Complaining about 'assigned female at birth'

[howmanybicycles]

My son (year 9) attended a presentation at school today offered by an external organisation. The woman used the term 'assigned female at birth' which I consider to be a slur. I'm tempted to complain but wanted to get my facts behind me first. Has this, in our current anti-female dystopia, become an 'accepted term'? Is there anything I can quote which shows the damage this sort of obfuscating language does?

She also told the kids that what you were 'assigned' was what the 'doctor' said when you were born which is quite a micro-aggression towards women, I thought, given that the baby's sex is actually recognised by the (usually female) midwife and not the (often male) doctors!

A baby's NAME is assigned at birth - as in it's a free arbitrary choice made by the parents on the baby's behalf, and can be later changed at any point, if desired.

A baby's SEX is acknowledged at birth - as this is already biologically fixed and cannot be decided or changed by anybody.

Claiming that a baby's sex is 'assigned' at birth makes as much sense as stating that the baby's parents are assigned at birth - "I think Carol and Steve would be the most suitable parents for this baby, so I'm assigning them as his mum and dad; even though Laura and Mike are the actual biological parents". Not talking about subsequent adoptions or similar - actually 'assigning' the woman out of whose body the baby came and the man whose sperm got the baby growing in there in the first place.

I was born in a city in the English Midlands, and this was recorded on my birth certificate, but I can only regret that my parents/the midwife couldn't have assigned my birthplace as somewhere much cooler - like Los Angeles or Rio.

If we're treating biology - and what we can easily observe with our eyes - like it simply doesn't exist, how dare anybody automatically 'assign' babies as human at birth. How can we be arrogant enough to presume to know this, when there are millions of different species out there?

If anybody tells me that I'm just being ridiculous now, I would counter that I wasn't the one to start all this - and that I am being no more or less ridiculous than the AFAB/AMAB lot are. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I can only assume that this idea was originally declared by somebody with English as a second or third language, who got confused as to what the verb 'assign' actually means.

Yes! I was born in a Midlands town too and I always thought Savannah, Georgia would have been sooo cool.

The phrase has been appropriated from the historic medical texts referring to children who were born with disorders of sexual development - back in the 50s a baby with ambiguous genitals might well have been subjected to an operation to make their genitals look more sex- typical and as it’s easier to make an innie than an outie, most of these ops would involve amputation of the genitals and removal of internal gonads. The docs would then prescribe hormones.

Of course, some of these babies were like poor David Reimer (who wasn’t born with ambiguous genitalia but lost his penis in a circumcision gone wrong) and as they grew up their actual sex would become increasingly obvious. These children would legitimately be able to say they were (erroneously) assigned a sex at birth.

Nowadays much of the medical establishment (rightly) only operates on babies genitals for function (eg to resolve urethral issues) and anything else is left til post-puberty when the child is old enough to consent. Sex is no longer assigned by a doctor motivated by achieving a normal genital appearance, but is instead done by genetic testing.
As time goes by and medicine improves fewer and fewer ambiguous babies will be erroneously assigned anything and even now it really only happens in places where medical attention is costly and not covered by the state.

As with almost everything else in the trans movement, this phrase has taken from a context where it is factual and used in a manner to render it nonsensical (see also: the word ‘woman’).

I was nearly assigned something at birth when the midwife observed that my tongue didn't quite fit in my mouth which was an indicator for what was then called mongolism. Imagine my mothers reaction if I had been "assigned mongol at birth". No other sign of Downs though. Or expertise at shooting arrows from a galloping pony.
AFAB, AMAB is just as daft as that

As an aside, my gt-gt-grandmother was originally certified as a boy on her birth certificate. Given that she had none of the priviledges of growing up as a man in the victorian era, and all of the disadvantages of being a woman (including giving birth 16 times!) , I tend to agree with the reissue that states that this was an error!

As an aside, my gt-gt-grandmother was originally certified as a boy on her birth certificate. Given that she had none of the priviledges of growing up as a man in the victorian era, and all of the disadvantages of being a woman (including giving birth 16 times!) , I tend to agree with the reissue that states that this was an error!

I wonder if that was caused by them having male-default forms and guidelines and an idiotic registrar.

One of my Great Aunts was repeatedly referred to as 'he' and other male terms at her funeral (before I was born - my DM told me about it) - I can only assume that the vicar had a standard order of service, giving male terms by default, and was too stupid or lazy to bother making sure that he changed them when the deceased person was female.

Having just read an American blog about surrogacy and choosing the gender of the baby (I think they mean sex because we all know that word is to embarrassing to say out loud), not a mention of ‘assigned at birth’. Weird how when money is involved language changes too!

Do they have Harry Potter style sorting hats in hospitals assigning sex these days? 😂

My children weren't assigned anything at birth. I gave birth to a girl and then I gave birth to a boy. I am sick to the back teeth of our children being targeted with this nonsense. Parents are not being consulted. This terminology is all being created to suit a minority of mentally ill men that are trying to use our children as their weapons in their war against women.

Complain to the school OP. tell them you consider this a slur against women let them know how furious you are that they are bringing outside organisations into the school to use inappropriate language in front of your child. See if you can get any other parents to support your claim. They have to know we won't tolerate this.

Love the Mr Potato Head analogy. Gonna use that one. It makes it sound as bloody ridiculous as it is.

Usually long before that, these days. I don't know any younger mothers who wait to find out at the birth, its all early blood tests and gender reveal parties now.

Assigned female at birth is not even partially accurate. Nobody is assigned anything, it's just observed at birth or long before it.

I was asked this question over the phone for the first time ever just last week. Is your gender the same as you were assigned at birth? I was shocked and corrected her. Looked up the org after and they are a top 100 Stonewall co. That explains that then. We have to call out this nonsense.

@howmanybicycles I think this is an excellent letter, but I would end it by asking how they plan to correct the misinformation given by the external speaker. And I would copy in the chair of governors as well.

Is your gender the same as you were assigned at birth?

For a company claiming to want to be inclusive and liberal, that's a very presumptuous, bigoted question to ask - assuming that everybody DOES have a gender.

I'd be inclined to play stupid and ask them how I could find out what gender I was assigned at birth, as nobody has ever mentioned this to you or told you what this could be. Might it be recorded somewhere on your birth certificate? If so, whereabouts would that be - as you've looked carefully at yours and can only see the box that says what your biological sex is; no mention of gender whatsoever.

The woman used the term 'assigned female at birth' which I consider to be a slur

I understand that you're not comfortable with the use of the term because contextually it's used by people who are not gender critical, but what is the logic behind seeing it as a slur?

Slur is a strong word to use because it is usually reserved for words which have a long history in the use of subjugation or oppression. I'm struggling to see how a phrase which acknowledges binary biological sex in humans could be perceived as a slur.

I'm struggling to see how a phrase which acknowledges binary biological sex in humans could be perceived as a slur.

It's the 'assigned' which is the slur - not the 'female'. It's casting doubt on an unequivocal certainty, which is a fundamental part of your identity.

In terms of being a deliberate slur, it's a little bit like, say, you're the manager of a firm and somebody asks to be referred to you, and then you come out to assist them, are introduced to them, and they say "So, then, manager - if that is indeed what you are."

"Slur is usually reserved for words which have a long history in the use of subjugation or oppression ". Yep, meets your definition.

"Acknowledges binary biological sex". Oh no it doesn't. It implies that birth sex is not natal, biological sex.

'm struggling to see how a phrase which acknowledges binary biological sex in humans could be perceived as a slur.

It literally does not acknowledge binary biologiocal sex at birth

some words that mean assigned
allocate
appoint
designate

Why not ask the school to justify the expression?

It makes me mad too

It damages the reputation of those identifying someone's sex by suggesting they are actively assigning something (stereotpyes and judgements) rather than passively looking at something. It is a tool used in the subjugation and oppression of women. Saying 'your sex' achieves the same acknowledgement of the binary nature of biological sex without doing those other things. It is a strong word and it's correctly used.

I don’t think it’s a slur but I do think it’s gone from a factual description of something that happened to a tiny minority of babies (those born with one of a handful of very rare DSD conditions) to something that denotes a belief in a new, secular form of religion, via a process of cultural appropriation.

Someone declaring that I was ‘AFAB’ is just as meaningless to me as saying I was born a sinner and without the Christian rite of baptism I would be stuck in purgatory.

Marking me as a sinner, an infidel or a heretic on a data collection form would be just as inappropriate as marking me as AFAB.

so I do kinda get why it feels like a ‘slur’ but I don’t think slur is the correct description for what occurs when it’s asked of someone who doesn’t subscribe to the belief system.

It’s a bit like being asked what colour your aura is when you believe coloured auras are a pile of pish and there is no n/a option.

it would be fair enough if you were on a sign up form for the Auras-r-Us mailing list but completely inappropriate for a government department.

@JacquelinePot

Complain to the school, the governors, the DfE and your MP. The Government has already said schools aren't to teach such unmitigated bollocks.

^^This

Assigned could change meaning too.

maybe it should be invented or deluded or bullshit from now on

To me it suggests it is arbitrarily decided. It also gives the impression that it can easily be reassigned which ultimately is what some people want to be pushed.