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Pregnant people?! It's 'women'

405 replies

BIWI · 19/09/2023 14:57

Two links to surveys today, from Kings College London and Cardiff University. Both surveys wanting to speak to 'pregnant people'.

It's women who get pregnant and give birth. Male members of our society are unable to conceive, grow and birth babies.

Please, please, please - why are you accepting these requests? Do you not read them first? (Especially seeing as you allow them to post their links for free).

I'm appalled that Mumsnet is now complicit in erasing the word 'woman'.

OP posts:
GSDmom · 19/09/2023 19:31

It astounds me how many people seem to be confused about the difference between sex and gender here.

Cherrylily7 · 19/09/2023 19:29

Absolute madness
The world frightens me in every single way these days
Everything is broken, literally everything
Nowhere is safe for women and now we are even allowed to call ourselves women
What next?

OooohAhhhh · 19/09/2023 19:27

I won't complete any survey until they refer to us for what we are: Women.
It's all getting rather silly now isn't it.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 19/09/2023 19:27

Trans men can get pregnant.

Yes, they are women. A woman is simply an adult female of the human species. There's no value judgement. You can't change your sex.

Kezhoust2586 · 19/09/2023 19:27

Unfortunately, the world has gone bloody bonkers. And you can't say,advertise, or do anything in case it offends the snowflakes .
WOMEN give birth and only WOMEN .
I'll probably get backlash for using the word "snowflakes" but sorry not sorry 😂

Ereshkigalangcleg · 19/09/2023 19:25

Sorry, my quote marks didn't take.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 19/09/2023 19:24

don't think we have to neccesarily list out every protected characteristic individually in order to protect people, fwiw

Why do they mention them, do you think? Why not just have one mass of "people"?

actualpuffins · 19/09/2023 19:24

EstieGreenwood · 19/09/2023 19:17

I’m a pregnant woman who is puking my guts up every single day after having experienced loss and TTC troubles and the last thing I care about in the world is the term ‘pregnant people’. Trans men can get pregnant. Would you prefer they say ‘pregnant women and pregnant trans men?’ Honestly, don’t you PEOPLE have better things to think about?

Edited

Exactly.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 19/09/2023 19:23

It's at the heart of why you haven't grasped the problem, @actualpuffins, that's why I'm asking. Pregnancy is a woman's health issue, a women's financial issue, a women's employment issue. It's a key area for discrimination against women.

AccidentallyWesAnderson · 19/09/2023 19:23

Any examples of transphobia on MN?

actualpuffins · 19/09/2023 19:22

Ereshkigalangcleg · 19/09/2023 19:20

Some people who would never consider themselves homophobic, racist, disablist and sexist seem to come out with some horribly transphobic things from time to time on MN, so on that issue seem to be in alignment with people in category 1.

Hence why I made the point.

Some people who would consider themselves much more righteous than thou seem to come out with some horribly sexist and misogynistic things from time to time on MN and elsewhere. So on that issue seem to be in alignment with people in category 1.

Yes, I'm sure they do.

GrumpyPanda · 19/09/2023 19:22

Sethos · 19/09/2023 16:54

May I ask a question of the posters objecting to the use of “pregnant people”?

Do you object to the use of additive language - ie “pregnant women and birthing people” and “mothers and birthing parents”? I understand that it sounds quite clunky and unwieldy, but in terms of not erasing ‘women’ and ‘mother’ from maternity discourse, are those terms better?

You'll get different views, but no, it's only marginally better in my view. It's not only "clunky", it's also absurd and illogical. And it doesn't take away the (in my eyes) main problem, the redefinition of "woman" from a sex term to a gender identity term. I refuse to be forcibly defined as a feminine person rather than a female person with a personality all of my own, and that's what's implied with the use of additive language.

actualpuffins · 19/09/2023 19:21

Ereshkigalangcleg · 19/09/2023 19:15

Any comments on this point @actualpuffins ?

I don't think we have to neccesarily list out every protected characteristic individually in order to protect people, fwiw, and the language used should be tailored for the circumstances. It wasn't my original comment, perhaps ask the poster who made it to respond.

SwordToFlamethrower · 19/09/2023 19:20

Absolutely horrendous, not acceptable at all

Ereshkigalangcleg · 19/09/2023 19:20

Some people who would never consider themselves homophobic, racist, disablist and sexist seem to come out with some horribly transphobic things from time to time on MN, so on that issue seem to be in alignment with people in category 1.

Hence why I made the point.

Some people who would consider themselves much more righteous than thou seem to come out with some horribly sexist and misogynistic things from time to time on MN and elsewhere. So on that issue seem to be in alignment with people in category 1.

RedToothBrush · 19/09/2023 19:18

Women should refuse to do these surveys and tell these institutions, that they are affecting the quality of research by causing a group - which may be economically or socially self selecting in other ways - to self exclude.

EasternStandard · 19/09/2023 19:17

actualpuffins · 19/09/2023 19:10

  1. Some people who espouse transphobic views are also homophobic, racist, disablist and sexist or some delightful combination of the above.
  1. Some people who would never consider themselves homophobic, racist, disablist and sexist seem to come out with some horribly transphobic things from time to time on MN, so on that issue seem to be in alignment with people in category 1.

Hence why I made the point.

  1. I've read some horrific anti-women bigotry also on the part of some TRAs, mostly elsewhere on the internet and not on MN.

I wouldn't like to consider myself a bed fellow with any of the above, personally.

Talking about women as a sex class is not ‘transphobic’ it’s biological reality

EstieGreenwood · 19/09/2023 19:17

I’m a pregnant woman who is puking my guts up every single day after having experienced loss and TTC troubles and the last thing I care about in the world is the term ‘pregnant people’. Trans men can get pregnant. Would you prefer they say ‘pregnant women and pregnant trans men?’ Honestly, don’t you PEOPLE have better things to think about?

actualpuffins · 19/09/2023 19:17

What is the point of this nonsense? People who give birth are women. They are adult human females. They can be called Dave and dress like a teddy boy. They can wear men’s shoes on their (size 5) feet. They can even take hormones to give them a bum fluff beard and male pattern baldness, but if they have the equipment that enables them to get pregnant they’re a woman. Being pregnant and giving birth is something only a woman - an adult human female - can do.

Do you regularly find trans people to tell them of these kind of views?

If not transphobic, it just seems rude, like going up to gay male couples and pointing out they can't have children and so on. I just wish there were a trans person or several here to give their views.

EasternStandard · 19/09/2023 19:16

But if they are men legally they are entitled to be called men or male. How do you deal with that in printed/online materials so as not to break the law?

Do as Prostate Cancer UK does and address women with clarity, use an asterisk if needed elsewhere

First paragraph

1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer. If you’re over 50, or you’re black, or your dad or brother had it, you’re at even higher risk.

Just plain English and the word men generally hadn’t been attacked in the same way as women has in marketing and information

Ereshkigalangcleg · 19/09/2023 19:15

GoodOldEmmaNess · 19/09/2023 18:56

The whole of my feminism has been based around the fact that female people are people.

That's just great. Presumably your support for the social justice claims of other disadvantaged groups are also based on the fact that they are people, so let's just progressively dismantle the language we have for naming each of these groups so that we can advocate on their behalf without the shamefully regressive tactic of naming them.

Any comments on this point @actualpuffins ?

WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps · 19/09/2023 19:14

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · Today 19:02

Female people are people. Male people are people. The reason we need feminism, or women's liberation if you prefer, is because for much of human history women have been treated as second-rate humans, subservient to men, often considered as defective, ridiculously overcomplicated variants on the perfect version of the human form, i.e. the male.

Annoyingly, these weak creatures are the only ones capable of gestation, birth and making milk to feed a baby. So we are tolerated, but not always credited with any intelligence or resilience or capacity to do anything very much except pander to the male, do the cleaning and cooking, and bring up the children.

It's taken generations of women working tirelessly to get away from this nonsense. And it's taken just a few short years of gender ideology to put all of that into reverse.

Very moving post, very thought-provoking, and very accurate. Also quite depressing, and sad... But as I said, accurate, and true. Sad

👏👏 👏

JulesJules · 19/09/2023 19:14

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

ILikeDungs · 19/09/2023 19:12

@Cailleachian
Where did your identification with the gender of woman come from if it wasnt socially constructed?

Can you expand on this question? I don't really understand it as written.

GrumpyPanda · 19/09/2023 19:12

actualpuffins · 19/09/2023 16:49

But if they are men legally they are entitled to be called men or male. How do you deal with that in printed/online materials so as not to break the law?

Simple. You deal with it exactly the same way the BBC deals with the migrant/refugee clusterfuck: by using an asterix and a disclaimer upon first use of the word - in this case to state that "the term 'woman' in this publication is used to include a, b, and c."

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