I just came out as GC at work, to the big boss and I feel a bit sick

[JustcameoutGC]

I have NCed for this. I have just outed myself as GC in work to the big boss (and some others cced in).

I was asked to sign off on something that I just couldn't and I said so, and explained why.

I literally feel sick. Like I have put a big fat GC target on my back. My org is totally woke. I wonder how many times my response has been forwarded already.

A recent post relayed that her 11 year old daughter's class (all girls school) had been told by their teacher in a lesson, 'Growing Up' that it was wrong to refer to women and men but they should use 'people with vaginas or penises'.

Why is it relevant for your work to know? This isn’t a criticism just a question.

She clarified later on

I have been really hesitant to do or say anything in the workplace. But I had to today, primarily because in my professional view there is a reputational risk of our company being associated with exclusive gender neutral language such as cervix havers or chest feeders as well as the risk of confusing the people the material is aimed at. This risk needs to be properly assessed and managed before this radical change in language is adopted. I would have been negligent not to speak up.

"SweetPetrichor

You don’t ‘come out’ as GC. If I worked with you, I’d be reporting such behaviour for further education and disciplinary action. I reported similar behaviour relatively recently and it was handled very well. I don’t think you have anything to be proud of here and I hope any decent work place will remind you of company policy and/or professional behaviour."

Bullys used to bully and wield power by being bigots, , now they bully with performative anti bigotry and gain power with virtue signalling and forming an inner circle of righteous.

Petrichor, You have just demonstrated perfectly where the power lies in your workplace, it is the same in most workplaces. By the main tennents of your own ideology, it is clear from the power dynamic who is oppressed and who is opressor.

OP, I think you have balls of steel. Thank you for standing up.

I am about to start a new job and hope I have the guts and integrity to do the same.

I didn't used to believe in evil, but the sides of human nature that I am seeing from the woke under the guise of kindness, takes my breath away sometimes.

In case anybody wonders,
The NHS is one of the organisations that has forgotten about safeguarding and the definition of women
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-56007728

Well done, OP.

Bravo OP. It takes a great deal of courage to stand up and make a valid point when it goes against popular opinion.

Has anyone read The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad? Worth a read if you haven’t.

Saluting you over here OP. Bloody well done!

Do I have a cervix, I wonder? I've never seen it.
I have two children. I wonder if one of them has a cervix. I may never know.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 well done OP

@SweetPetrichor

You don’t ‘come out’ as GC. If I worked with you, I’d be reporting such behaviour for further education and disciplinary action. I reported similar behaviour relatively recently and it was handled very well. I don’t think you have anything to be proud of here and I hope any decent work place will remind you of company policy and/or professional behaviour.

Thank you Mr Charrington

Thanks for the badass badge award, transbadger.

@PotholeHellhole

She clarified later on

I have been really hesitant to do or say anything in the workplace. But I had to today, primarily because in my professional view there is a reputational risk of our company being associated with exclusive gender neutral language such as cervix havers or chest feeders as well as the risk of confusing the people the material is aimed at. This risk needs to be properly assessed and managed before this radical change in language is adopted. I would have been negligent not to speak up.

Well done OP. Clear language is so important. I've been in conversation with a fellow pshe teacher who thinks it's appropriateand desirable to use 'people who do/don't menstruate' instead of girls when teaching a mixed group of 11 year olds about periods. It assumes a level of knowledge in the students (that the boys and girls know to which group they belong, so they aren't misled by the the teacher's obfuscation language), that many 11 year olds simply do not have. Never mind the fact that that's precisely the knowledge it is our job to teach them!

I've been in conversation with a fellow pshe teacher who thinks it's appropriateand desirable to use 'people who do/don't menstruate' instead of girls when teaching a mixed group of 11 year olds about periods.
I wonder what that teacher would do if an 11 year-old boy approached them and confided that he was bleeding from his genitals?

@OolieMacdoolie

You honestly make my blood run cold.

What makes it so hard, is that I feel the same about you. There’s no middle ground, is there? It’s very hard to see what the way forward will be.

There's no middle ground when it comes to protecting the rights of women and protecting the bodies of children. No. Interesting to see which side people fall on.

@R0wantrees

A recent post relayed that her 11 year old daughter's class (all girls school) had been told by their teacher in a lesson, 'Growing Up' that it was wrong to refer to women and men but they should use 'people with vaginas or penises'.

Oh my goodness....Give me strength.

The World has actually gone quite, quite mad.

''Give the textbook to the person with the penis''

''Please see the teacher with the vagina ''

Is a women any less of a woman after a double mastectomy? Or after a hysterectomy? No, of course not.

This argument always makes me laugh, it’s such an own goal.

"Is a women any less of a woman after a double mastectomy? Or after a hysterectomy? No, of course not."

So what is a transman then? Wait... how disgustingly transphobic of you @SweetPetrichor the Inquisitor! You better check your thinking? I think you should report yourself and check in for re-education.

@Floisme

I've been in conversation with a fellow pshe teacher who thinks it's appropriateand desirable to use 'people who do/don't menstruate' instead of girls when teaching a mixed group of 11 year olds about periods. I wonder what that teacher would do if an 11 year-old boy approached them and confided that he was bleeding from his genitals?

That was indeed a point I raised! What makes me so angry is that she is basically assuming the kids already know who are 'people who menstruate' and who are 'people who don't menstruate'. Even if half the 'pwm' in Yr 7 haven't actually started yet. So she is abdicating her responsibility of teaching those basic facts in favour of furthering an ideology.

That was indeed a point I raised!
What did she say?

@SweetPetrichor

You don’t ‘come out’ as GC. If I worked with you, I’d be reporting such behaviour for further education and disciplinary action. I reported similar behaviour relatively recently and it was handled very well. I don’t think you have anything to be proud of here and I hope any decent work place will remind you of company policy and/or professional behaviour.

You and your employer need further education about Articles 9 and 10 of the Human Rights Act. And about the fact that sex is a protected characteristic. Taking disciplinary action against an employee for expressing views relating to the rights of her protected characteristic is likely to be a breach of the EA.

And patting yourself on the back for silencing someone's right to discuss women's rights is a fucking terrible look.

Well done OP. Clear language is so important. I've been in conversation with a fellow pshe teacher who thinks it's appropriateand desirable to use 'people who do/don't menstruate' instead of girls when teaching a mixed group of 11 year olds about periods. It assumes a level of knowledge in the students (that the boys and girls know to which group they belong, so they aren't misled by the the teacher's obfuscation language), that many 11 year olds simply do not have. Never mind the fact that that's precisely the knowledge it is our job to teach them!

Absolutely.

At 11, I wouldn’t have though that “people who menstruate” would have applied to me. Firstly, I hadn’t started yet, and secondly, through a combination of parental coyness and my own complete misreading of the Tampax ad, I’d concluded that sporty girls like me didn’t have to worry about their periods because they didn’t get them 😬 I got a nasty shock when that was cleared up for me.

Well done, OP.

Could I ask the posters on this thread who are up on this, what sort of things would I be looking for in our company policies that would contravene GC thinking? We have the usual suite but to my reading, they're non-descript and have probably been lifted from any other generic policy

@JustcameoutGC

Thank you all for the support. I made the step in the summer of talking to friends and family about this. That was hard. I have many friends on the other side of the debate, and the pandemic has meant those conversations have been left hanging.

I have been really hesitant to do or say anything in the workplace. But I had to today, primarily because in my professional view there is a reputational risk of our company being associated with exclusive gender neutral language such as cervix havers or chest feeders as well as the risk of confusing the people the material is aimed at. This risk needs to be properly assessed and managed before this radical change in language is adopted. I would have been negligent not to speak up.

This is in addition to my personal views that erasure of women from language, particularly around health, is really damaging and disenfranshising.

I don't think I have ever gotten past a handful of replies to anything I have ever posted. Trending is new to me. I have never been trendy.

Brava, brava: language matters. Clear language really matters when services are targeted at specific groups. This isn’t about being nice or nasty. It’s about being competent

@Floisme

That was indeed a point I raised! What did she say?

Funnily enough she didn't respond to that point! (it was via social media in a pshe teachers' group, not face to face).