Line managing someone who talks about "pregnant people" - how to gently tell her to use "woman"?

[LittlePrecious]

I am line managing someone on a project about pregnancy.

She keeps using the phrase "pregnant people" and it turns my stomach.

What I want to say is "Pull yourself together, get a fucking grip, and use the word woman". But I feel I need to be slightly more tactful than that. But I'm not sure what to actually say because its such a blindingly obvious thing to have to say.

I work in academia where things are fraught. I don't want this backfiring on me.

Please do you have any suggestions for how I can phrase "just fucking say woman, its not a dirty word" tactfully and without putting myself at risk? I may need to commit this phrase to writing as well so there may be a paper trail.

Thank you!

Is JKR now writing research papers on pregnancy or drafting maternity policy? If she was I guarantee she’d be saying women and mothers

as said above it’s the difference between the personal and the general

Ignorance and lack of critical thinking can't just be a default position if you're demanding that society reorganise itself in a way that significantly disadvantages 51% of the population.

Totally, @AstonScrapingsNameChange

Women's Place UK or FairPlay for Women (sorry, forgot which) has a slogan "Nothing about us, without us."

51% of the population should not have the fundamental definition of their material existence erased, to suit the beliefs of less than 1% of the population.

Particularly when that 51% of the population is the most subject to disadvantage and discrimination on the basis of sex.

So what? "Even" I might use those terms in the right context. Just not in this context.

JKR is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't, basically.

Honestly don't know why this would bother you the

as said above it’s the difference between the personal and the general

Indeed @Theeyeballsinthesky

This is how it's possible to be critical of gender extremist ideology and transactivism, but not be transphobic.

I have friends who are pretty committed to their religious faith. There are ideas in that faith which I find problematic and I would not want to live in a society governed by those religious beliefs.

But I still love my friends.

RTFT then.

Honestly don't know why people bother commenting 8 pages into a discussion about something that 'doesn't matter'(to them) anyway without at least reading to see what the fuss is about?

You don't speak for the rest of us. We are allowed to discuss things that wouldn't bother you.

Absolutely!

As has been said already, the issue is not the terms per se, its the context.

Also JKR, much as I love and admire her, is not 'chief TERF' who determines what the rest of the GC hivemind is allowed to say, or not.

(Also, the fact that she uses those terms so regularly should be borne in mind by those that label her a transphobe, but that's a digression).

Haven't read the full thread, but suggest taking the clarity/ accessibility route through this.

'We need to make this material as accessible and clear as possible because not everyone reading it will be an academic. I'm concerned that talking about pregnant people could be confusing for anyone who doesn't have English as their first language. Sex matters when you're talking about issues of pregnancy and childbirth. We know that only women can conceive and bear children so let's use the phrase pregnant women to avoid any confusion.'

If she says yes-but-transmen you say 'Of course, but we both know that transmen are women, don't we? This is an academic project: we need to be clear and accurate.' Smile firmly and move swiftly on.

If anyone says anything, ask them if they've heard of the Jo Phoenix and Maya Forstater employment tribunals.

If she still doesn’t grasp the importance of using clear, unambiguous language point her to the ONS results in Newham. A perfect case in point https://unherd.com/2023/04/how-the-trans-census-fooled-britain/

That is you though.

I have had four pregnancies and three births.

Pregnant people is a deeply offensive term to me.

No male will ever experience the excruciating pain of a cervix opening.

In view of recent reports on the almost catastrophic care pregnant women get during their pregnancy and while giving birth I should think that clear, precise language is the very basic starting point that we should all insist on.

And those friends probably don’t subscribe to all the ideas in that faith that you find problematic. There is a common assumption that Christians, for example, all have an identical (right wing, fundamentalist) worldview, and I know many who are left of centre, and/or who value science. The degree to which religious people take their sacred texts literally, and the degree to which they subscribe to a particular theological position, varies enormously. Good for you, seeing your friends as autonomous people, not just as pawns in an ideology.

I certainly see something similar in trans circles. I am pretty sure that the trans people and allies I know do not subscribe to all of the batshit extreme positions, though it is hard to find out, as they don’t seem to be secure enough in their (incoherent) worldview to be open to critical questioning.

Any cognitive dissonance at all here? Keeping a project about pregnancy gender neutral…
The employee only wants to keep the project politically correct and gender impartial