No mention of 'girl' or 'female' on NHS poster about child pregnancy

[Dominoodles]

I've seen this photo on Facebook and had to share. This was seen in a doctor's surgery, explaining that even a girl as young as ten could be pregnant and what that means. It's a horrible subject but I get the need for it to be a discussion, given the state of things right now.

But there is nothing mentioned on here about girls, or women, or females. A 'person' of child bearing age is not clear to little girls. A ten year old girl suffering sexual abuse is not going to realise this is for her. A ten year old boy is not going to realise it isn't for him, because it doesn't actually say. The visuals on the poster even show what appears to be a man as well as women.

Not too mention kids who do suffer sexual abuse are not going to have had a comprehensive sex education, so they might not even understand what 'child bearing age' is without context.

Ten year olds are not going to see this as the offer of help it was intended to be, and by obfuscating who this is meant for, those girls could be missing out on necessary help. It even uses the kid friendly word tummy, but can't use the word girl.

In what way is it confusing?

But wht would a boy not believing he’s a girl not think he’s got the possibility of being pregnant and a boy believing he’s a girl think he does have the possibility of being pregnant? Unless of course, he’s been told he really really is a girl by some rather nasty adults in his life.

Some children are very sheltered and don't think they are trans but don't yet understand how pregnancy works and that only women/girls can become pregnant.

When I was about 9 my cousin told me her brother had started his period but he was really embarrassed about it, so don't mention it to him, her mum, etc. I believed her because I hadn't yet had sex education classes at school and I only vaguely knew what a period was. Obviously I worked out later on that she must have been messing around but she was older than me, so I just assumed she knew more.

And as a few posters have pointed out, when 10 year old girls become pregnant it has nothing to do with their sexuality and normally means they have been sexually abused by an adult. So a boy of the same age might unfortunately have had the same experience and might think he could become pregnant.

Well, it apparently leads to all the hairy arsed men who happen to fit into the age parameters being asked if they think they might be pregnant - I imagine that’d confuse the fuck out of them, for a start 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's erasing femaleness from obstetrics, which is insane. And it's to appease a minority of people who are becoming so out of touch with their bodies and sex that many of them are now assuming that they're exempt from those issues.

I have a lot more ftm than mtf friends, and I also skim different social media and sites like this to follow trends. I have a friend who didn't know she could get pregnant while on T (surprise!), and that same friend had stopped any kind of gyno care years ago outside of the occasional free clinic checkup because it's so distressing to her to even acknowledge her genitals. She calls herself and her husband, who has never been with a man, the f-word.

Females on reddit, x, bluesky, and tumblr are, en masse, discussing remaining stealth to doctors and are indignant at the thought that they, the sex more likely to experience stroke, and on hormones that vastly increase the risk of such, should have to tell emergency room staff that they were born female.

These are people who can't even stand to look at themselves in the shower, and the solution isn't to further divorce them from material reality through measures like this, which are not just pandering to them, but alienating to women living as women.

If you can't sit someone down and say "You're a female; that has no bearing on how you identify, but it does shape your medical needs" then you're not a true ally, you're the bad friend who lies to avoid drama with a self-destructive friend.

See I think the “young person” helps in what your describing if the people you describe cant stand to think of themselves as girls/women

I also think it’s a catch all rather than having to say young girls and women - young people is better

but it is suspicious that women girl isn’t used anywhere else in the poster

There is a need to complain about the fact that the word to describe the target audience (girls and women/child females and adult females) is not being used.

They are 51% of the population and it is highly offensive that they are not being named by the National Health Service.

It just isn't fair to erase women and girls from female health to cater to people like this. Medical misogyny is already a major killer, and women still struggle everyday to be listened to by an establishment that's only now bothering to learn things like "female humans aren't a variant of normal."

The accusation is that we're causing them immense harm by not divorcing ourselves from our own femaleness in medical information, but when they demanded these changes, they didn't ask for is to include them. Those signs don't say "females" or "women and trans men," they remove us entirely and we have to accept it with the understanding that we, each of us personally, are responsible for them harming themselves if we don't.

Being pedantic is unnecessary, since you knew exactly the intention of the poster. Inventing imaginary abused kids being confused as subtext for transphobia is not necessary.

As always "inclusivity" excludes actual women and girls

It's ugly phrasing but highly unlikely to lead to serious misunderstanding, a 10-year-old girl knows she is a person and a 10-year-old boy knows he can't get pregnant.

Why should they (10 year olds) necessarily know if it has implied to them that they are interchangeable, and when even some adults believe this ?

Where exactly is the transphobia in protesting at the words women and girls being erased from medical literature that solely applies to them?

I also think it’s a catch all rather than having to say young girls and women - young people is better
Are you being wilfully ignorant? “Young people” includes males so it is not appropriate in the context of finding out if someone is pregnant.
We don’t need a catch all term when we are discussing women and girls.

Do you even ask men where it’s very, very obvious they are male and definitely not trans men? How do they react? How do you phrase the question? I feel for you, it must be really cringe to have to ask that question over and over to very obvious males!

It’s a shame it’s come to this BUT I suppose it might be helpful for 10-year-old trans boys who see themselves as boys and maybe wouldn’t pay the poster much attention if it just said girls

Adults need to stop pretending to children that they can change sex, then the confusion and upset wouldn't arise in the first place. Girls who identify as boys still have to deal with periods.

But when kids are told “men can get pregnant”, why would a10 year old not think he might be pregnant?

“Child bearing potential” that is fucking chilling!

Actually the words "young person" don't add any meaning except to draw attention to the way the words girl and woman are being avoided.

The poster would work better if it said "If you are between 10 and 55 years old we have to ask you whether you are pregnant before doing an x-ray. This is because..." etc.

Why write "if you are a young person between 10 and 55"? I'm at the upper end of that and not young 😂 and presumably they don't need to clarify that they are referring exclusively to people...

I am gender critical and of course this leaflet is wrong and stupid.

But part of me is chuckling at the thought of boys and men being asked if they could be pregnant. Women have historically been the ones routinely asked intimate, scrutinising and intrusive medical questions about pregnancy, contraception, menstrual cycles.

When you picture that same question being asked of men or boys, it turns the situation on its head and boys /men have to imagine being pregnant and the vulnerability and the objectification that often goes with all that.

But yes, nonsensical and annoying poster.

Yes - saying a “young person of 54” is weird isn’t it?
Plus some places have asked women who were well past “child bearing” age.

I suppose that’s inevitable when you’re operating on a basis of fantasy rather than fact: if men can be pregnant, then so can 72 year old women. Obviously.

Not all young girls are girls though, some identify as boys now.

What a strange depiction of a happy baby in it too. Not sure many 11yr old GIRLS would be happy at a pregnancy.