Evan Davis misgenders a non-binary activist

[Polynerd]

Did anyone hear the segment on non-binary passports on R4 PM just now? Evan Davis introduced the segment: "Christie Elan-Cane brought the case blah blah... I spoke to her earlier - " and then he realised what he'd said and literally stopped and spluttered for ages. Must try to clip it and share - it was so hilarious that DD came into the kitchen to find out what I was laughing at!

I heard it when I happened and I think I realised even before Evan did what he had done. Not had a chance to post about it until now but I did chuckle.

I might start using purr

Then I'll be down with the kids 😁 the grandkids that is

It was just so funny. I’m not sure why this person hasn’t had anything else to think about over the last 30 year’s

Ugh years

Dear God, I've just listened to it.

The trouble is there will be a lot of listeners not up to speed on this who assume purr is intersex (they would probably think a 'hermaphrodite' as this isn't well understood and have sympathy)

Purr was quite clear that passports state sex while claiming to be non-gendered, not non-sexed.

Evan is a lost cause. I know blokes like him and he won't change. I'd lay a pound to a penny that he thinks 'sex work' is a liberating career too.

“The BBC web story quotes UN figures of intersex people being estimated at 1.7% globally”

1.7% is hard to believe.

It may be depending on how it is defined but nearly every one of the 1.7% will still be either male or female.

I also think we should complain to the BBC about the use of the phrase 'assigned at birth'

It is appropriated from intersex births at a time when diagnostic testing did not exist.

We must claw back our language.

Oh. My. God. I'm so sorry I got the wrong day for the link! How mortifying! (but also hilarious - "slightly dirty toenails" made me laugh out loud)

Thanks for correcting me.

Good, I'm glad he fucked up.

Evan is a massive woman hater and his interview with Harry the Owl was a disgrace.

He's a shit replacement for Eddie Mair too. Carolyn Quinn would have been much better.

Yes, what''s with all the "assigned at birth"?
Is there some kind of biological sex sorting hat? Thought not.

The thing at the moment seems to be saying there are as many intersex people as redheads.
No. There’s not.

Is that the figure where they include any sort of issues with reproductive development, even where there isn't the slightest question about the person's sex? I read about some stats that were including hypospadias (where a man's urethral opening is in the wrong place eg on the underneath of the penis rather than at the end - which ONLY affects males!) and PCOS which only affects women, which makes it utter bollocks to claim them as "intersex", but does bump up the numbers nicely if that's what you're trying to do...

Can't help noticing also that Evan was in no doubt whatsoever about which direction to "misgender" in, however un-binary this person supposedly is. No way he would have said "he" by mistake!

but does bump up the numbers nicely if that's what you're trying to do...
Someone more sceptical than me might think so.....

“The thing at the moment seems to be saying there are as many intersex people as redheads.
No. There’s not.”

There don’t appear to be many redheads in China, India or Africa.

So the proportion of the World population having red hair is very low.

So it’s a handy way to deceive people about how common DSD conditions are.

Listening to Christie on the radio, she has such a perfect gels boarding school accent, nobody would ever mistake her for anything other than an English female.

Sorry, but the only person entitled to use the pronoun 'purr' with any credibility is Eartha Kitt.

Sorry, but the only person entitled to use the pronoun 'purr' with any credibility is Eartha Kitt

Fact

I heard the interview yesterday - absolutely cracked me up. (After I stopped being infuriated at the "assigned at birth" bollocks.)

It's at times like this that I really miss Eddie Mair. I like to think that Eddie wouldn't have put up with this crap, though so many of my heroes have fallen you can't be sure. Does anyone know if he's dealt with it on his show at LBC?

Presenting as masculine is perfectly ok but they must absolutely detest the feminine.

Internalised mysogyny writ large.

Men don't care either way.

After I got past the dog (which was funny), I completely cracked up at that. He could barely have messed it up better!

Interesting that he didn't misgender pur with him. It's strange. I just can't for the life of me figure out why.

Pur says it's degrading to have to use a sex marker pur doesn't gender identify with on pur's passport because our has spent so long fighting this. One could imagine that if you've spent 30 years fighting for something that it's mighty hard to back down and say you've made a mistake. Sounds like pur doesn't have the sort of financial constraints that would restrict the amount of time most others could spend paying lawyers to fight this.

BUT ALSO THERE HAVE BEEN REVIEWS? So has the tax payer been paying for reviews into this for 30 years because pur can afford to keep fighting the government?!!!! Did I understand that correctly?!

(I'm pretty sure) 'Per' was a non-gendered pro-noun used by anarchist feminist Marge Piercy in her wonderful 1976 novel 'Woman on the Edge of Time'. Once upon a time non-gendered pro-nouns were advocated by feminists for rather different reasons to those of today's TRAs. I say 'pretty sure' above because my copy is in a box and I am relying on memory from three decades ago.

You might like to read about th enovel here

www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/29/woman-on-the-edge-of-time-40-years-on-hope-imagining-utopia-marge-piercy

Do they both use the same pronoun (per and perpartner)?

I've just looked it up and yes Piercy does use it. It is short for 'person' and reflects a feminist utopian future in which sex and gender have been eliminated and there is no reason to use gendered pronouns.