Midwives told sex is "assigned"

[Ravenclawdropout]

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

It must be due to my stupidity @Discovereads, I clearly know nothing about how the brain works, or law, or government. We're just shooting our mouths off here, hypocritical and obsessed by nonsense.

Thank heavens you're here to impart your wisdom and allow us to build bridges with intellectuals like yourself

"It will change nothing except the fact that’s not technically the correct usage of the word observe. But hey whatever who cares about actual definitions when it comes to feelings."

Oh the irony.

You’re very welcome.

It's all about forcing the acceptance that males are females if they want to be.

Well, then it wouldn’t be sex assigned at birth then would it? Assigning sex is something done by one person (midwife) to another person (the baby). You can’t assign yourself anything, that’s not what assign means or allows for. If you actually wanted a world where males can choose to be females if they want to be, then getting rid of the requirement that your sex be assigned to you at birth would be one way to do that.

@Discovereads - we can all talk about our fields to a degree an average Mumsnetter would not understand. It does not make you an expert in any other field. Linguistics, for example, does not appear to be your strength, but that's ok.

Nobody is actually saying you're stupid if you don't understand that word 'assign' is not appropriate for sex determination of healthy babies at birth though.

Yes, to observe or note your observation is literally to do all that. I'm sure many have carried out Science projects or experiments? You make scientific observations. I seem to remember the 'observations' section. Not assignment or allocation section. The 'observations' section.

So maybe the doc/nurse could be assigned (or given an assignment) to observe/check if the baby is a boy or a girl and to put this observation on paper/computer. In my case one of the medics involved in the caesarian, just looked at the baby and informed me of the sex. He didn't even need to write it down or record it to transmit this knowledge.

Not in this thread…yet. But in the last thread…oh yes, repeatedly.
Assign is perfectly appropriate. It’s nonsense to protest it. Just causes eyerolls and makes people more likely to dismiss protests that actually do matter like safeguarding single sex spaces.

..... assigned the task to observe/check if the baby.....

I have no issue with the phrase "LEGAL sex assigned at birth", because yes legal sex is assigned (based on biology - ie biologically what you are is the default assigned to you) and can be legally changed later to match one's gender preference by going through an official process.

Trouble is, no one is "assigned" female at birth really, because it isn't really something anyone can choose (or not) and often the "assigned" is used as if biological, and not legal, sex is what is being talked about ("AFAB makes no sense, because it isn't like you can be assigned female later on). One is "born female" or "born male", with a tiny minority requiring further investigations to decide which they best fit. And then a small minority wish to express their gender differently and change their legal sex.

I don't get the "at birth" bit. Mine weren't actually observed until birth because I didn't want to know their sex, but plenty of parents find out the sex at a pregnancy scan, or as some pps said, via genetic testing. If you were selecting the sex of embryos to be implanted in IVF as part of PGD (allowed for certain sex linked conditions in the UK) you'd know even earlier.

You calling it nonsense does not make it so - protesting loss of single sex spaces is pointless if it then can be said that someone's male sex was 'incorrectly assigned at birth'.

And you're not bright enough to see the connection (I'm sure you're not, actually, stupid, not many people are really)

Sorry, that was to @Discovereads

Brings back happy memories. When the medic (I can't remember his function) immediately relayed his observation to me about the sex of my baby. I had not wanted to know during the pregnancy, although it could possibly have been observed from the scans, and this observation relayed to me there and then. I didn't care about the sex; I just hoped for my baby to be as healthy as possible.

Well, if you get your way and it’s “observed at birth” they can still say their sex was incorrectly observed at birth now can’t they? So, as I said, by all means protest. Make everyone swap assigned for observed, it won’t change anything. I am bright enough to see that…and that’s why I say this protesting is nonsense and futile. It will change nothing. It only makes you look really well, short sighted and with tunnel vision.

they can still say their sex was incorrectly observed at birth now can’t they?
It'd be pretty difficult to argue that the midwife made a mistake when calling a baby with a penis a boy. Particularly when the baby's mother was happy to agree 🤷🏻‍♀️

No more difficult than it is to argue that an incorrect assignment of sex was made as that too has all the same adults in the delivery room. As I said, swapping the words gets you exactly nothing.

"Reality is not going to bend around this corner and nor will I."

Hear, hear!

Well quite, I can imagine the headline already 'Midwife incorrectly observed woman's sex as male as a woman had a penis'. Zingy

There won’t be headlines. There aren’t any today when trans get a GRC and have their BCs changed. It’s not going to change that process in the slightest by saying sex is “assigned” to sex is “observed” at birth.

It's like the famous 6-word amendment in Scottish Government - we were all stupid to argue over a word, but when the amendment passed it was deemed 'transphobic'. Amazing that.

Oh ONS court case - stupid, pointless quibbling over language it was till we won. Iirc the court was deemed transphobic at that point.

Enough, if these words don't matter to you, whf are you on here @Discovereads ?

And nobody get a GRC because their sex was incorrectly observed or 'assigned'.

They get it because they have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, not because they're 'incorrectly' sexed at birth.

Well, obviously some words matter more than other words. You have to assess on a case by case basis.

Yes we’ll have you looked at the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria? Doesn’t sound like it.

Oh FFS, how disingenuous can one get - if it doesn't matter to you if the word 'assign' is replaced by 'observed' why are you here arguing over it?

Sorry, please quote what you're talking about, with reference, if you start throwing dead cats. Which diagnostic manual, page, para. Otherwise, please fuck off