These Words Belong To US

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The Countess group in Ireland have started a campaign against the proposed removal of the words Women and Female from the Maternity protection act, they have made an incredible video to go with the campaign, some daughters of survivors of the mother and babies home gave testimonies along with other women and what these words mean to women.

I will copy in their twitter thread about it as i know not everyone can view twitter.

"We are launching a campaign to defend the words “girl”, “woman”, “female” and “mother” from the march of what they term ‘inclusivity’ but which in fact, alienates and excludes 50% of the population, women.
#TheseWordsBelongToUs
The message is simple; these words belong to us.
Our words. We are proud to be called by them. They are our birthright. We have paid a high price for them. Generations before us were punished for them.
They do not belong to the State, they belong to us.

The government planned to get this bill passed by July 2nd and to rush it through before summer recess. It is fortunate that we at at The Countess spotted what was hidden in the depths of the general scheme of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill; under heading 10: an amendment that provides that males can breastfeed; under heading 11:the removal of “she” and “her” to mean female; and under heading 12: an amendment to delete the word “woman” entirely from our maternity protection legislation.

Unlike 2015, when self-ID was latched onto popular marriage equality legislation, and brought in by stealth, this time we are watching closely and advocating for our constituency –women and children."

That is so incredibly powerful, it's made me quite emotional.

That is heartbreaking and beautiful

Great work and opening posts. Thanks especially for copying from twitter, recognising that we can't all read it on there.

You have to succeed with this. I hope you have some supportive media as we do here.

Heartbreaking and powerful.

But. Some of the slides said "we aren't people, we are women".
But we are people. Women are people. Female people.
Surely fighting for women to be seen as people was one of the early fights for feminism?

I agree that "these are our words" and that we need and deserve them. But the "we aren't people" could so easily be taken the wrong way.

I think this is said in the context of replacing "woman" with "people".

I've posted before but the abortion debate in the US is driving me off the edge. If you didn't know anything about the human race you would presume the class that bears children is "folks" as that is how obgyns being interviewed posit it. The word woman or mother never crosses their lips. You would presume that lack of access to abortion also affects folks and also people. It doesn't. the only person likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth or lack of access to abortion is a woman or girl- not all of those other people/folks/men. Just women.

Thank you for links.

I think this is said in the context of replacing "woman" with "people".

Oh I know, and it absolutely is meant that way. But i know people who won't take it that way. They'll twist it into something else and use it to put women down.

"Oh I know, and it absolutely is meant that way. But i know people who won't take it that way. They'll twist it into something else and use it to put women down."

It's par for the course for women's words to be twisted now, but i think it is a clear message and won't cause any confusion for those who don't try to trip women up at every turn.

FOJN Gubu
It's really incredible.
I'm aghast that there is specific legislation for males who want to self identify as women, as female, these words are that important for some men, but women are supposed to be OK with being written out of our own legislation.

Yes you're right. I'm just so used to the twatty men I'm related to (and actually some of the women too) twisting everything I say that I'm very sensitive to that kind of thing.

So back to the point of the thread. Its a powerful message. Hopefully the powers that be will listen!

Wait, so in the language of legislation, the only people who can be women are men? Men can be women, but women can’t be women?

Wait, so in the language of legislation, the only people who can be women are men? Men can be women, but women can’t be women?

Well this underpins the whole movement. So, yes.

I haven't viewed the slides but I presume when they say we are not people, they mean "we are not 'people' ", meaning "the way you use that word for us when we are women being women, like, you know, giving birth."

Put it in quotation marks on the slides and no one can be in any doubt you are quoting their use of terminology as a mechanism to obscure and deny women as women.

This is not the "people's" public toilet. This is the Ladies' or Women's toilet.

Don't you dare ''people" me, mate. I'm a woman, thanks.

In the legislation, can men be men, in addition to 'Men can be women...' (Fallingirl)?

Such moving testimony.
Girl, woman, female, mother - These words belong to us.

Thank you.

Very powerful.

Re the issue with "people", I agree that "we aren't people, we're women" sounds odd and undermines the message.

"We're not just 'people'; we're women" would be better.

But the women who put this together have done more than I have, so I don't mean that as criticism.