Elizabeth Nolan Brown: Ben Shapiro Should Be Punched For Not Believing That "Transwomen" Are Women

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I like Elizabeth Nolan Brown (not that I know her personally), and everybody makes mistakes. But this nonsense really has to stop. "Transwomen" aren't women; they're men who represent themselves as women. It's an open-and-shut case. Some argue that we should humor them--that we should go along with the charade. I disagree--but the arguments there are at least worth discussing.
   But this isn't really a disagreement about whether or not they're actually women; I doubt that anyone outside the most groupthinky women's studies department honestly believes that they are. These disagreements (as somebody...Jonathan Haidt maybe?) says: these issues become symbolic. Affirming that "transwomen" are women is almost always, I'd guess, a bit of virtue signaling. And/or a  way of proclaiming allegiance to a certain tribe. Only the most pomo-addled Butlerian feminist really thinks that men can become women by putting on dresses and whatnot. To confuse so-called transwomen with actual women is to confuse womanhood with femininity. "Transwomen" would less-confusingly be called "transmen." But getting people to say "transwomen" is a beachhead. It's a station on the way to getting them to say 'women.' (Though, of course, convincing people to change the meaning of 'woman' won't make men into women either, any more than getting them to use 'dog' to mean cat will turn dogs into cats.)
   Standard disclaimer: people should be able to look and dress how they want. But it's downright creepy. as. hell. that so many people have allowed themselves to be badgered into insisting that night is day basically because they don't want people to say that they're mean. Or, worse: conservative. And, of course, if you don't go along, you're harassed by the shrieking PC mob. And now even ENB thinks you should be punched.
   But freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.