Breastfeeding - should I say something?

[MotherWol]

I got an email today from a company that makes breast pumps looking for participants in their product research. I can’t quite articulate why but the attempt to use inclusive language is really jarring. It feels like they can’t face the fact that breastfeeding is predominantly a women-only activity, and are having linguistic contortions in order to be trans-inclusive. Given that the proportion of pregnancies among people who don’t identify as women is in single-digits, why can’t breastfeeding mothers be the primary focus of a company that sells breast pumps? Is it worth saying something or should I not bother?

[WhereYouLeftIt]

Bloody hell, that criteria is a dog's breakfast!

==========
We are looking for people who identify as women and are:

- Aged 35+

OR

- not currently breast/chestfeeding (mothers or mot mothers!)

OR

- mothers who are exclusively breast/chestfeeding

If you meet any of these criteria blah blah
==========

"Identify as women" means you'll get males as well as females.

I don't see the point of the 'Age 35+' criteria. If it was AND rather than OR I'd see the point. As a standalone criteria? Any over-35s, male or female, who are/are not/have never used their body to feed a baby doesn't exactly narrow it down. And under 35s are included anyway if they are/are not feeding. Bonkers.

Do they not get that people who 'identify as' anything, identify as it because they're not?

"It was written by an idiot who is not even fluent in modern gender ideology but thinks they have to make some reference to it because they know enough to know that ignoring it is blasphemous."
Exactly this. Although it just confirms in my mind that lots of people are so, so confused by the language used. Echoes of people thinking a transwoman is a woman who is trans i.e. a woman who identifies as a man; I've seen that so many times!

I suppose it could mean though, that the company isn't actually captured, they're just in the be kind/don't attack me stage.

[G5000]

They've tried to go 'inclusive' and failed, since their only universal criteria is to identify as a woman. But the people this sort of language is supposed to 'include' are people who CAN potentially breastfeed but DO NOT identity as women.

Exactly. Massive woke fail.

[merrymouse]

So they would like to talk to people who identify as women but use the term 'chestfeeding'?.

I think this translates as

"We actually assume that nobody who identifies as trans uses our products, and we really couldn't care less, but this kind of language seems to be popular at the moment".

[G5000]

WTF is chestfeeding anyway? You need breast tissue to breastfeed. Males have breast tissue. Nobody feeds from chest wall.

[merrymouse]

WTF is chestfeeding anyway?

A term used to promote the idea that the word 'breast' is intrinsically feminine, without thought for women who reject that stereotype or men who suffer from breast cancer.

[howlongto]

Chestfeeding offends me. I wouldn't participate based on their choice of language.

[Oblomov21]

I find this very difficult to accept.

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

I wouldn’t trust any research from an organisation that invites men to take part in a study on breastfeeding. Purely because they wouldn’t know how many participants were actually female, and therefore potentially able to breastfeed. They’re pointlessly skewing the figures, making it worthless. Unless the idea is to sell breastpumps for men ….