July 27, 2022 - 1:30pm
If anyone should know the difference between men and women, it is surely the people who work in Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. According to the NHS, “Doctors in obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) care for pregnant women and unborn children, and look after women’s sexual and reproductive health.”
Perhaps someone needs to remind the Royal College because RCOG proposals on the “Care of Trans and Gender Diverse People within Obstetrics and Gynaecology” go way beyond being sensitive towards women who do not like to be reminded of their sex. A challenge, perhaps, during childbirth? But it’s not rocket science to avoid certain language if that’s what the patient prefers. For example, while only women give birth and become mothers, both sexes can be parents.
However, these draft guidelines go beyond care and compassion; they bear the hallmarks of transgender activism, heralded yet again by pronouns. Without irony, the RCOG recommended “using their preferred pronouns when addressing someone”. But wouldn’t that be the pronoun “you”? We have never had different second-person pronouns for men and women because when someone is standing in from of us, let alone giving birth, we do not need words to tell the difference.
Deeper within the documentation the RCOG uses the term “chest feeding” repeatedly. Why? Elsewhere, the NHS is clear that both sexes have breasts. But a political lobby group has become so powerful that it has been able to insert its preferred words into the language used in medicine. Perhaps rather predictably, the term “cis-women” also appears, and no fewer than 16 times. It is a sad situation when women are redefined as people who are not transwomen by the professional association devoted to their health.
The document is not all bad. Clinicians are reminded that transwomen like me may still experience “prostate problems” even after gender reassignment surgery. We don’t really change sex, despite what some might claim.
But the RCOG should stick to its remit — women. Yes, clinicians should be sensitive to the needs and desires of all their patients — including those who call themselves transmen or non-binary. But however female people might think of themselves, they all have female bodies. That is the reason why they might need the services of an obstetrician or gynaecologist. Some people might try and deny their biology but none of us can escape our bodies.
The document is open for consultation until 7 September, and anyone can comment. Potential service users comprise 51% of the population. Perhaps the RCOG needs a first-hand reminder of their views?
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SubscribeTrans-ideology is not really about transpeople. It’s about creating a two-tiered society where the children of the lower tier are locked into an education system that is hell-bent on destroying the family unit. The reason gender ideology is now being taught to children as young as three is because their notions of male and female haven’t yet been fully solidified. As such a fluid trans-identity is being stamped upon them before they are able to form a healthy masculine or feminine identity. Traditional definitions of male and female are being erased to make way for a sexless and passive collective in which any individual who displays inconvenient traits such as obstinance, individualism, disagreeability, or a desire for self-determination are to be medicalized or criminalized.
Here in VT it has reached absurdity. It is obvious that the goal is to break down the entire cultural structure in order to control all governance and place power in the hands of the few through wielding mobs.
It is good to see at last the clarity given to and emphasis placed upon the political objectives of critical gender (and race) theory, i.e. the weakening and destruction of our society.
Thanks Debbie for pointing out the absurdity of the imperative to use the ‘right’ pronouns when in conversation they will be ‘you’ and ‘I’. You might have made more of the fact that ‘transmen’ may need the healthcare for women that they are biologically, as transwomen may need the healthcare for men that they are biologically. All good reasons when it comes to healthcare to preserve the male/female distinction on the basis of sex.
Indulging peoples delusions does not help them. It denies them the right to grow as an adult. It denies reality. A woman who undergoes surgery and hormone treatment to resemble a man is not male. She is still a female. Still subject to female specific illness and conditions, not subject to male specific illness and conditions.
Rather than forcing NHS employees to say things that are not true the NHS should be providing phycological care for those who want or need it to cope with a life not in accordance with their preferences or perceptions. To cope with reality.
Gender dysphoria occurs in the mind, so it is only in the mind of the sufferer that a solution can be found. Not in coercing all others to agree with their delusions.
As you say it is pointless to elevate the importance of pronoun choice when “you” is genderless in English. Moreover, where is the sensitivity to women in referring to them as cis women. The number of women who prefer this form of description must be extremely small. Equally, how many women want to be be referred to as chest feeding rather than breast feeding. Whom ever is actually breast feeding will have breasts even if medically modified. Why should language be distorted to accommodate the preferences of such a small proportion of the population.
I will try to find time to submit my views on the proposed guidelines.
The thing that does not make sense to me is that if a trans woman is having a baby, whether they like it or not, they are doing that most female of things, which a biological man can never do, they are giving birth to a child. So they hate everything about being a woman, but still want to have a child. To me that sounds very confused and why should it require special treatment. Just be thoughtful and kind, as most people are.
Also, the whole gender pronoun complaint is so ridiculous, most of us have at one time or another being referred to wrongly. A few years ago I went to a charity shop with my 10 year old son, the lovely lady there kept referring to my son as my granddaughter (so he looks like a girl and I look like his grandmother rather than his mother). We just went along with it and laughed like drains when we got outside, and it is still a little anecdote we love to tell. I don’t understand why it became such a terrible thing to do, most of the time it is just a genuine and funny mistake.
The difference is that you know what you are; whereas a trans person needs to continually remind him/herself of what gender they are and also need everyone else around them to corroborate it.
‘It is a sad situation when women are redefined as people who are not transwomen by the professional association devoted to their health.’
I can’t believe we’ve sleepwalked into this. Women please wake up, our hard fought equality is being jettisoned back to the 50’s
Where does one comment on the guidelines? I clicked on the link but I don’t know what to do from there
Reality… damn brick wall.
This is crazy and super-confusing for many women who have no idea of trans terminology. The government need to legislate to prevent women having to wade through terminology that doesn’t make sense.
Government is the problem, not the answer, to everything.
Great article Debbie. Thank you for taking the trouble to bring it to our attention.
No one gives a tuppeny damn about all this trans business….