problem for you.

so, whaddya think, Archaeo, all your minutiae protestations aside, she's a woman, right?

It is scientifically proven that women and men have differrent brain functions. The brains are literally wired differently. There is no mind reading or super powers connected to that.