As the items and articles on this page show, all terms pertaining to biological sex are a potential minefield of hurt feelings on Planet Trans. So far as I know, none of the screenshots lower down the page were designed for April Fools Day.

Links from Planet Rational

Are we women or are we menstruators? Meghan Murphy

“Conundrumy! How is it possible for a human being — trans or not — to menstruate if they do not, in fact, have ovaries and a uterus? Well, hold on to your hats, folks — the answer is: it’s not possible. Every single person who menstruates has a female body. Does this make you feel uncomfortable? Apparently it makes Planned Parenthood uncomfortable, which is odd, as they, of all people, should understand these basic facts about women’s bodies, as experts and educators on the very topic of women’s bodies.”

Bra-gate – Yellowberry products now ‘for everyone’ Lily Maynard

“It is interesting to note that big clothing companies, who also market underwear and other clothing directly at girls and women, have not been targeted. Far easier to intimidate and bully a small philanthropic business, run by a young woman who is barely out of her teens herself.  Why approach Yellowberry? Why not Target or NEXT?”

Cancer research removes the word ‘women’ from smear campaign amid transgender concerns Telegraph

Cancer Research has removed the word “women” from its smear test screening campaign in order to ensure transgender people go for smear tests. While previously the charity urged women aged between 25 and 64 to get tested, it now pushes the service to “anyone with a cervix.”

Cervical Cancer is a Women’s Issue Kiri Tunks

The truth is that many, many women and girls are in ignorance of their bodies – not helped by a failure of this country to make sex and relationships education statutory. ‘Everyone with a cervix’ excludes women who don’t know what a cervix is. There will be added obstacles for women for whom English is a second language or those with poor literacy.

Midwives rail against proposal to call women persons in new code of conduct Adelaide Now

“WHEN a person’s waters break and that “person” goes into labour, we’ve gone too far.

That sums up the position of Australia’s midwives, who have had to fight to get “woman”, rather than “person”, into their new code of conduct. The Nursing and Midwifery Board took the nation’s 30,000 midwives by surprise when it drafted the new code and replaced references to “woman-centred care” with “person-centred care”. The Board invited submissions on the draft code and they flooded in, from the profession, academics and individuals.”

The word ‘woman’ is being erased from public life Brendan O’Neill

“So feverish is the obsession with avoiding giving offence to trans people that society is now happy to lie to itself. Frontpage headlines declare, ‘MAN HAS BABY’ and ‘Baby joy of first British man to give birth’. Media outlets inform us that ‘Statistics reveal men have given birth to 54 babies in Australia’ and ‘Pregnant British man gives birth to daughter’. We know all of this is untrue. Don’t we? We know that no man, anywhere, has ever given birth. We know that’s impossible. What they really mean is that women who identify as men gave birth. But if you say that — if you say, ‘They must be women, because they gave birth’ — you will be branded transphobic. It is a hate crime to say men cannot get pregnant.”

The problem with talking about “pregnant people” Glosswitch

“The pregnant body is not an isolated, solipsistically self-defining object. It exists in time, within a specific social, historical and political context. One can argue over whether or not gender exists as an apolitical entity; whether to be a woman is to identify or be identified as one. Our most immediate challenge, however, concerns whether all pregnant individuals are seen as people, not whether all pregnant people are seen as women. In order to address this we need to talk about women as a class. Gender-neutral terms limit our ability to do this. Whatever our intentions, neutralising language is not a neutral act.”

The Tragic Success of Trans Activism VS Feminism in Birth M Heket

“Trans activists have been incredibly successful in the past few years. So much so that women are being completely erased from our own lives. Feminism can never hope to compete with the success of trans activists, as shown by the immense gains trans language campaigns have had. For me, in the area I write about which is birth, it’s never more plain to see.”

Trans Identity Within Women’s Spaces M Heket

“To date I have stayed well away from the trans issues that currently dominate many areas of feminism. Why? Because I largely work with pregnant women and women who have birth trauma and I have never encountered an actual trans person who has needed my support in these areas. But as time goes on I get more and more hate mail from liberal feminists, for not altering year’s worth of work to be trans inclusive and now I’ve reached critical mass, and I’m going there.”

Anatomy

A curious idea from Planned Parenthood Ottawa is that to describe male anatomy as ‘male’ and female anatomy as ‘female’ is “judgmental” and the way to fight transphobia is to teach anatomy and reproduction without using the words. Has this approach achieved any lessening of prejudice, discrimination and violence against transgender people or have the well-meaning folk of PPO just made themselves look daft? Your guess is as good as mine.

Biology 101: If she has a uterus, she’s a woman.

Biology 101: If she has a uterus, she’s a woman.If she menstruates, she has a uterus. If she has a uterus…guess what?  She’s a woman.

The word you’re looking for is ‘penis’.

Not even geographically correct!

 Whatever you do, don’t misgender your cat, transphobe!

(Source unknown)

We have a winner…of the most disparaging way to refer to women competition.

The justification for this Orwellian abomination is that it accompanied an article about anal sex. If the reasoning behind that justification escapes you, you’re not the only one. The article was in Teen Vogue, which is primarily aimed at teenage girls (but, whatever you do, don’t mention the clitoris). Meghan Murphy writes about it here:

No, Teen Vogue, the backlash to your anal sex article was not rooted in homophobia

How to groom a handmaiden

You may have a body part other people lack but there’s no need to rub their faces in it. Do not mention the ‘f word’ (female) because that’s just cruel! Don’t say ‘vagina’ in case it’s triggering!

(Mind you, while the policing of this young woman’s language is nauseating, nothing compares to the revelation that other girls make fun of longer labia. Never heard of that before. How do they know? Please don’t tell me they burst out laughing in the middle of lovemaking.)

Just blame the ‘gestational parent’

Pregnancy, birth, sexual health

An “evolving” document suggesting gender inclusive terms that healthcare professionals should use. That the author had to turn off editing due to trolls goes some way to restoring my faith in humanity. I wonder how long it will be before these gender-obsessive terms become established? Whenever it is, hopefully I’ll be long dead by then.

Poem shared on Facebook

Menstruator, and other words that rhyme with ‘hate her’

if you wish to be inclusive
please amend your language usage
‘woman’ has now been disabled
this is how you shall be labelled:

ovulator, menstruator, gestator, incubator
procreator, lactator, child-curator, care-taker
homemaker, meal-maker, vacuum-cleaner-operator
titillator, conciliator, erotic-roleplay-stimulator

if a woman should resist
any title from this list
please ensure her full compliance
here is how to squash defiance:

moderate, invalidate, ensure that you re-educate her
irritate her, frustrate her, make sure you exasperate her
do berate her, denigrate her, obviously you castigate her
deprecate her, do deflate her, tell her you depreciate her

dominate, humiliate, and certainly manipulate her
subjugate, domesticate, and if you can, you abnegate her
penetrate her, impregnate her, all her life administrate her
regulate, incarcerate, and you shall incapacitate her

violate her, desecrate her, let your actions devastate her
decorate her, mutilate her, crush her and debilitate her
obviate, excoriate, and with your words eviscerate her
decimate, intimidate, until you can subordinate her

designate her, emulate her, mimic her and obfuscate her
appropriate, adulterate, mock and then impersonate her
exterminate, obliterate, and finally annihilate her
disintegrate, evaporate, replace and then eradicate her

just negate her
just negate her
just negate her

hate her

~Irischild

Updated 19.06.18