BBC Doctor on people with a prostate

[ChristinaXYZ]

twitter.com/xandvt/status/1481594948176818176

Our two great institutions, the BBC and the NHS, combine for the above video clip and twitter discussion

😂

Always great to see major public health figures throw people with learning disabilities, people with English as an additional language, and other people who need language to be plain and clear, under the bus in order to pander to a tiny group.

He's not even speaking to the whole population of transwomen. He's only speaking to the population of transwomen who stick their fingers in their ears and go "la la la la not listening!" if the word man/men is uttered. How big does he think that group actually is?

Does he genuinely think that very specific group is bigger than the group that he marginalises by his mangled, unclear language?

Q. "Which people have prostates, Doctor?"

A. "Anyone who has one! I don’t understand the question. Unless you’ve had it removed or were born without one then I’m talking to you!"

What craven nonsense. I used to quite like the Van Tulleken twins when they were cheery young docs on kids TV, but Xand at least seems to be morphing into a rather unlikeable middle aged man. Of course he understands the question! He's chosen to mangle language and be remarkably unclear in order to make sure he stays the right side of a particularly vicious set of witch-hunters looking for wrong thinkers.

Ah, but the retweet/screenshot of Prostate Cancer UK was spot on. Yeah, we know transwomen will have one but we want to reach as many men as possible, so we said men. Cos it's men, OK?

I don’t have English as a second language or a LD but I was confused after his tweets.

He states that there are many reasons that someone might or might not have a prostate and it made me think that I might be missing something and that maybe it is common for biological men to be born without one?I even googled to check my understanding of prostates.

I thought you were paraphrasing but no he actually typed that.

Why does he feel he couldn't say, Men, transwomen and male non-binary people ?(and still be as pc as possible)

Heck, someone needs to review his medical degree!

He calls pregnant women pregnant people

Pisses me right off.

Oh no! Have both the Van Tulleken decided to go with the mantras?

That would be very disappointing. I did think they would know better since they knew how to communicate health issues and body parts TO KIDS!!

Therefore knowing just how important plain English language use is and not language that obfuscates sex where it matters.

He went to a really fucking expensive school full of ultra privileged boys. It featured in the Everyone's invited website and has used Bish for sex ed (famous on MN for getting kids to draw porn, declaring small dicks are identical to large clits & implying FGM is just a little more extreme than a piercing).

I think the adoption of genderism by these deeply privileged and competitive institutions, already mired with misogyny, which push their boys into positions of power, is such a danger and we will be dealing with the fallout for a long time.

We need more pompous ejaculators like this. He'll lead the men up that mountain faster than I can type.

Q. "Which people have prostates, Doctor?"

A. "Anyone who has one! I don’t understand the question. Unless you’ve had it removed or were born without one then I’m talking to you!"

My DC haven't had prostate removal surgery (unless it was done without my consent or knowledge.) The dr has never mentioned if they, or indeed I, have a prostate. Should I assume none of us do?

I think we all need to phone up our doctors and find out if we have cervixes or prostates. Because obviously doctors are all quiet at the moment.

We can be inclusive without being exclusive.

Well, that's nice and clear, then!

On the one hand, 'people with prostates' is along the same lines as 'people with a cervix' so at least there is equal language mudling for both sexes.

On the other, the tweets avoiding saying man, transwomen and any other male human show how ludicrous this whole thing is. The exchange Ciao highlighted is 'a woman is anyone who identifies as a woman' in slightly different trminology.

Q. "Which people have prostates, Doctor?"

A. "Anyone who has one! I don’t understand the question. Unless you’ve had it removed or were born without one then I’m talking to you!"

*muddling

It's Alice Roberts all over again. You can hardly switch the TV on without seeing one of the Van Tullekens on a medical programme of some sort. It must form a very significant part of his income so he's taking no chance of being cancelled and having to make economies. He does have an academic career, not sure about how much clinical work he might do as well, but I would imagine the media work is a lot more lucrative relative to the time it takes to do.

Disappointing.

He should read this and see the damage he does by calling pregnant women pregnant people

www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgwh.2022.818856/full?fbclid=IwAR1GmMyg9yC58i3SargXSSpsw1NgaVoD6raB8cz40YuEgx9VxFTr5A4m4OQ

It's hilarious the way he's skirting around the question! Few people asking on twitter how will they know, and now I've got a Whitney Houston earworm...

How will I know if have I a prostate?
The GP tells me that I must wait,
Is it perhaps my sex that you need?
I'm asking you, you must know about these things!

How will I know if I have a prostate
Is it for those who e-jec-u-late
Or everybody, where could mine be?
Can you point to the prostate on me?

Have I prostate? Have I prostate not?
Ooooo how will I know??!!!!

He got the burn here

Perhaps someone could tag in the campaign for plain English?

:( Kids love Operation Ouch. I went to see the live show and it also featured Dr Ronx (non-binary, female). It was the first time I had heard 'they' used to describe a single definined person eg not 'I am going to see a doctor and I will see what they say' (meaning - I am not sure whether the doctor I see will be male or female) but 'I have spoken to Dr Ronx and they said'. It really jarred and I heard a child ask a mother who in reply said 'she said'. So hard to teach children grammar these days.

It was very clear from the clip how much is lost by using 'people with prostates'. The first question needed to be 'how do I know if I have a prostrate'?

The first question needed to be 'how do I know if I have a prostrate'?

Yes, at various points in his life he will have been told "you are a boy" and "boys become men" and "men have prostates".

These fools rely on everyone knowing what men and women are really.

See I was a very sheltered child and pretty clueless when it came to this kind of thing. If I'd seen this and discovered I don't have a prostate I would be shitting myself.

Doctors of all people need to be clear, open and honest about out bodies and health. When they start skirting around things it feels like there's an element of shame involved and how does that help patients.

I've been to outpatients today, people there of all nationalities, it's the one place you truly see the diversity of our nation. Yet this dickhead cant even say the word 'man' or 'male'. It makes me so angry, I lost someone close to prostate cancer, not like men are good at going to the doctors in the first place. Absolute danger, how can they not see that clarity matters. Really pisses me off.

Thanks for sharing this. I follow them and later will go onto Twitter and find how to unfollow. It's so unhelpful for men to be lumped in with women, just as bad as the reverse in clinical care.