Did anyone see the ITV News piece about of water bills on customers?

So adoptive mothers aren't allowed to use the word mother, by that logic.

I do think that Mika should be on TV a lot more talking about being a mother.

Is it some sort of psychological tactic, distracting viewers from the message they’re supposedly being given? Using a male person as a ‘mum’ is obviously going to take viewers’ attention. But why would the filmmakers do this? It’s surely the opposite of what they’re aiming for?

Baffled.

Or maybe the news story is a flimsy cover for a bit of propaganda. Actually, that would make sense. A shame that news reporters would rather push ideologies than tackle serious issues. But that’s where we are.

Unbaffled now!

Right, so posters on here now think the only definition of mother is "the status given to the person who undergoes the physical and biological process of being pregnant, carrying and giving birth to a child"?

Yes. This all day.

Presumably those fall within the category of "using water" (i.e. relevant to the story) and "able to broadcast on TV" (i.e not someone in the bath) though.

I don't think this is a commentary on "women's work".

Just posting this from the AIBU thread:

Mother is a term defined in law. It has specific legal meaning which gives us rights.

"the status given to the person who undergoes the physical and biological process of being pregnant, carrying and giving birth to a child."

It is not a man's to use nor for any woman to blithely give it away to because she doesn't understand its importance.

@Flickersy - I apologise. The breast pump had already been washed. But its appearance in shot was no coincidence

Sorry but this is ridiculous. You have no idea about this person's household, who picks up the emotional load or who does the bulk of household chores. It is ridiculous to imply that a trans woman inherently cannot fathom the impact of a cost of living issue on running a home in the way that a cisgender woman could.

How families refer to themselves is entirely up to them. If this woman's child calls her mum, then she is most certainly free to call herself a mum. It has absolutely no bearing on anyone else.

It really highlights that anyone claiming this whole ideology is all about 'protecting women' is nonsense. Insisting that a trans woman isn't even allowed to refer to herself as a mum, or should be blackballed from commenting on an issue affecting her, isn't protecting women - it's rank transphobia and nothing more.

I've watched it, he's washing up a plate? The thing that looks a bit like a breast pump is just sitting there.

It's funny how language policing is a one way street isn't it?

Mika Minio-Paluello has complained about TfL using the term 'ladies and gentlemen' on the grounds it's exclusionary to people like him.

And yet women aren't allowed to object to men coopting women's word.

Mika says 'if you're a mum like me'. No one is a mum like him because he is male. Only women can be mums. He can call himself the grand empress poobah, ruler of the known universe at home for all I can.

But on national television, no thanks.

No man can be a mother.

Or you could stop policing how other families refer to themselves?

@TeaKlaxon I get what you’re saying. I think the anger is that ‘Mum’ is not a neutral term. Women all know the emotional load that comes with being a mother. We know that reducing water used in domestic chores will usually be a woman’s issue. So it’s quite insulting to have a person with a totally different lived experience being given a chance to talk on behalf of mothers.

Thanks for this thread.

I walked back into the room as this bit of the news report was playing and wondered wtf was going on!

I wonder how many people watching the report in full stopped listening to what was being said as they started wondering if the channel had spliced in a bit of film from some comedy.

Funny - NOT funny.

There's a thread on AIBU!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4838112-to-think-men-can-never-be-mothers

MN had a look at it and, presumably, it passed.....unlike.....

Not only cosplaying women ... cosplaying poverty fucking hell

Also how is 'Climate & Industry Lead TUC', presumably on a decent wage,

'struggling to get the things my kid needs'?

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mika-minio-paluello-76041b21b

Good responce by Rosie Duffield

https://twitter.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1674349733484150784

Weird, it's smallened the link to one wee 's'. It's a youtube clip of Mika talking about 'ladies and gentlemen' and how sometimes he's offended by being called a 'lady' and sometimes not.

s

They also seem to have been an interviewee/talking head on energy and rising costs in the past. Not just a random person.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Describing self as 'mum'? Works for the TUC on 'climate and industry'? Surely, there ought to have been some detail about the latter's job even if we weren't supposed to notice that the person wasn't a 'mum'? How are we supposed to give credence to news reports like this?