British media is transphobic. In other news, water is wet.
Curious to see how the comments on this go. Everyone and their mum has an opinion to venture when it’s the latest “trans people bad” hit piece, curious if there’ll be as much interest without that
Disappointing but perhaps not surprising, The Times is hardly neutral on this issue. Many people reading this will find it hard to believe that this was an accident. There was a recent high profile case in which a woman was charged with rape as an accessory, it may only be a handful of cases, but it’s not unknown. Meanwhile some on the other side of the debate will probably say that this is further proof we need sex-based statistics. So further entrenchment all round.
> In February, 2021, a Times article claimed that in new guidance, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was telling staff in perinatal services to “say ‘chestfeeding’ instead of ‘breastfeeding’”, and to “replace the term ‘mother’”.
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> A quick glance through the trust’s guidance proves this claim to be categorically untrue, as it clearly states that it will be “taking a gender-additive approach”, which it says means “using gender-neutral language alongside the language of motherhood”.
So it’s only partly untrue, the hospital trust is introducing such nonsense terms, but they’re not replacing the sensible terms most of the time.
If you’re having a baby then you’re female. It’s one of the primary biological markers of sex.
> In the story, Massie claimed: “We pretend that women can — and do — commit rape… In England and Wales 436 male-bodied sex offenders were classified as women from 2012 to 2018.”
This one seems like an understandable mistake, it follows logically from the common belief that women can’t be charged with rape because it’s only rape if there’s penetration.
And it isn’t necessarily true that none of those women were trans women, they simply don’t have the figures to know either way. Really, those stats should include non-binary categories so policy can be better informed.
So yeah good that they’ve published corrections but I think it’s a bit of a non-story.
4 comments
British media is transphobic. In other news, water is wet.
Curious to see how the comments on this go. Everyone and their mum has an opinion to venture when it’s the latest “trans people bad” hit piece, curious if there’ll be as much interest without that
Disappointing but perhaps not surprising, The Times is hardly neutral on this issue. Many people reading this will find it hard to believe that this was an accident. There was a recent high profile case in which a woman was charged with rape as an accessory, it may only be a handful of cases, but it’s not unknown. Meanwhile some on the other side of the debate will probably say that this is further proof we need sex-based statistics. So further entrenchment all round.
> In February, 2021, a Times article claimed that in new guidance, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was telling staff in perinatal services to “say ‘chestfeeding’ instead of ‘breastfeeding’”, and to “replace the term ‘mother’”.
>
> A quick glance through the trust’s guidance proves this claim to be categorically untrue, as it clearly states that it will be “taking a gender-additive approach”, which it says means “using gender-neutral language alongside the language of motherhood”.
So it’s only partly untrue, the hospital trust is introducing such nonsense terms, but they’re not replacing the sensible terms most of the time.
If you’re having a baby then you’re female. It’s one of the primary biological markers of sex.
> In the story, Massie claimed: “We pretend that women can — and do — commit rape… In England and Wales 436 male-bodied sex offenders were classified as women from 2012 to 2018.”
This one seems like an understandable mistake, it follows logically from the common belief that women can’t be charged with rape because it’s only rape if there’s penetration.
And it isn’t necessarily true that none of those women were trans women, they simply don’t have the figures to know either way. Really, those stats should include non-binary categories so policy can be better informed.
So yeah good that they’ve published corrections but I think it’s a bit of a non-story.