Women's rights general conversations - Thread 2

[Kucingsparkles]

Continuation of Thread 1

There is so much excellent information and so many active discussions on FWR that I wondered if it would be useful to have a thread to sort of "cross-fertilise" between them - airing little thoughts or vignettes that wouldn't themselves merit their own thread, to highlight other posts/threads of particular interest or to point to notable developments on fast-moving threads so that casual observers know where to look.

(For example, "the X thread has meandered onto a fascinating discussion of Y" or "Poster P's amazing analysis on thread Z might have relevance to the scenario in thread W" or even "Random bloke asked me to smile while I was choosing onions, grr"- that sort of thing).

Hardly 'fresh', I'd have hoped the 'neopronoun' users would have grown up by now. (They're functionally not 'pronouns'; neologisms which aren't standard English means of making communication easier and more fluid are really just sets of nicknames with a layer of grammar which make communication harder not easier than just using a persons name)

Not being a subscriber I can only see the first para of the Times article, but what is their objection to 'mate' apart from being a bit déclassé?

It was not explained, but have a sharetoken.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8c3fa572-95e2-11ed-91ab-4070465550ba?shareToken=12544b1b68b06874b44e4129be0eeed9

"The presentation included a list of words to avoid, including “mate”. It showed an example of an email in which someone corrected a colleague when they had used the word. In the response, the person said: “Sorry for calling you mate.” It was not made clear why the word should not be used.

Staff were also told to avoid referring to someone as “homosexual” or using the word “homosexuality”, because it was “generally considered a medical term now” and could “reduce the person to purely sexual terms”, adding that “people tend to use gay instead”.

Other terms staff were encouraged to avoid using included butch, femme, transsexual, sex change, pre-operative and post-operative. Also blacklisted were “transgendered” as it “suggests a condition of some kind”, and “transgenderism” because it “suggests an ‘ideology’ that could be argued against”.

I bet they didn't tell them some LGB people find the term "queer", offensive.

I rather like "and “transgenderism” because it “suggests an ‘ideology’ that could be argued against”.

Surely not!?

Thank you for the Times share token. I haven’t time to read it just now. What did they say about ‘cis’ and ‘sex assigned at birth’ ?
I find those terms particularly offensive.

“people tend to use gay instead”

Nice bit of lesbian erasure there.

Doesn't mention those.

avoid intimate questions about body parts, sex life, relationships etc

That bit I can definitely get behind.

I just came here to post this. I got a good laugh out of it at least

Neopronouns: Look at me, LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT MEEEE!!!

I honestly don't know whether we'll be looking back in 20 years time and laughing about that neopronouns rubbish, like loon pants or mullet cuts, or whether they're here to stay.

Utterly harrowing (for anybody who didn't know about this stuff). But also astounding that the thread hasn't been deleted or hidden in FWR.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4721731-complications-from-trans-surgery?

My instant reaction to that is 'no wonder so many trans people are so angry'. Then realised a lot of the angry ones have at least had the sense not to go down the surgery and/or hormones route. But the poster who said it's a class action lawsuit waiting to happen is spot on.

Heartbreaking that people have been suckered into this.

Why on earth is "mate" a problem?

Something, something.....chess...?....Australia....?

Because "mate" is something blokes call other blokes? And for all you know they may identify otherwise, @mach2 , you heartless swine!

I am regularly addressed as "mate" by an Australian woman and remain completely unoffended. I rather like it.

I only use “mate” online, in a sarcastic and/or pitying way.

I do sometimes address groups of women friends/colleagues as “lads” or “guys” in a humorous/affectionate way.

At the risk of getting into conspiraloon territory, it all feels like an attempt to get a crowbar under every facet of society and completely upend it.

On the surgery, I remember a link a while back where it was excitedly pointed out that there was a 11% per annum predicted compounded growth in 'the market' in the US. There aren't many issues where 'follow the money' isn't a factor, this one included.

'lads' for a mixed or all-female group is very usual in Ireland (I remember being slightly affronted in my mid-teens after moving from England 'but I'm not a lad' - I got over it/myself).

I think it generally is in England too.

Maybe it was different 40 something years ago.