Page 14 | 'Pregnant people'

StickySundew · 2026-08-18T17:01:54+00:00

I know there are more important battles, but this pisses me off and we've learned that gender-centric language is used as a wedge. Only women get pregnant. Don't try to erase the relevance of female sex. This doesn't happen to men - all the info my friend with prostate cancer gets refers to men with prostate cancer, not 'people with prostate cancer'. There'd be outrage and a lot of hurt if someone tried to set up support for 'people with prostate cancer'. This time it was the Food Standards Agency, issuing a reminder about the groups most at risk from salmonella poisoning. I just wanted to let off steam. So that I have a bit more excuse, let's have an utterly pointless voodoo poll to see how many enablers and TRAs are hanging around.

ButlerianJihadNow · 27/08/2026 19:33

I'm going with pregnant carbon-based life forms to be extra-inclusive like

6ate9 · 27/08/2026 19:52

ButlerianJihadNow · 27/08/2026 19:33

I'm going with pregnant carbon-based life forms to be extra-inclusive like

You are then excluding the carbon-based life forms that can’t become pregnant!

The vast majority of carbon-based life-including plants, fungi, bacteria, insects, and birds—reproduce through seeds, spores, cell division, or laying eggs rather than carrying an embryo inside a body.

Peregrina · 27/08/2026 19:58

The vast majority of carbon-based life-including plants, fungi, bacteria, insects, and birds—reproduce through seeds, spores, cell division, or laying eggs rather than carrying an embryo inside a body.

Please tell us who lays the eggs?
I found out the other day that nettles are both male and female.

6ate9 · 27/08/2026 20:07

Peregrina · 27/08/2026 19:58

The vast majority of carbon-based life-including plants, fungi, bacteria, insects, and birds—reproduce through seeds, spores, cell division, or laying eggs rather than carrying an embryo inside a body.

Please tell us who lays the eggs?
I found out the other day that nettles are both male and female.

I never knew that about nettles!

We should probably ask @Mouldemort who lays the eggs. I don’t want to get it wrong!

Original poster

StickySundew · 27/08/2026 20:19

There's a genus of plants that do change sex.

Arisaema start out male, then when the tuber is large enough become female. If stress or resource depletion causes the tuber to shrink enough, back to male.
https://adventurousplants.co.uk/how-to-pollinate-arisaema/

OP posts:

Original poster

StickySundew · 27/08/2026 20:21

@6ate9 Most plants lead sex lives that the average human would consider debauched and utterly irresponsible.

OP posts:

6ate9 · 27/08/2026 20:29

StickySundew · 27/08/2026 20:21

@6ate9 Most plants lead sex lives that the average human would consider debauched and utterly irresponsible.

Thanks! I’ve haven’t thought about a plant’s sex life since leaving school!

ElenOfTheWays · 27/08/2026 20:57

StickySundew · 27/08/2026 20:21

@6ate9 Most plants lead sex lives that the average human would consider debauched and utterly irresponsible.

I'll never look at my rose bushes the same way again 🌹

6ate9 · 27/08/2026 21:46

ElenOfTheWays · 27/08/2026 20:57

I'll never look at my rose bushes the same way again 🌹

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“Loveliest of lovely things are they,
On earth, that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower. “

RapidOnsetGenderCritic · 27/08/2026 22:48

StickySundew · 27/08/2026 20:21

@6ate9 Most plants lead sex lives that the average human would consider debauched and utterly irresponsible.

And I've often wondered whether sundews are offensive to vegetarians.

Soupsavior · 28/08/2026 12:45

iwishitwouldstartraining · 27/08/2026 13:29

The youngest pregnant CHILD I've been aware of was 5 years old

Lina Medina in 1939?

Thankfully few children experience both rape and precocious puberty. It's not a rational reason to avoid the word 'woman' when referring to pregnancy.

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Child safeguarding is the rational reason. Equating puberty with womanhood is the age old adultification trope that has always enabled the abuse of young girls and kept them unsafe..Nobody has avoided the word woman in any of my own pregnancies. When it comes to language around pregnancy, protecting child safeguarding standards comes first every time, if that means using people to avoid adultification of young pregnant girls, fine. I'd rather that than language that perpetuates the idea that children are sexually matured.

6ate9 · 28/08/2026 12:52

Soupsavior · 28/08/2026 12:45

Child safeguarding is the rational reason. Equating puberty with womanhood is the age old adultification trope that has always enabled the abuse of young girls and kept them unsafe..Nobody has avoided the word woman in any of my own pregnancies. When it comes to language around pregnancy, protecting child safeguarding standards comes first every time, if that means using people to avoid adultification of young pregnant girls, fine. I'd rather that than language that perpetuates the idea that children are sexually matured.

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I agree with you about child safeguarding. But ‘young pregnant girls’ would be fine instead of using the word ‘people’.

MrsOvertonsWindow · 28/08/2026 12:59

Good to see the discussions about safeguarding. But always worth remembering that transactivists insistent that the words women and girls must be replaced with people have zero concern or empathy for women and girls.
They're only interested in derailing. If they can remove the words woman and girl from pregnancy / maternity that would be a huge win for them.

Which is why our response should be the classic Mumsnet sentence - NO.

iwishitwouldstartraining · 28/08/2026 13:02

Soupsavior · 28/08/2026 12:45

Child safeguarding is the rational reason. Equating puberty with womanhood is the age old adultification trope that has always enabled the abuse of young girls and kept them unsafe..Nobody has avoided the word woman in any of my own pregnancies. When it comes to language around pregnancy, protecting child safeguarding standards comes first every time, if that means using people to avoid adultification of young pregnant girls, fine. I'd rather that than language that perpetuates the idea that children are sexually matured.

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Nobody has avoided the word woman in any of my own pregnancies.

Great!

Equating puberty with womanhood is the age old adultification trope that has always enabled the abuse of young girls and kept them unsafe.

But you agree that using the phrase 'pregnant women' doesn't enable the abuse of young girls?

I'm not too keen on the phrase 'geriatric' to refer to pregnant women over 35, but I think we can cope with the idea that it is a specific medical term.

SirChenjins · Yesterday 14:14

Soupsavior · 28/08/2026 12:45

Child safeguarding is the rational reason. Equating puberty with womanhood is the age old adultification trope that has always enabled the abuse of young girls and kept them unsafe..Nobody has avoided the word woman in any of my own pregnancies. When it comes to language around pregnancy, protecting child safeguarding standards comes first every time, if that means using people to avoid adultification of young pregnant girls, fine. I'd rather that than language that perpetuates the idea that children are sexually matured.

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I've posted upthread about this. Girls who are pregnant will receive very different information and support - the word people would not be used routinely. It would be written in a particular way and the advice would be delivered in a way that would address their specific needs.

catsflorafauna · Yesterday 14:33

girljulian · 18/08/2026 19:48

Pregnant people to me is inclusive of women and girls. It’s quicker than saying that.

I sincerely hope there isn’t many pregnant girls (female child), not something to be promoted anyway and only pregnant women.

6ate9 · Yesterday 14:36

catsflorafauna · Yesterday 14:33

I sincerely hope there isn’t many pregnant girls (female child), not something to be promoted anyway and only pregnant women.

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True cases of girls becoming pregnant at age 12 or younger are extremely rare, numbering only a small handful of cases nationwide each year.