What is a woman?

Several weeks ago I wrote about a YouTube interview with Kathleen Stock.  It inspired me to request Stock's book, Material Girls, from the library.

I got an email from the library this morning -- finally it's my turn.  I'll aim to pick up the book in the next few days.

Meanwhile, to get me in a certain frame of mind I watched Abigail Thorn's video:

As I suggested in my earlier post, I want to try to get clearer in my head why we might choose to use one definition of the word "woman" over another.  Why does Stock choose to use the "adult human female" definition over the others?  And how does choosing that linguistic/conceptual framework then logically (and socially) carve up our world?  Is this a better way of carving up our world than some other way?  And better for whom?

To put it in the context of Thorne's video, to what extent is Stock engaging in Earth 2 thinking, and to what extent is her definition of woman like the Earth 2 definition of schmite (is that how it's spelt?!)?