Midwives told sex is "assigned"

[Ravenclawdropout]

Now midwives are told sex is 'ASSIGNED' at birth mol.im/a/10964279 via dailym.ai/android

Bloody daft idiots.

Babies with tiny dicks are male, the ones with girly bits are girls. Unless and until they choose differently. It's not assigned - it's how they come out! Nothing anyone can do to alter it.

Are they being wooly to cover the very rare intersex babies?

I understand that nobody even in that group is 'assigned' social gender at birth any more, though it happened in the past in some extremely rare cases.

Assigned by their biology and chromosomes, yes.

At least the massive knobheads haven’t plumped for ‘observed’.

Good to see so many midwives having the courage to speak out. There was a time when they'd have been cheerfully assigning away or muttering "bollocks" in a corner. Increasingly women are becoming less frightened of the extremists and staring to speak out. Well done them.

It because of so many women having the courage to speak out especially women such as Kellie-Jay Keen who despite being 5 foot nothing and having grown men screaming in her face and other women condemn her, has continued to stand up and just say out loud what we all know to be true.

Whatever next. This is scary

Nobody "assigned" my son's gender. I was informed of his sex when fragments of his fetal DNA were harvested from my bloodstream and tested at 9 weeks' gestation.

That must be very inconvenient for them.

‘And then the sex is assigned…’
’how do we do that?’
’errrrrrr, baby has a willy, say boy…’

Just when will this farce end!? Thank god I’m no longer a working midwife, I would never be able to go along with this crap!

Do you think when a midwife 'assigns a gender' she has a an assortment of external genitals in her uniform pocket, scoops one out land super glues it on just before she passes the baby over to its 'birthing parent'?

It’s assigned. Assigning simply means deciding and choosing whichever sex the baby is based on visual identification. It’s splitting hairs to argue that “assign” can’t be used to describe this process. It has been for decades and there’s no reason to pick another word that means the same thing.

Assigned implies there is some degree of consideration and choice. It is what it is.

No, assign is to allocate. You can recognise which sex. Only caveat is if there is something internal (in infinitesimal number of cases) that can't be seen, e.g. internal testes in males which didn't develop correctly. They never developed along the female pathway, mind.

It’s splitting hairs to argue that “assign” can’t be used to describe this process.

No word should be used to describe "this process" because it's not the process that's significant. If due to some sort of bureaucratic error - or maybe even medical error due to a DSD - someone's sex is recorded wrong initially, then that shouldn't be locked in irrevocably.

Using "sex assigned at birth" in a place where actual sex is important presupposes historical errors aren't possible. (I can't actually think of any situation where you'd want to mention "sex assigned at birth" rather than actual sex, except maybe in as part of an application to get those records corrected).

No. Here are the first two of a long list of definitions from Collins Dictionary (the dictionary I am required to use by my workplace).

1. to select for and appoint to a post, etc
to assign an expert to the job
2. to give out or allot (a task, problem, etc)
to assign advertising to an expert

There's an element of choice and judgment inherent throughout. Sex you merely observe. You don't allocate or select or allot or make a judgment call. In 99% of cases sex is clear.

Language is important.

After a career telling mums what sex their babies are, I’d hope every midwife is giving this “assigned” nonsense short shrift.

But some are "assigned" during the 20 week scan, or through a NIPT test, or at a private scan. Or their sex is already known because a male/female embryo was implanted.

It's inaccurate terminology.

Sex is noted at birth.

"Assigning" something gives a degree of flexibility though, no?
Sex cannot be "assigned" or "un-assigned" because it is fixed.

Sex is determined at the point of conception, it is not "assigned" anywhere.
All you can do at birth is confirm the biological reality of a) penis = male b) vagina = female, ambiguous genitalia = possible DSD, further testing required.

Sex is fixed.

I wonder how these same midwives would react if parents disagreed with the assignation and asked for the other sex to be assigned instead. Very helpful for hereditary titles...

It is fixed at conception.

Nobody is assigning anything.

Hope that helps.

But why is this done at birth?

The sex is assigned by nature and the type of sperms used to fertilise the egg and this is done long long before birth. It is not possible to assign a sex at birth - it was already assigned months ago.

But why is this done at birth?

The sex is assigned by nature and the type of sperms used to fertilise the egg and this is done long long before birth. It is not possible to assign a sex at birth - it was already assigned months ago.

The only people splitting hairs on this really are the groups who want to believe that biological sex isn't a "thing". It's noted/recorded, it isn't assigned.

In lighter moments I wonder whether there should be a Harry Potter type of sorting hat in maternity units or one of those lottery ball machines with blue and pink balls in it if we're "assigning".