Pregnant people...

[BertrandRussell]

I just read an absolutely lovely birth story on Twitter by a comedian that I like and respect. Then I realised that she had not used the word "woman" at any point. This wonderful, joyful account of labour and birth and what the human body can do - but no acknowledgement of it being a woman's body-just a person's body. I found that deeply sad.

Society is trying to faze out the word women, just when we begin to believe we are getting some respect along come the politically correct. Drives me mad. Anyway I have had 6 children in my 29 yr marriage and i would have been affended greatly if anyone call me a pregnant person, I was a pregnant women and I took pride in that

Can't make my mind up on this. The word woman is clearly needed in some situations such as looking at pay gaps or provision of same sex spaces or helping a doctor decide on medical treatment

Beyond that it would be rather nice if people thought less about someone's sex and just treated everyone the same.

In which case, does using the word people really matter? Because they are people first and pregnant women second. Isn't using woman a form of discrimination ..discriminating between sexes..which should only be done when necessary? Does the use of woman, she , female names embed sexism in society?

My pregnancies have been both the best and very worst things ever to happen to me. They are not all that defines me as a human but they have all been a huge part of my life. Both the unwanted and the wanted. Life changing. Body changing. When I speak of being a pregnant woman it is important to me because if I were not a woman I would have avoided these experiences. The good ones and the terrible ones. Although I am foremost a human, if I were not a woman my life would look very different. When I say pregnant woman I don't mean anything about a gender identity. I have not yet been informed a gender identity is mandatory so I don't yet have one. Pregnancies are physical and they don't give a fuck how you feel.

I get your point Midgebabe but I don't think removing the language helps if the structural inequality underneath has not been addressed. Maybe there will come a time when one's class sex ability and race don't give me disadvantages or advantages and then it would be interesting to see on what basis we still differentiate.

If any word should retain its reference to women, it is pregnancy.

I have had my fill of "people" erasing women. We are different to men. That doesn't mean that we are not entitled to equal pay etc. It isn't just a matter of what is in someone's pants. But there are differences between the sexes and those differences should be accepted and respected. Biology matters.

Changing the language never removes the underlying structural inequality, it masks it. This move is a return to Victorian style health care. We'll have the same old issues. we just won't have the language or the right to describe it.

Midgebabe using the word people does matter in the case of healthcare, especially pregnancy and childbirth.
Pregnancy and childbirth are biological processes, that only happen to the female of the species, ie women in the case of human beings. It really is pointless trying to obscure that fact, simply because a very small minority of people seem unable to accept it, or to accept their own biological state as reality.
Please note, there is no move to redefine the language of male healthcare in any way. Where does that lead us to? Oh yes, where 'man' is the default human being. Wrong, man and woman (male/female adukt humans) are both equally human. Using the word 'woman' where appropiate recognises and reinforces that fact.

Yes defiantly wrong to use people for women and men for men. It would have to be all or nothing . If we could make it work both ways then the trans people will have scored an own goal. Like if no women ever wore dresses and never wore make up ...( although ideal world anyone could do either ) ( and I don't like approaches that in general force women to be the same as men)

I don't want to change the language, woman means born and raised female to me. Just can't work out what moves would further feminism and what would obscure it.

Because they are people first and pregnant women second. Isn't using woman a form of discrimination

No I don’t think it is. ONLY women can be pregnant. That’s factual. It’s not discriminatory in any way. Only women get pregnant. The language of pregnancy and birth is female centric. There’s no need to make it unisex because it cannot ever apply to one sex. It isn’t like ‘postman’ where a woman can do the job (although there’s the linguistic argument that Man in this context means person anyway..)

When we get to a situation where a subset of people who can never become pregnant are denying the correct medically and scientifically accurate language to describe pregnancy to the people who can become pregnant, we have a problem.

Sex is objective. Biology doesn’t have feelings or an opinion. There’s no offence there - and for people to manufacture offence from it is pathological.

I have been thinking about this on and off all day. I think for me that there are things that happen- and are done- to women entirely because they have women's bodies. The incredible power and mystery of pregnancy and birth. The utter evil that is FGM. Naming things is important.

Changing the language never removes the underlying structural inequality, it masks it.
Brilliant