Language shift at the Guardian?

[mcduffy]

Was surprised to see the S-word in the headline. Tide turning?

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/27/asthma-research-disadvantages-women-by-disregarding-sex-hormones

Reverse Ferret!!

How terribly bigoted and terfy of them! 😂

A subtle one!

No, they had an article yesterday about the problem 9f femicide in Mexico where women and girls are being murdered, apparently, because of their 'gender'. Although I don't believe the article mentioned transwomen, it may be the frankly sickening numbers may have included tw and/or tm.

They had an article a few days ago about how poverty in this country is shortening and blighting the lives of women. I think in pieces of this nature, using cervix-owners, etc. would be too much even for them. If they could have got away with it they would have.

I think a lot of it depends whether the language is coming from and directed at US staff and US readers; or British ones.

This story does clearly have global implications, but Andrew Gregory is, I believe, a British journalist (and the Health Editor) looking at British-led research and data. His US colleagues were unfortunately unavailable to contribute the word 'gender' due to lying in lakes of their own mad, angry tears about what's happening to Twitter.

I think Spindle is right. The Guardian isn't consistent on this issue, and much depends on a) the journalist writing the story b) whether aimed at UK or US audience c) the original press release/research the story is based on. My guess is that the original research here used "sex" rather than "gender".

WEP posted the article, too. They couldn't bring themselves to say "sex" in their comment though!

I wonder if thats because its a medical article?

I strongly hope that newspapers remember some of their public interest role in contributing to the quality of the public discussion in areas as important as health and social care. This includes clear language and laying out issues in a straightforward manner.