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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to say I'm a menstruating woman not a menstruating person?

217 replies

Speakupspeakout · 18/09/2018 09:31

Why the language change? I know it's all about being trans-inclusive. But is it really trans-exclusive if Lunette had said menstruating woman or girl?

AIBU to say I'm a menstruating woman not a menstruating person?
OP posts:
Helmetbymidnight · 18/09/2018 11:17

No person should be reduced to their biology alone.

Says the person who wants women to be called menstruating person now. Grin

What do transwomen mean when they say they are women then? Can you explain the new definition of women that doesn't include biology? I need to know if I am one or not.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 18/09/2018 11:20

Only females have periods

Person/people can refer to either sex

And no we shall not shut up about the fact that biological facts are being ignored I personally don’t give a fuck who is bored of hearing about it

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 18/09/2018 11:22

At the moment I am feeling ovulation aches and pains

Not sure it makes me feel I am a women but it is only someone females can experience

Twotailed · 18/09/2018 11:22

Says the person who wants women to be called menstruating person now. grin

Except that I said the exact opposite - that not all women menstruate, and menstruation isn’t a required part of being a woman. Some women don’t menstruate. Some men do. I don’t want women to be called menstruating persons because those groups are not identical.

People are more than their biological functions.

Singlenotsingle · 18/09/2018 11:22

So many times I see "We are pregnant".
No, "we" are not!
SHE is pregnant.

Pheasantplucker2 · 18/09/2018 11:22

I hate all this belittling of women when we say we don't like what's happening to our identification.

Big sighs and accusations of trans-bashing again.

Those on here who don't see the issue, please watch or read The Handmaid's Tale. Woman - the term referring to biological women is being reduced to an adjunct.

I have absolutely no issue with the terms transmen and transwomen; they are descriptive and enable everyone to understand that a person born as one biological sex is choosing to live life as the opposite gender. I don't think I have come across anyone on these threads claiming anything else.

To try and rewrite biological realities, so that these people can feel included in every reality of being a woman (notice not a man - no-one is trying to erase male terminology that I've seen) is just preposterous. In the same way, that I, a biologically born woman (I refuse to use the term cis as I find it incredibly offensive and redundant) have no idea how it feels to want to live as the opposite gender, and I have no idea what it feels like to have an erection, transwomen can have no idea what it feels like to have periods, or give birth.

It's not discrimination, it's reality. To try and minimise the very real struggles and discrimination that women have gone through over the millennia because of their bodies, and the perception that when we bleed we are unclean, to try and insist that trans women are somehow a part of that, is offensive and demeaning to women who have been through these struggles.

In the same way, it would be offensive and demeaning for me to say to a transwoman that I understand her struggles at feeling trapped in a man's body. I wouldn't be so presumptious, although I can empathise with her.

Really, please open your eyes and see that the eradication of our female terminology is a bad thing for all of us. We are going to be non-men soon.

Helmetbymidnight · 18/09/2018 11:28

People are more than their biological functions.

Good good, tell me what they are then?

You want to ignore biology in favour of something else...What?

How are you defining woman now?

Elephantinacravat · 18/09/2018 11:28

You are not hurt in any way by the use of inclusive language. So go and live your life and stop fomenting outrage where none is needed.

I could say that the use of correct language to describe the sex class who mensturates doesnt hurt anyone. Because its reality.

Unless you are saying the feelings of one group trump the feelings of another?

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 18/09/2018 11:28

Some men menstruate

Shock when did that start happening. I wonder if we shall see giggling men riding bikes, skipping and looking blissfully happy in adverts for menstruation products

Elephantinacravat · 18/09/2018 11:31

It's not offensive, it's just ridiculous because only women can have periods. It's fine saying 'people with autism' because it applies to both sexes.

It's a bit like when people refuse to acknowledge male violence and will insist on saying 'some people are violent towards other people'.

ShotsFired · 18/09/2018 11:38

@NotACleverName Yippee, another trans-bashing thread! God knows the first 3,854,270 weren't enough.

Do please report all the "trans-bashing" you think is going on, as MN will remove that.

It'd also be helpful if you could point it out to mere women like me who are failing to see anything of the sort. All I see is women saying females have periods, and that female is not a word to be ashamed of.

Rufusthebewilderedreindeer · 18/09/2018 11:41

Just be glad that your life is so stress free that you have time to worry about this kind of thing.

I see this type of phrase a lot on here

And its one of the dumbest ones

People can have all sorts of stress in their life and can still stress about this...in fact if they are someone who is struggling with different stresses adding things on like this must surely make your mental health worse

lindalee3 · 18/09/2018 11:43

It does seem a bit odd, because only people born female will ever menstruate. Not being transphobic at all, but it's true....

Unless I missed that part of biology!! Confused

araiwa · 18/09/2018 11:48

Some female to male transexuals may still menstruate.

Surely its about including them as opposed to mtf who never do

ShotsFired · 18/09/2018 11:53

Just be glad that your life is so stress free that you have time to worry about this kind of thing.

@Rufusthebewilderedreindeer I see this type of phrase a lot on here

Ah, the good old "fallacy of relative privation".
Always used by the finest debaters as a strong tactic when they have no actual concrete argument Hmm

(You can shorthand it as "shut up stupid woman")

Elephantinacravat · 18/09/2018 11:55

God, what a load of appropriating bollocks that 'Establishment' article is.

FtM trans people are still ultimately women, hence the periods. Nothing can change that, not even forcing people to lie about it.

Havaina · 18/09/2018 11:58

Yawn. Does this really impact you in any way? Just be glad that your life is so stress free that you have time to worry about this kind of thing.

It's so boring you gelt you had to comment 🙄. Jog on.

Rufusthebewilderedreindeer · 18/09/2018 12:00

shots

Yup

And as an aside i have 3 children

1 of which has had a number of tests because they are not bleeding

If the other two start bleeding from their genital area i would have them in the nearest hospital so fast that their heads would spin

I appreciate that some people on here will be slightly confused as to which sex my children are ...i can give clues if anyone is stuck

rainingcatsanddog · 18/09/2018 12:07

YANBU

Transwomen want to be women and call themselves women but at the same time hate the word women.

Do any transwomen use sanitary towels in the knickers for a few days per month so they can pretend that they are menstruating?

PositiveVibez · 18/09/2018 12:11

Yippee, another trans-bashing thread! God knows the first 3,854,270 weren't enough

FFS women are ALLOWED to say ONLY women have periods, because it is a FACT.

'persons' do not have periods. Women do.

How is that trans-bashing? Please enlighten me!!

DarthVadersLightSide · 18/09/2018 12:16

The establishment article is right. It is a fascinating phenomenon, but it isnt a period, they are wrong to call it that.

How much is socially constructed, how much is the side effects of the powerful drugs that aren’t supposed to exist in those levels in that sexed body? My concern would be that if these symptoms are assumed to be a period then research into hormone side effects is inhibited, or serious genuine health concerns are less likely to be discovered. I would be 100% behind any such proposed research but it isnt a period.

ShotsFired · 18/09/2018 12:16

@rainingcatsanddog Do any transwomen use sanitary towels in the knickers for a few days per month so they can pretend that they are menstruating?

Some TW boast on public websites about fishing strangers' used sanitary towels and tampons out of public bins and using/inserting them and then revelling in the squishiness and wetness.

Noqont · 18/09/2018 12:17

Some TW boast on public websites about fishing strangers' used sanitary towels and tampons out of public bins and using/inserting them and then revelling in the squishiness and wetness

Another reason why I don't want shared toilets.

araiwa · 18/09/2018 12:19

Trans men menstruate

Theyre not women. Theyre trans men

So not only women menstruate. Hence the inclusive term.