'What Is A Woman' Culture Warriors are Actually Radical | TaraElla Clips

The example of 'what is a woman' illustrates the problem with reactionary culture war politics, and why it can never be a truly conservative thing. In a tribalist, whatever it takes culture war, even those who claim to 'defend' the status quo will contribute to its destruction in the process. This is because taking a politics driven, 'us vs them' culture war approach inevitably distorts and damages important parts of our cultural inheritance, and such damages could be difficult to repair even long after the culture war is over.

On the surface, the culture war activists are claiming to 'defend' the traditional dictionary definition of woman as 'adult human female'. However, using this definition as a weapon in an ongoing culture war is certainly not in line with traditional practice at all, and certainly 'complicates' the category of woman. While there has always been broad agreement with the understanding of woman to mean 'adult human female', it has not generally been used to draw a rigid line to strictly define who is in the category or not, especially in a heated, culture war context. Doing so effectively makes the formerly universally accepted definition controversial, and makes it a point of constant argument in the face of 'borderline' cases that naturally exist. The attempt at rigid classification also provides plenty of room for postmodernist activists to attack the inconsistencies in its application to various 'borderline' cases, thus justifying their argument that the category is ultimately unstable or invalid. In return, those trying to 'defend' the category will likely come up with increasingly rigid and twisted definitions that defy both science and common sense. This cycle goes on and on, until it all becomes a meaningless war of language. In the name of 'defending' the status quo, the culture war activists are actually radically changing the status quo.

 

This is an excerpt from the article The Authoritarian Implications of the 'What Is A Woman' Wars by TaraElla.