Identity Politics
In this day and age of "Identity Politics", there are quite a few people who say that someone should just "identify with whatever they want". And however they choose to identify is what they should be considered to be. Frankly, this is a horrible approach. The problem is that, without a consistent definition, a term loses all meaning. The very point of a label, like any word, is to explain something about what it is attached to. If there are a dozen different explanations for the label, then the label, in effect, means nothing. For example, let's consider the word "lion". What is a "lion"? If you imagine a lion, you (hopefully) picture a large cat, around the size of a pony when full-grown, with a tan (or white) coat, broad features, and possibly a mane (if male). These are the characteristics of the animal described by the word "lion". (Not to mention a common, shared genetic structure.) If I were to say that my pet cat were ...