Boys can have periods! The Times

[feministfairy]

The Times continuing with their sterling work highlighting the abusive gaslighting that some trans organisations are aiming at young children:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boys-can-have-periods-too-primary-pupils-are-taught-hg5lb85mp?shareToken=bf028da27e4885097916a2efdd3e5b19

The guidance, published by Brighton and Hove city council

Now there's a surprise.

Banging head against the wall at the moment. What is wrong with people. Facts are facts, no boy or man can have periods, except a trans man who has kept her female sexual organs like the 'supposed ' man who has had three children, in America I believe. Only us poor girls start periods. How often did I wish boys/men could have periods when I was lying on my bed clutching a hot water bottle to my abdomen, Panadol swishing around in my blood stream, enduring the pain which tied itself into a knot around my back and went down my groin into my thighs. Why is stating the obvious somehow offensive to trans people. I am sure the genuine trans women out there know they can't have periods and are not offended if we mere women say we can. Why is it women's language which is being eroded. This is just ridiculous. Boys and men should be bloody grateful they don't have periods. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

I'm glad my kids have finished school. It means I don't have to waste my time correcting this kind of crap.

On a similar note, I've been looking at menstrual cups recently and noticed that the language used on those seems to be changing although it's inconsistent.

One site referred to having "suitable periodware no matter how you identify" and another described it's products as for "people with uteruses".

Is it really so bad to allow born females to use the word women in relation to a bodily function that is entirely exclusive to them?!

I suggest we demand that prostate cancer screening be offered to "those with prostates, no matter how you identify" in the future.

(Would be interesting to see how many women turn up and demand screening and how many men don't - some people seem to know so little about biology I am not sure they know what a prostate is)

I worry about the UK, I don't live there any more but with this nonsense and Brexit (volunteering to be poorer and of less influence on the world stage) I think the society must be breaking down for people to be this stupid.

IdaBWells

I don't agree with everything this woman says personally but I do wonder if its rise is linked with society breaking down

My brain can not compute.

YerAuntFanny
Quite!

HestiaParthenos
I don't think trans-men would turn up for prostate screening. Being women originally I think they would have more sense. They know they don't have a prostate. Is it normal for trans-women to have the prostate removed? They are at risk of prostate cancer like all men if they do not. Let us have plain language for women and men, resist this creeping tide of idiocy.

Illyria47
I read the article, and technically Brighton and Hove City Council are correct. Trans boys and men will have periods if they haven't had hysterectomies, and so will non binary people if they happen to be of the female persuasion.
The deception lies in the use of the words 'boys can have periods' which must be very confusing for children, unless they do know girls in their school who have decided to present as boys. In which case if they are using the boy's toilets it might be useful to have sanitary products placed there.
It is up to schools to decide what to say about periods according to the make up of their classes.

It is up to schools to decide what to say about periods according to the make up of their classes.

By that very same standard, it should also be up to schools to decide to teach creationism or the flat earth depending on the makeup of their classes, surely?

Remember, some of the more fringe religious types find it utterly horrifying and insulting to even suggest that Darwinian evolution might be true. So, if you happened to be teaching a class with a significant number of kids from such families, wouldn't it be the "kind" thing to do to teach creationism or at least compromise and settle on intelligent design?

I'm not trying to be flippant. The two scenarios might not sound very alike on the surface, but in both cases individual notions of or preferences regarding reality are prioritised over all that is known about the actual facts - in this instance biology.

The insidious part is that doing this doesn't actually do much harm at all on an individual level. Maybe little Johnny or Jane will even genuinely feel better if what they're taught corresponds to their deeply held beliefs. Unfortunately, it is a harmful thing to do in the grand scheme of things to systematically undermine our actual best current understanding of reality. For a stark example, see AIDS deniers.

Biology is about us and therefore intrinsically bound to our notions of self, which I reckon is why it's so susceptible to crap of this nature. We wouldn't put up with this shit in any other discipline: e.g. it simply wouldn't occur to anyone in their right mind to teach that gravity doesn't apply to kids who just really, really wish they could fly.

How old are primary school children? I know girls are starting their period earlier these days unlike children who were born like me, after the War. (Second). Do Teachers need to go into detail about trans or non -binary people at this age? Surely simple facts are enough at this stage.

Some little girls start their periods at primary school. What worries me is this kimd of language is symptomatic of school pushing little children into thinking thry arevtrsns. Just leave them alone! I know people say that children grow up too esrly but this is utter madness.

I agree with you SkullPointer - they're teaching a belief not based in material reality: a religion. Why is this religion held to a different standard than the rest?

There were several girls in dd's class who started periods in P7 (we are in Scotland not sure how classes work out in the rest of the UK), which prompted sex ed classes. ds (10, 11 this time next week) just had the same talk about puberty so I assume at least one of the girls in his class has started her periods.
I wonder how this sort of thing would go down here in rural Scotland, quite a few farmer's children at that school. One of ds' classmates helps with lambing every year.

I worry about the impact of fudging the language of material reality on children and adults with additional needs - a child like my son, who spends half his day in mainstream would simply not understand this, he would believe that it meant he could have a period.

There are many children and adults with learning disabilities for whom the language of 'uterus havers'.....'bleeders'....'boys can have periods'....etc will be too confusing and could lead to some very serious issues for them.

SkullPointerException
Sorry, I realise my last sentence wasn't very clear.I didn't mean that schools shouldn't teach the biological facts about periods at all.I just meant that even if some primary schools had girls who identified as boys, it wasn't up to Brighton and Hove council to dictate how a school taught the subject of menstruation. A teacher might need to work out to handle the lesson in those circumstances,but certainly basic biology shouldn't be sacrificed, or the theory of evolution either as per your example!
Cor, it was easier in my day - we didn't get lessons on periods until secondary school, and then we were given a booklet entitled 'Becoming a Woman' or some such title.

I don't think trans-men would turn up for prostate screening. Being women originally I think they would have more sense. They know they don't have a prostate.

No, they don't know that if they read twitter.

Skene's gland is referred to as the female prostate, and TRA's have taken this to mean anyone who knows the prostate is a male sex organ is transphobic.

It's awful isn't it? This twisting of reality and deliberately telling lies to children in order to "include" a miniscule percentage of the population.
Education is meant to 'honest and ethical". There are guidelines that stop schools allowing political / lobby groups to access children in order to convert them. Education is meant to be balanced, impartial, factual. Yet here we are with a "religion" able to access the youngest of children to persuade them of their unscientific beliefs.

female persuasion

What the actual fucking fuck? There is no such thing as a "female persuasion". There are two sexes: male and female. The latter ovulate and menstruate. The former don't.

I can't even begin to fathom the stupidity of "female persuasion". God help us all (and I say that as a hard-core agnostic) if this is ignorance of the 21st century.

DisrespectfulAdultFemale

I was being a bit tongue in cheek with the phrase 'female persuasion' in response to the 'non-binary' usage by Brighton and Hove council.
Shan't use the phrase again I promise.

It is awful, more than just a bit ridiculous, and criminal.

I wonder how they expect teachers to get around explaining that menstrual blood is the result of the uterine lining being shed ever month without being all transphobic and mean by mentioning that only one half of the population has a uterus?

Or do they just expect everyone to skip that part and tell the kids that it's magic moonstuff?

Benjamin Butterworth just on Sky News review of the papers defending this. Suicide 'stats' mentioned a couple of times....

I hate this

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

I have an acquaintance who has always been very quiet and kind and gentle. In recent weeks she's completely changed. She's posting rants about radical feminists being exclusionary and hounding people off twitter. She thinks the word 'bleeder' is inclusive (I think it's monumentally offensive even as a joke). She's coming out with all sorts of scientific rubbish. I've honestly lost all respect for her.

This movement is doing such huge harm. I feel so powerless watching it progress.