People who menstruate

[lafemme]

NC as this concerns my place of work - (a school)

Brook will be delivering a talk to staff. The synopsis of content is 'people who menstruate - supporting them in period poverty'. Throughout the whole summary of the talk this term is used. This is Brook's wording.

I'm really surprised at an organisation such as Brook using this term - Why not use the term young women/ girls in period poverty?

Is this just semantics? I can't help feeling that the term 'people who produce sperm' would just never be used 

... just deleted it. The app's called 'Clue', and they can fuck off.

"Like it or not people with female anatomy have all sorts of gender identities, I don't see the problem in acknowledging this. It doesn't take away womanhood from women."
You're right. You can't take "womanhood" away from women. Only women menstruate. If a girl feels as if she has a male gender identity, she can call herself Bill and put on a suit and tie, if that's what being a man means to her, or hell, she can call herself Priscilla and put on a ballgown and tiara if that's what she thinks being a man means to her--I'm not going to make assumptions here. But it doesn't change her sex.

There are two options Brook could take: 1. Pretending that trans boys / men don't exist and ignoring the fact that these people menstruate. 2. Using the term 'people who menstruate' when specifically discussing menstruation

Well no

Theres three

Girls and transboys if talking about children

Women and transmen if you are talking about adults

@upfieldhateswomen

I have used the same up for a few years. About a year or so ago they changed the 'protected sex' icon from a motorcycle helmet to a pair of wellies as I believe they had received complaints that the icon was too masculine on an app specifically for women.

I hadn't realised that they were using this language either and will leave them some feedback.

That’ll teach me not to refresh

Sorry notbad

Don't women wear motorcycle helmets?!?! Who on earth would complain about that, I wonder. Every single day, in so many different mediums we're having this crap rammed down our throats, it needs to be resisted every single time. I'm sure I can manage with a good old fashioned calendar anyway.

So asking women to accept this erasure in order to be kind to transmen is deceitful and deliberately obscures the power behind the campaigning.

Absolutely 100% spot on, Datun.

SarahTancredi: When did lying about reality ever do anything but cause harm?

True, and the whole nonsensical structure would crumble if everyone faced up to that.

If this is a school wouldn’t “the girls and transboys In your school” be appropriate? Or are transboys merely classed as period havers/uterus owners with no identity beyond their bio functions?

they changed the 'protected sex' icon from a motorcycle helmet to a pair of wellies as I believe they had received complaints that the icon was too masculine on an app specifically for women

I don't know anyone who thinks only men need to wear protective head gear! This is so regressive. Like the whole 'gender identity' thing really -- trying to enforce conformity to the dreary old sex stereotypes we threw out decades ago.

Excellent posts. Ironical for an ideology where everyone is desperate to have their own identity validated by the whole world, yet so easily dehumanises and disrespects the whole class of women.

The Brook should be thoroughly ashamed.

This is so regressive. Like the whole 'gender identity' thing really -- trying to enforce conformity to the dreary old sex stereotypes we threw out decades ago.

Absolutely agree. It is a profoundly regressive agenda promoted by alleged progressives whose authoritarian impulses become more explicit every day.

LaFemme, feel free to link Brook to this thread, or share it with the staff member who has arranged the talk.

Once again, it is noticeable that the a core part of the trans agenda is a concerted assault on language which describes external reality. The proponents of this agenda believe if they can control language, they can bend reality to match their whim. The only people who menstruate are female.

Absolutely. What is happening to language around women is deeply sinister.

@UpfieldHatesWomen if you are looking for another app, I use Flo, and I've just checked to see if it calls us women and it does. I've used it for a year to track my periods and it has been really accurate for me.

I might switch to that one, thanks! I’ve been using Clue for ages and it’s been especially useful now I’m in irregular, peri menopausal la la land.
Not enthused about coping data over manually though, will have to see if there is an easier way to do it!

IAmFleshIAmBone thanks so much for the recommendation, I was going to ask for one in-between effing and blinding!

They've just got to start saying 'biological women'. So its a bit like 'natural blonde'.

You either is or you ain't. There really can be no argument.

'Not all women menstruate, and not all people who menstruate are women '

So the talk is not for girls who have not yet started their periods...

Surely all the girls need the info not just the ones who have started.

People who menstruate, it's not a continuous process. You don't know when your periods will start, and you can't guarantee the next one will come, or when.

This language does not work given the actual nature of actual periods.

Also do all girls even understand the word menstruate. I'd say they might not. On a thread about cervix havers someone said if women are too stupid or Ill educated to understand they have a cervix that's a problem that needs sorting rather than using language that the majority will actually understand. I mean, this was about cervical cancer fgs

The talk is about persons who are having periods. They will be the women then. Of course not all women have periods but then this sessions isn’t about them.

It almost makes you nostalgic for the free bleeders who knew what periods were (and who had them).

@SapphosRock - there is a third option - they refer to women and trans women - this including trans women without reducing biological women to a single bodily function - something I find deeply offensive.

It is deeply disingenuous to deploy the 'not all women menstruate' argument. Obviously that is true. It would be idiotic to assert otherwise. However, it does not alter the fact that every single person who menstruates is female. Logical fallacies will not change that immutable, biological imperative.

Of course, the term 'people who menstruate' actually excludes transwomen! Can we now expect some complaining about that exclusion?

Also do all girls even understand the word menstruate. I'd say they might not. On a thread about cervix havers someone said if women are too stupid or Ill educated to understand they have a cervix that's a problem that needs sorting rather than using language that the majority will actually understand. I mean, this was about cervical cancer fgs

It's completely elitist! And it goes against all the normal principles of good communication about bodies and health issues. This sort of information needs to be said in plain English. Menstruator is a weird word and I personally find it offensive.

Also, how the hell is a woman supposed to know if she has a cervix? It's an internal organ. Most people don't even use the "correct" terminology for the external genitalia of women (i.e. use vagina instead of vulva, etc)! Should we expect women to have a biology textbook and a speculum at home to check?

I think I will start referring to males as epididymis-owners. I'd bet many boys, men, and transwomen would find it somewhat offensive and might even be "too stupid" to know that this refers specifically to their sexed anatomy.

If you don't want to or can't explain something complex to do with female health, to girls and women (whether they identify as such is irrelevant - that is what they ARE biologically), using simple words that the majority will understand, that is a problem with you, not the audience.

Surely if transwomen can call any symptoms a 'period', then a transman who is bleeding can just re-brand it as something else?
MANstruation? Warrior-week?