Complaining about 'assigned female at birth'

Makes you wonder why farmers bother paying for sexed semen, doesn't it? When they could just tell the calf he's (she? They? Dunno) a girl. Assigned heifer at birth. Maybe that's how they sex the semen - give it a stern talking to?

Great post 🙌🏽🙌🏽

Sex is no more "assigned at birth" than babies are "assigned" with two legs and two arms.

It is fixed at the moment of conception, irrevocably and immutably.
It is observed and documented at birth.

I would go so far as to say that even in the case of catastrophic DSDs where the genitalia is absolutely obscure, that sex is still not "assigned" and that they wait until the baby is karyotyped and found to be either male or female.

The days of arbitrarily chucking a "gender" at a child and hoping for the best are long gone since the advances in chromosomes and DNA.

The whole "assigned" at birth is a ploy by the TRA who would love for people to believe that sex is on a spectrum that one can float between on any given day, that there exists some sort of sliding scale and therefore that men can be women if they say so or vice versa.

The binary truth of sex does not comply with their narrative or their agenda, and using obscure language like "assigned at birth" plays into this ideology because it attempts to blur the lines between the sexes.

I know some people who still believe that all foetuses are female.

Biology has taken a nose dive since this ideology crept like a fungus on society. I believe it's mainly down to social media where a vast amount of trans "personalities" who have large followings of young people, spread disingenuous and factually incorrect nonsense which is touted as "truth". These youngsters will grow into adults who will then perpetrate the myths.

There's a reason why so many trans "personalities" are so keen to gain young followers.

Yes, I believe this is one of the intentions here: To suggest that biological sex may have been arbitrarily assigned to many more people than this ever could happen to, and that changing sex is therefore not only physically possible (it's not) but often necessary, to correct wrong assignments.

To me it suggests it is arbitrarily decided. It also gives the impression that it can easily be reassigned which ultimately is what some people want to be pushed.

Assigned could change meaning too.

maybe it should be invented or deluded or bullshit from now on

@JacquelinePot

Complain to the school, the governors, the DfE and your MP. The Government has already said schools aren't to teach such unmitigated bollocks.

^^This

I don’t think it’s a slur but I do think it’s gone from a factual description of something that happened to a tiny minority of babies (those born with one of a handful of very rare DSD conditions) to something that denotes a belief in a new, secular form of religion, via a process of cultural appropriation.

Someone declaring that I was ‘AFAB’ is just as meaningless to me as saying I was born a sinner and without the Christian rite of baptism I would be stuck in purgatory.

Marking me as a sinner, an infidel or a heretic on a data collection form would be just as inappropriate as marking me as AFAB.

so I do kinda get why it feels like a ‘slur’ but I don’t think slur is the correct description for what occurs when it’s asked of someone who doesn’t subscribe to the belief system.

It’s a bit like being asked what colour your aura is when you believe coloured auras are a pile of pish and there is no n/a option.

it would be fair enough if you were on a sign up form for the Auras-r-Us mailing list but completely inappropriate for a government department.

some words that mean assigned
allocate
appoint
designate

Why not ask the school to justify the expression?

It makes me mad too

'm struggling to see how a phrase which acknowledges binary biological sex in humans could be perceived as a slur.

It literally does not acknowledge binary biologiocal sex at birth

"Slur is usually reserved for words which have a long history in the use of subjugation or oppression ". Yep, meets your definition.

"Acknowledges binary biological sex". Oh no it doesn't. It implies that birth sex is not natal, biological sex.

I'm struggling to see how a phrase which acknowledges binary biological sex in humans could be perceived as a slur.

It's the 'assigned' which is the slur - not the 'female'. It's casting doubt on an unequivocal certainty, which is a fundamental part of your identity.

In terms of being a deliberate slur, it's a little bit like, say, you're the manager of a firm and somebody asks to be referred to you, and then you come out to assist them, are introduced to them, and they say "So, then, manager - if that is indeed what you are."

The woman used the term 'assigned female at birth' which I consider to be a slur

I understand that you're not comfortable with the use of the term because contextually it's used by people who are not gender critical, but what is the logic behind seeing it as a slur?

Slur is a strong word to use because it is usually reserved for words which have a long history in the use of subjugation or oppression. I'm struggling to see how a phrase which acknowledges binary biological sex in humans could be perceived as a slur.

Is your gender the same as you were assigned at birth?

For a company claiming to want to be inclusive and liberal, that's a very presumptuous, bigoted question to ask - assuming that everybody DOES have a gender.

I'd be inclined to play stupid and ask them how I could find out what gender I was assigned at birth, as nobody has ever mentioned this to you or told you what this could be. Might it be recorded somewhere on your birth certificate? If so, whereabouts would that be - as you've looked carefully at yours and can only see the box that says what your biological sex is; no mention of gender whatsoever.

@howmanybicycles I think this is an excellent letter, but I would end it by asking how they plan to correct the misinformation given by the external speaker. And I would copy in the chair of governors as well.

I was asked this question over the phone for the first time ever just last week. Is your gender the same as you were assigned at birth? I was shocked and corrected her. Looked up the org after and they are a top 100 Stonewall co. That explains that then. We have to call out this nonsense.

Usually long before that, these days. I don't know any younger mothers who wait to find out at the birth, its all early blood tests and gender reveal parties now.

Assigned female at birth is not even partially accurate. Nobody is assigned anything, it's just observed at birth or long before it.

Love the Mr Potato Head analogy. Gonna use that one. It makes it sound as bloody ridiculous as it is.

My children weren't assigned anything at birth. I gave birth to a girl and then I gave birth to a boy. I am sick to the back teeth of our children being targeted with this nonsense. Parents are not being consulted. This terminology is all being created to suit a minority of mentally ill men that are trying to use our children as their weapons in their war against women.

Complain to the school OP. tell them you consider this a slur against women let them know how furious you are that they are bringing outside organisations into the school to use inappropriate language in front of your child. See if you can get any other parents to support your claim. They have to know we won't tolerate this.

Do they have Harry Potter style sorting hats in hospitals assigning sex these days? 😂

Having just read an American blog about surrogacy and choosing the gender of the baby (I think they mean sex because we all know that word is to embarrassing to say out loud), not a mention of ‘assigned at birth’. Weird how when money is involved language changes too!

As an aside, my gt-gt-grandmother was originally certified as a boy on her birth certificate. Given that she had none of the priviledges of growing up as a man in the victorian era, and all of the disadvantages of being a woman (including giving birth 16 times!) , I tend to agree with the reissue that states that this was an error!

I wonder if that was caused by them having male-default forms and guidelines and an idiotic registrar.

One of my Great Aunts was repeatedly referred to as 'he' and other male terms at her funeral (before I was born - my DM told me about it) - I can only assume that the vicar had a standard order of service, giving male terms by default, and was too stupid or lazy to bother making sure that he changed them when the deceased person was female.

As an aside, my gt-gt-grandmother was originally certified as a boy on her birth certificate. Given that she had none of the priviledges of growing up as a man in the victorian era, and all of the disadvantages of being a woman (including giving birth 16 times!) , I tend to agree with the reissue that states that this was an error!

I was nearly assigned something at birth when the midwife observed that my tongue didn't quite fit in my mouth which was an indicator for what was then called mongolism. Imagine my mothers reaction if I had been "assigned mongol at birth". No other sign of Downs though. Or expertise at shooting arrows from a galloping pony.
AFAB, AMAB is just as daft as that