Cancer Research: anyone with a cervix

[Aloneinacrowd70]

Not sure how to link to Twitter, but Cancer Research UK have a pinned tweet which says:

'Cervical screening (or the smear test) is relevant for everyone aged 25-64 with a cervix. Watch our animation to find out what to expect when you go for screening #CervicalScreeningAwarenessWeek'

Everyone with a cervix? I think in their attempt to be inclusive, they are potentially excluding women who may not know about their own biology. Plus, they still refer to men with regard to prostate cancer:

www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/prostate-cancer

It's only women who are unable to be named, apparently.

I don't want to include links but google will get you there.

SardineReturns yes. Your taxes at work.

Well if it's pro life people telling these charities how to phrase stuff then there could be a link

Certain procedures carried out of cancer is found , if the woman is pregnant, mean the pregnancy has to end.

This is an interview with Tara Hewitt (see pevious link to NHS training session) from 2016:

'Tara Hewitt, NHS equality and diversity advisor, doesn't believe in abortion or IVF but says it doesn't affect her job'

(extract)
"She says her church is diverse and welcoming, encouraging love and acceptance.

And, although experiencing negativity from some Catholics, Tara claims this is society’s problem.

“In religion one of the biggest challenges is people perceive the church as being separate from society, but most would say their faith is made by the people in it.

“People don’t know about trans issues, it’s not that catholics are discriminating against trans people, its just that society is discriminating against transpeople.”

She also claims the bible doesn’t focus on gender.

“With the bible there is more of a discussion on sexuality but God doesn’t have a gender - God isn’t male or female, they are both.

“When we talk about God, he’s above that.”

Tara, who lives in New Brighton, is also a pansexual, which means she is attracted to any gender.

But, although she supports gay marriage and same-sex adoption, she doesn’t believe in IVF.

“None of my views are based on sexual orientation I support love.
“Millions of people share my view but, because they aren’t trans, they aren’t targetted.

“It’s hard being right wing and trans, I get attacked from both sides.”
(continues)

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/what-its-like-transgender-catholic-10810323

Hmmm. It’s been a while since Sunday School but I’m pretty certain all that Adam and Eve stuff came from the bible, no?

So RC church not (I'm guessing) being super accepting of trans is something that needs to change

RC church oppressing women all over the globe is something that does not need to change and is in fact supported

I assume this dick knows what happens to girls and women in RC countries around the world that is driven by views like theirs? Women being imprisoned for miscarrying, dying or being permanently damaged due to unsafe aboriton. Let's be clear, this person is Grade A AOK and supportive of all that shit. But RC approach to trans people needs to change.

This is Grade A in your face upfront misognyny that actually genuinely injures and kills girls and women all over the world every day.

These people - this person - hate women. This is why so much of transactivism is damaging to us - they don't actually like that what they want be be. No fucking way do they empathise of have any concern for us.

And as for this "She also claims the bible doesn’t focus on gender." that's massive fucking news to me

Really significant article including an incredibly brave and important letter , please do read it and share it:

(extract)
"What about the risk of alienating women who may already be reluctant to have the potentially life-saving test?

What about the women who won’t necessarily know that they are ‘people with a cervix’ and so might not come forward?

Cancer Research has accepted losing responses from women, that will impact lives and health, as collateral damage for protecting the feelings of the transgender community.

Yesterday June, a mother of two young children, saw the Cancer Research campaign. This morning she wrote this:

My mum was born in 1950, failed her 11 plus and went to work in a lampshade factory age 14.
By the time I was about 6 I used to spell out my school absent notes for her.

With hindsight, I suppose she was dyslexic but, well, that definitely wasn’t a term she would’ve been familiar with.

She had enough trouble writing ‘stomach ache’ without me there to help.

I can’t say for sure if she’d have realised ‘people with a cervix’ was aimed at her or not.

I’d ask her, but I can’t.

She’s dead.

My mum died at 54 of what her own mum would’ve cheerfully referred to as ‘women’s problems’.

If only my mum had had enough brains to realise all those stomach aches were her cancerous ovaries killing her from the inside.

So, if some of y’all ‘can’t see the problem’ with Cancer Research UK’s new wording, please take a moment to think of my mum, and how I once stood in a hospital room, alone but for the nurse holding me upright, so that I could hold her unconscious hand and wait until she died.

It took about an hour.

And please take a moment to think about how I’ve been a motherless daughter since my 20s.

Maybe if we all take a moment to think about women like my mum, women who don’t have the cognitive or language abilities that we do, maybe cancers will be caught earlier, and maybe lives will be saved.

This is why being able to talk about our female bodies, in clear, non academic language matters.

This is why being able to request a female-bodied person for an intimate medical examination matters.

And this is why women like me, sometimes, want to spend time with other women like me. Only women like me.

It’s been more than 14 years since my mother died.

I really, really, miss her." (continues)

fairplayforwomen.com/cancer_research_drops_woman/

'Tara Hewitt, NHS equality and diversity advisor, doesn't believe in abortion or IVF but says it doesn't affect her job'

But, although she supports gay marriage and same-sex adoption, she doesn’t believe in IVF.

Oh why don't they just fuck off? Equality and diversity when it's men.

Tears of rage prevent me from

I can't remember how, where and when I found out about smear tests (and it is irrelevant anyway given how things have changed) but where do women get information about cervical cancer from ?

Whilst this tweet is ridiculous it can't be the only source of information?

Presumably advice is given as part of contraceptive advice? Do all GPs send out automatic invitations to go for a smear once you are registered?

Great piece from Rachael Johnson: www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5852701/RACHEL-JOHNSON-Happy-Fathers-Day-time-say-that.html

It's something but it's just 'sigh. Pc gorn mad. I'm too old for this'.

from Daily Mail link above, Rachel Johnson comments,

"The charity explained that the wording was designed not to offend the small number of women who identify as men.

But my suspicion is that the CRU must have been terrified of obloquy from trans women who don’t have cervixes, but would perhaps protest at any suggestion this means they are not women.

They have – or had – penises, prostates and testes (I await eagerly CRU’s tweet urging ‘everyone with prostate glands’, as opposed to men, to have them checked in due course). To put it uncharitably: the charity seems to think that not triggering trans women trumps saving the lives of women."

I hope that person has been directed to some help for their obviously extremely severe mental illness.

Sorry, hadn't read the whole thread. I meant the one who commented about death from cancer being preferable to the misgendering.

Did anyone else pick this up and grin a bit: “God doesn’t have a gender - God isn’t male or female, they are both. When we talk about God, he's above that.”

NaturalBornWoman They are apparently a known US very active TRA.

But my suspicion is that the CRU must have been terrified of obloquy from trans women who don’t have cervixes, but would perhaps protest at any suggestion this means they are not women.

I think Rachel is right on the money.

To put it uncharitably: the charity seems to think that not triggering trans women trumps saving the lives of women."

Yes.

Rachel's 24-year-old daughter, quoted in the article, has clearly been through the re-education process.

All efforts should be made to allow transgender people to feel welcome and visible in today’s society,’ she schooled me. ‘That starts with being acknowledged, and the lexicon of our national services and media should be inclusive.’

But not inclusive of women, obviously.

People whose reaction is to focus on the inclusivity of the language, rather than considering the realities of cervical cancer screening and the disease itself, reveal the limits to their experience of this disease.

Betty I read about your experience from a link on Twitter yesterday and it made me cry, I'm so sorry for what your poor mother went through and for want you and your sister still endure to you and to all the brave women on this thread who have shared their experiences.
I have had a few twitter spats with people mainly younger many women who just don't seem to get how dangerous and damaging this is, I get the impression that a lot of them have not been touched by cancer although I find that hard to believe.
I'm so glad to read a thread of women who understand the real implications of this language change and have expressed the views I share much more clearly.
I'm in my 40's and like many I had a very vague and fuzzy understanding of my biology until pregnancy and later hysterectomy. In my experience gynycological issues are still seen as taboo and only talked about in hushed voices if at all.
I hate that woman is becoming a profane word and all the implications that follow on from that, it's actually something that really scares me, I just don't see where it will end well I do but I can't bear to think about it

Anna Turley, Labour MP, has tweeted:

"Hi @CR_UK why have you used the term ‘everyone with a cervix’ in this tweet please?"

twitter.com/annaturley/status/1007315316685393921

And predictably gets hundreds of responses of you are a big old transphobe for her trouble.

I hate that woman is becoming a profane word

Unless it's a man declaring "I am a WOMAN."

We are living in a time where people are identifying as something that they are campaigning to ban.

I've said it before. Men who identify as women and women who identify as men are on a collision course. Transgender males want to acquire and glorify the word woman at all costs (but get rid of the whole biology thing) and transgender females want to get rid of the word woman completely.

So the word "woman" now becomes both validating and invalidating. Both acceptance and rejection. Both sacrosanct and profane.

MrsDoylesTeaBags

Thank you! I’ve had a very moving response to what started out as a post on here and expanded into the Fair Play blog post. I only delurked earlier this week so my GC training wheels have come off very quickly indeed.

A number of women have shared similarly sad stories of losing loved ones to women’s cancers, or indeed, living through them personally. It strengthens my resolve to join this fight, because women need other women.

My son is about to turn 18 and is currently sitting A levels. Obviously he is right in the middle of this chatter and many of his peers have totally bought into the gender is more important than sex viewpoint. We talk about it a lot. One of the topics that came up this week was about equality. Teens think they know everything, I certainly thought I did. I thought my sex had little to do with anything, because after childhood, I had managed to achieve everything I wanted to achieve. It was only after my son was born (traumatic labour, undiagnosed breech, large baby, emergency c section etc) that I realised how much of women’s oppression only becomes apparent at this point. I was so traumatised by the experience (combined with my mother’s death) that it took 11 years and PTSD counselling before I had my second child.

I hate to be patronising, but an awful lot of these youngsters have a lot to learn about the world. I hope their learning process is more gentle on them than mine!