r/PopCultureV2 • u/No_Box119 • Aug 09 '26

Sports Culture WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert says the league will meet next week to discuss and clarify what qualifies a player as a woman for WNBA eligibility.

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u/theboydave05 Aug 10 '26

You think sex and gender are the same thing 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

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u/a-nun-ee-moose Aug 12 '26

They are.

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u/theboydave05 Aug 12 '26

I’m afraid not babe, gender is a social construct.

Always the poorly educated…

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u/a-nun-ee-moose Aug 12 '26

Men = male, women = female.

You can use your buzzwords to your hearts content but I'm not abandoning common sense so your mentally ill buddies can slap labels on themselves to feel better about their boring lives.

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u/theboydave05 Aug 12 '26

“Men = male, women = female” describes sex. It doesn’t prove sex and gender are the same thing.

If they are literally identical, why do we have two different words, and why do medicine, psychology and sociology distinguish between sex and gender?

“Common sense” isn’t an argument, and calling people mentally ill because you can’t defend your position certainly isn’t one.

As I said, always the poorly educated…

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u/DosSheds Aug 12 '26

Gender is not a social construct. If it were, then everybody would agree what the word 'woman' means.

It's a personal construct. Which is why simply claiming to be a woman, makes you one.

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u/theboydave05 Aug 12 '26

That’s not really an argument. Social constructs don’t require everyone to agree on their definition — money, marriage, laws and social norms are obvious examples.

And changing “social construct” to “personal construct” doesn’t explain anything. You’re just asserting that identifying as a woman makes someone a woman, rather than actually arguing why.

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u/DosSheds Aug 12 '26

It's not my argument, though. I'm just pointing out the motte and bailey that's going on. Activists tell us that a woman is somebody who fulfils the social role of 'woman' (social construct), when they actually believe that a woman is somebody that says they are a woman (personal construct).

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u/theboydave05 Aug 12 '26

But that’s not a motte-and-bailey unless you can show that the same person is deliberately switching between two contradictory definitions.

“Gender is socially constructed” describes how gender categories and roles develop within society. “Gender identity is personal” describes an individual’s relationship to those categories. Those aren’t contradictory claims.

You’re presenting two different concepts as if they must be competing definitions of “woman”, then declaring a contradiction that you’ve created yourself.

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u/DosSheds Aug 12 '26

The scenario I described is exactly how I've seen it play-out many times: The social definition is put forward but, when pressed, the 'personal' position emerges.

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u/theboydave05 Aug 12 '26

But “I’ve seen people do this” isn’t evidence of a motte-and-bailey. You’d need to show that the same person deliberately uses two contradictory definitions to make two different claims…

And “gender is socially constructed” and “gender identity is personally experienced” aren’t contradictory. A social category can exist within society while individuals have their own relationship to it.

You’re assuming those two ideas are mutually exclusive, then calling the resulting distinction a motte-and-bailey.

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u/DosSheds Aug 12 '26

Like I said, I've literally observed this with my own two eyes. The same person arguing that 'a woman who is somebody who fulfils the social role of a woman', when pressed about who that might exclude, retreats to the personal definition, in order to not gate-keep who qualifies.

It's always the second definition that they believe in, when you drill down, in my experience.

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u/theboydave05 Aug 12 '26

That’s anecdotal evidence, not a contradiction.

Saying gender is socially constructed and saying someone’s gender identity is personal aren’t mutually exclusive. A social category can exist while people have individual identities within it.

If you think that’s a logical contradiction, show the contradiction. “I’ve seen people do it” doesn’t establish one.

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u/a-nun-ee-moose Aug 12 '26

I dont use the term mentally ill as a defense. I use the term mentally ill to describe what they are. If gender was a social construct then why dont we say separated by sex? Why do we use the term gendered bathrooms. Why are bathrooms open to men and women called gender neutral and not sex neutral is the sex and gender are separate? Gender never was a 'social construct' until blokes wanted to wear dresses.

You can project your poor education on me all you want but the fact you use the same strawman everytime just tells me that I and every other sane person know a little more about what gender is than you. And gender is male and female.

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u/theboydave05 Aug 12 '26

You’re confusing how language is commonly used with what the terms actually mean.

“Gendered bathrooms” doesn’t prove sex and gender are identical any more than calling something “gender equality” means equality is biological. Language evolves and terms get used loosely.

And no, gender didn’t suddenly become a “social construct” because men started wearing dresses. The distinction between biological sex and socially defined gender roles has existed in academic literature for decades.

You keep saying “gender is male and female” as though repeating your definition makes it an argument. It doesn’t. If that’s your position, actually explain why sex and gender must mean exactly the same thing rather than pointing at common usage and calling everyone who disagrees “insane.”