ERASURE: Language

Green Party Women betraying women

People generally don’t like language being changed and attempts to do so are always likely to be met with disdain or ridicule as a knee-jerk reaction. This happens even when the proposed changes are clearly progressive is in the case of replacing Miss/Mrs with Ms or Chairman with Chair.

Disdain and ridicule are even more likely responses when proposed changes are patently ridiculous as is the case with much of what is called “trans inclusive” language, most of which might also reasonably called “woman erasing” language. I originally intended to have just one page with a few examples but it got a bit crowded so I’ve divided the material up into categories and given them a page each.

 

Other pages on language on this site:

 

biology

cis, trans and pronouns

 

Links:

One in four Gen Z adults use genderless pronouns The Times 22.03.23

Don’t say mother or father as it could offend, Oxfam tells staff The Telegraph 16.03.23

‘It is disrespectful and insults women’: Hundreds of doctors and nurses demand NHS reinstates the word ‘woman’ to cancer and pregnancy web pages Mail 07.03.23

Outrage as Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists invites organisation which says ‘not all pregnant people are women’ to speak at International Women’s Day event Mail 07.03.23

Parents’ fury over gender-neutral school reports: Teachers at East Sussex co-educational accused of ‘wokery’ and ‘virtue signalling’ after dropping ‘he’ and ‘she’ from student feedback forms and referring to 11 to 16 year olds as ‘they’ Mail 04.03.23

Newham Green leader Danny Keeling storms out of council meeting after being repeatedly misgendered ES 28.02.23

Enoch Burke: pronoun warrior or provocateur? The Times 16.02.23

Home Office issues pronoun advice to staff The Times 16.01.23

Midwives sign letter calling on NHS bosses to scrap course that pushes inclusive terms including ‘chestfeeding’ and ‘birthing parent’ Mail 11.01.23

Peers ponder new definition of ‘woman’ given in Cambridge Dictionary 17.12.22

Cambridge seizes zeitgeist with gender-neutral German The Times 25.10.22

Pronoun choice is harmful, says tech billionaire Ben Chestnut The Times 22.10.22

‘Women are being erased by the NHS’: Fury over health guidance on PERIODS that doesn’t mention girls or women once and instead refers to ‘people who bleed’ Mail 09.08.22

UK Decides Against Compelled Pronouns for Violent Offenders 4w 25.07.22

Halifax is slammed for introducing pronouns to staff name badges but tells customers to close their accounts if they don’t like it Mail 29.06.22

Now the NHS quietly removes the word ‘women’ from its MENOPAUSE page Mail 28.06.22

Advice turns schoolgirls into ‘pupils who menstruate’ The Times 11.06.22

The linguistic war on womankind Brendan O’Neill 11.06.22

Hiding the word ‘women’ in health advice is dangerous, NHS told The Times 06.06.22

Language, truth and logic Jon Pike in The Critic 31.05.22

Gender-neutral language removed from Ministerial and Other Maternity Allowances Bill The Times 23.05.22

Civil service trying to ‘erase women’ with gender neutral language in new laws, ministers warn The Telegraph 21.05.22

NHS bosses have quietly removed word ‘WOMEN’ on advice pages about ovarian and womb cancer Mail 19.05.22

The Abortion Debate Is Suddenly About ‘People,’ Not ‘Women’ Helen Lewis in The Atlantic 14.05.22

Maternity madness! Midwives are urged to avoid using proper words for anatomy so trans patients won’t be upset Mail 17.04.22

Cis’ is an offensive term for women, feminists tell MSPs The Times 24.03.22

The liberal case against pronouns Andrew Doyle at Unherd 02.03.22

Male, female, feline… Bristol University guide lectures staff about neopronouns 06.02.22

When Asked ‘What Are Your Pronouns,’ Don’t Answer Colin Wright 04.02.22

Our ‘inclusive’ world is anything but – it excludes women, renames us and disappears us Suzanne Moore in The Telegraph 01.02.22

Gender-neutral terms may put mothers at risk The Times 31.01.22

HSBC adds pronouns to staff name badges The Telegraph 23.01.22

Now even the word ‘maternity’ is facing a ban at Britain’s ‘wokest’ university after diversity chiefs said the term was now ‘problematic’ and ‘exclusionary’ Mail 23.01.22

Boots sorry over magazine article suggesting that transgender people are more likely to commit suicide if they are not addressed with their ‘preferred’ personal pronouns Mail 15.01.22

‘I’m not giving up the word “woman”’ Kellie-Jay Keen talks to Brendan O’Neill Spiked 13.01.22

Trans-identified female who gave birth criticizes medical staff for calling her ‘mother’ and claims that it’s ‘important’ to STOP automatically linking pregnancy with being a woman Mail 22.12.21

French anger at gender neutral pronoun The Times 18.11.21

This isn’t just a pronoun, this is an M&S pronoun The Times 08.11.21

Defence chiefs are accused of ‘woke nonsense’ as MoD publishes ‘Inclusive Language Guide’ for soldiers saying ‘not all women are biologically female’  Mail 10.10.21

Parties are in trouble if they can’t use c-word Sarah Ditum in The Times 27.09.21

What The Lancet gets wrong about women Debbie Hayton in Unherd 27.09.21

Lancet accused of sexism after calling women ‘bodies with vaginas’ The Telegraph 25.09.21

Erasing women: Why make such efforts to avoid using the word “women”? Joan Smith in The Critic 20.08.21

London North East Railway apologises and promises to deal with conductor who wished passengers a cheery ‘good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls’ Mail 13.05.21

Pronouns are about power Angus Fox 24.04.21

Does it matter if someone was born male or female? When it comes to crime reporting, yes Lucy Hunter Blackburn in The Courier 15.04.21

When You Put Preferred Pronouns in Your Email Signature Leela 31.03.21

Why I joined the trans debate James Kirkup in The Spectator 26.02.21

Words matter: The press must stop misreporting a persons sex Fair Play for Women 26.02.21

Breastfeeding is now chestfeeding: Why are the language police trying to wipe out women? Sunday Times 13.02.21

Breastfeeding is now chestfeeding, Brighton’s trans-friendly midwives are told The Times 09.02.21

There used to be a word for us… Maya Forstater 28.10.20

Transgender wars and the fight for female emancipation The Spectator 24.09.20

Tedx London sparks fury over decision to replace ‘woman’ with ‘womxn’ to be ‘more inclusive’ Mail 09.09.20

Use transgender pronouns or face possible dismissal: new guidelines for NI’s 23,000 civil servants News Letter 31.08.20

Declaring your pronouns is pure narcissism The Times 11.08.20

The transgender debate needs clear thinking, not muddled language Debbie Hayton 03.08.20

If we can’t define what a woman is, how can we organise politically?
Suzanne Moore in The Guardian 03.08.20

The word ‘woman’ is already taken Debbie Hayton 20.07.20

Objections to ‘Cis’ Not the News in Briefs 16.07.20

BBC advises all staff to use trans‑friendly pronouns The Times 10.07.20

The Times view on a new BBC policy: Pronoun Problems 10.07.20

She Who Must Not Be Named Helen Joyce 20.06.20

The Fifth Circuit Rejects the Lie of Transgender Pronouns National Review 27.01.20

‘Xemself,’ ‘Eirself,’ and ‘Verself’: U.S. Appeals Court Nixes Gender Neutral Pronouns Forbes 15.01.20

What are your preferred genital nouns? Spiked online 08.01.20

How trans activists made ‘woman’ a dirty word Spiked 08.11.19

The Move to Erase Women from Periods, Pregnancy, and Parenting M.K. Fain 01.11.19

Happy International Pronoun Day 2019 Maria MacLachlan 16.10.19

I’ve added my pronouns to my Twitter bio in solidarity with other narcissists Spectator USA 13.09.19

Trans English is the new common tongue Spectator USA 19.07.19

School pupils in Brighton get badges saying if they prefer to be called ‘she, he or they’ with the slogan ‘gender is a spectrum’ in bid to help transgender children Mail 02.04.19

Ontological Totalitarianism by Numbers Jane Clare Jones 08.12.18

West Point High teacher fired following transgender controversy  NBC12 06.12.18

Goldsmiths students replace the word ‘women’ with ‘WOMXN’ Mail 26.11.18

I am not a walking cervix or a menstruator. I am a W‑O‑M‑A‑N The Times 31.10.18

If transwomen are women, what is a woman? Sophie Allen 16.08.18

BBC staff told to use non‑binary pronouns Times 13.10.18

‘Womxn’ row as companies worry the word ‘women’ excludes transgender people Telegraph 10.10.18

Diluting the meaning of ‘woman,’ to appease transgender activists, is misogyny Barbara Kay, National Post 13.09.18

Altrincham Grammar School for Girls ban on calling pupils ‘girls’ – because it’s hurtful to transgender people Manchester Evening News

Why I decided to stop using the term “transwoman” La Scapigliata 25.04.18

Breastfeeding is not a neutral act Full cream web blog 03.11.17

College lists ‘ne,’ ‘ve,’ ‘ey’ as gender neutral pronouns Campus Reform (American conservative site) 01.03.18

Head of top single-sex school says she only uses ‘pupils’ to describe youngsters so not to hurt feelings of any considering changing sex Daily Mail 24.09.17

How do you define ‘man’ and ‘woman’? Andy Lewis 04.06.18

Like A Thief In The Night: The Scottish Bill That Stole The Word Woman Fair Play for Women 21.03.18

Midwives rail against proposal to call women persons in new code of conduct Adelaide Now 23.11.17

No, Teen Vogue, the backlash to your anal sex article was not rooted in homophobia  Meghan Murphy 20.07.17

Open letter to MANA 

The amazing disappearing ‘women’ Deb UK

The Problem That Has No Name because “Woman” is too Essentialist Claire Heuchan

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

The problem with talking about “pregnant people” Glosswitch

Trans rights should not come at the cost of women’s fragile gains Sarah Ditum