Boots magazine - repeating suicide stats and pronouns…

[KittenKong]

I’ve seen screenshots on twitter (so not the actual thing).

The article is all about why we need to use preferred pronouns (and the stats that people are 50% less likely to attempt suicide if you do - in ‘a recent study’ which isn’t named).

We can literally save lives by sharing our pronouns and asking others for theirs. “Literally”

This is Boots. Boots the high street Chemist.

Has anyone seen a copy - I’m hoping it is a Moley
joke?

Virtue signalling must send lippy sales soaring.

I can’t quite believe it’s real. I know they did the ‘inspirational women’ thing a couple of years back (no guesses why some were inspirational) and thought they nights have reconsidered after the complaints they got but this is a hell of a lot worse.

50% less likely to try suicide because you didn’t share your pronoun or ask someone theirs? No back up, no study details… who wrote this? The 3rd form Lunch Club?

Nothing but emotional blackmail and coercion.

Stonewall should be using it's millions to provide support for poor mental health for people so triggered by not be asked their pronouns.

I had a long email exchange with the CEO after they featured a trans woman on international women’s day: afraid they are totally captured and as a privileged middle aged white male he just thinks it’s important to be kind and has no understanding of the reality of women’s lives and why it might be more nuanced than that.

I imagine the article is also against Samaritans’ guidelines from what you describe.

www.boots.com/inspiration-advice/health-and-beauty/be-an-ally-with-your-pronouns

But this is worse - I’ve never seen such outright declarations. No stats, no survey details, no quotes from ‘psychologists’.

Middle Ages white guy huh? I’m assuming they have agencies who are advising them that this is ‘how things are’. I have worked with enough agencies to know the type that act like hyped-up school children looking for every new bandwagon to jump on (without actual thought or conviction), and lose interest when the ‘new thing’ comes along.

Oh there is a source on the site version - *Source: The Trevor Project National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health 2021 www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2021/.

Oh well then…

From the source survey: Transgender and nonbinary youth who reported having pronouns respected by all of the people they lived with attempted suicide at half the rate of those who did not have their pronouns respected by anyone with whom they lived.

Whereas dudebro said “those around them” implying everyone they come into contact with

What I don't understand is how anyone is actually aware of how they're being discussed in the third person....

Not that I think the stats are anything but nonsense but he’s clearly misrepresenting the source material not just believing and repeating it

This was a survey conducted in the US. Apart from the shonky research, what's this got to do with the U.K.?

And that stat about not being legally able to change their documents. They're children. No children are legally able to change their documents.

Mentally healthy people don't attempt suicide.
Where are the studies to show why teens with trans identities seem to have so many mental health issues?

@Clymene

This was a survey conducted in the US. Apart from the shonky research, what's this got to do with the U.K.?

According to Wikipedia, it's now based in Switzerland and 45% owned by an American pharmacy company who plan to buy more. Well, we know what's a big and ever increasing business in the USA and, increasingly, over here too...

You know, if it was any other demographic saying they would commit suicide if they didn't get a common courtesy given to them, they would be told that they cannot control how other people talk about them or see them, they can only control their own reactions.

And.....

Imagine an article stating that if women don't get the single sex services they need, especially around things like trauma or abuse, they'll kill themselves.

If gay men and women are not able to define themselves as same sex attracted they will kill themselves.

This is utterly chilling, that this has become an acceptable thing to say in a high street chemist's newsletter.

This is hugely disrespectful to people who are suicidal or may have attempted to take their lives. The very idea that you could be coaxed out of such a complex emotional and psychological situation as contemplating suicide by seeing "Jane Smith, she/her" in an email signature.

There are no depths to which this dogma won't sink.

This is interesting because I’ve worked for them in the past and everything had to be medically sourced to the nth degree from trusted sources, using peer reviewed studies etc etc. Looks like there has been a huge shift.

The writer is a beauty editor and does not have the health/psychology background required to write a piece like this for a major health brand and certainly gives no signs of trying to.

The word ally gives me the shudders now because I know ‘cis’ is just around the corner.

Would Boots sell pharmaceuticals and cosmetics that relied on such a dangerous misinterpretation of shonky data gathering?

I mean, maybe they would? They're hardly ethics central, I don't think they pay much in UK tax.

I think the writer is actually James Barr who is flogging his pronoun T-shirts so has a vested (hoho) interest in encouraging people to take pronouns super seriously

Co operate with political coercion to save a life based on extremely dodgy and selective statistics? Without unpacking the many, many, many other things going on under the surface of all that?

There needs to be consequences for using a position of influence to spread false news in this way that has such serious consequences that most members of the public will be innocent to.

Not only is it dreadful for all the reasons discussed, but it also contains the delightful phrase "not everyone feels comfortable in the body they were assigned at birth"

"Body assigned at birth" FFS - like we're just clouds of essence in the womb!

Oh you’re right, the beauty editor has just published it . But the previous fact checking rigours have clearly been abandoned.

I remember this article being pulled apart on Twitter at the time it was first published (I believe it was in mag too) but don’t believe Boots ever responded and they clearly haven’t seen any reason to remove it from their site.

It’s highly irresponsible on a number of levels.

You'd think Boots would understand women. We spend enough on their products...Although I guess hair removal products and cement like foundation sales may increase as they cater to their more special clients. I guess they don't need women like me anymore. Oh well...

This goes against all The Samaritans guidelines and has the potential to be harmful.