An email sent to a news outlet in NZ re: Canadian Shooter

Great email OP. I am in the process of writing a similar one to complain to an Irish newspaper who are still using female pronouns to describe this male shooter. My trust in mainstream media decreases every day!

This is not a woman's crime and should be reported on accurately.

Reporting should be accurate, wherever it's from- it is more respectful to the victims who are the most important people in this. Inaccuracies cause more confusion for the rest of the reading public. As we have seen before, people are often confused between the terms 'transwoman' ie the general public asking " is this a woman identifying as a man or a man identifying as a woman?"

I do wish this confused boy had more help for his mental health. His mother tried to help but was murdered first?
This is a male person and all the obfuscating and does not help.
He wouldn't know whether you respect his pronouns or not

OP I admire your tenacity in remaining polite in the face of rudeness or dismissive and patronising replies from posters who for example, just told you to go for a walk.
FFS

So in other words, ladies, don't worry your pretty little heads about it? Who the hell are you to lecture women on not being concerned about male appropriation exactly?

Surveys have shown that the general public are very confused by the relatively newly invented trans terminology.

There is no such thing as a male female. While treating people respectfully is important, the truth (especially in a news outlet) is even more important.

It is not respectful to women to pretend that some men are also women.

Simple. If you were born with a dongle and a Y chromosome, you are a man. If you were born with a vagina and two X chromosomes, you are a woman. Everything else is sophistry.

It does amuse me how many posters who dish out this sort of advice are here on these threads totally NOT following their own advice.

I’m sure as it has temporarily stopped raining, we will all whizz out and enjoy some spring flowers.

It doesn’t change the fact that no one has ever changed sex in the history of the world, men calling themselves women is harmful to women and it is important for news outlets to report the facts.

I’m off to check out my camellias which have just started and I’ve got some stunning jasmine perfuming the conservatory. Back later.

No, if you google the name and look at "images" there are several. It is obvious from the recent one that the murderer was male.

I cannot imagine this story being in your consciousness and THIS being what has “confused” you.

What kind of fuckwit would put on a dress to go shooting?

Will you let us know, OP, if you get a reply?

I think that the more people complain about the lack of clarity in news being reported, hopefully better standards will apply. I found the ABC (Australia) clung to describing the shooter as a woman long after it also made a brief sentence about the shooter was male. They continued to have it in the headline.

The BBC was marginally better.

A quick google explains the reasoning behind the journalists choice. It appears that the publication they write for says in its style guide that you should use the pronouns that the person uses for themself.

That was made clear in the article

That is a good email 2021x!

I think you've forgotten that whilst most Mumsnetters support transgender people. We also ask for clarity and we also want to be clear on actual sex rather than perceived sex. In this case the shooter was a biological male.

Agree if that’s what the radio said that they didn’t give the full picture. This article, on the other hand, was not misleading in my opinion

@2021x Stuff likely didn’t have anyone put any thought into this article. It is just publishing content by the Associated Press like numerous other news outlets around the world. Probably best to reach out to the journalists from the Associated Press directly.

In the English language the pronoun "she" means a female person or animal. In this instance the person referred to is not female, so it is factually incorrect. Journalism is not about being kind and humouring people.

And no, everyone doesn’t have "a right to be respected" if "being respected" means forcing everyone else to use the language you prefer but which they don’t want to use because it is inaccurate.

Well I heard a radio report where the shooter was described as a female shooter. I was very surprised as it’s unusual for women to commit these kind of crimes. How often do they actually fit the stereotype of a young, disaffected male with mental health issues and distanced from the world? It’s better to be honest because these males need better mental health treatment rather than just supporting their delusions.

It’s even more confusing if you frame them as female. The shooter really didn’t look like a woman, whatever their pronouns. If they were still at large this would cause serious confusion. They should have been termed a TW or male transitioning to TW if people’s lives were at risk. This may not have been the case here as the shooter was already dead but it’s a point of principle.

We had a rapist here in the UK of a teen boy who was described as female. Very confusing until you read they were a six foot two TW or maybe just man disguised as a woman. What if you had actually been a witness but didn’t ring the police because you wouldn’t have recognised the description from the early media reports.

They did no such thing - did you read the article? They explain that this is a trans person in the article so they have clearly stated the facts and chosen to refer to the person in the way they prefer which isn’t misleading anyone

This man shot other people. Personally I don't care what pronouns he wanted people to use.