Rita Panahi: The misogyny that no one dare challenge

Supposedly inclusive terms for women are often dehumanising and dripping in misogyny, reducing womanhood to a body part or function.

Women are being told to shut up and sit down — or else.

Womanhood is under attack from fringe activists who exert extraordinary influence among the media, academia and political class.

The supposed concern for “diversity” masks a nasty authoritarian streak. The desire to diminish — some would say erase — women and motherhood, is evident in the fact that the dictionary definition of “woman” i.e. “an adult female” is considered hate speech by the powerful trans lobby who are increasingly being allowed to run roughshod over the English language.

In recent years there has been a push to use more “inclusive” terms to describe women including womxn, vulva owners, menstruators, cisgender women and individuals with a cervix to name just a few. You may think I am joking but all of the above and more have been used by media outlets, academics and public institutions.

Just this week we learnt that midwives at several hospitals in the UK have been told to say “chestfeeding” instead of breastfeeding, refer to breastmilk as “human milk or chestmilk” and call mothers “birthing parents” so as not to offend non-binary people.

A media outlet recently ran the headline “COVID-19 vaccine guidance for lactating individuals ...” rather than write “breastfeeding mothers” for fear of being non-inclusive of, err, lactating men.

These supposedly inclusive terms are not only dehumanising but often dripping in misogyny, reducing womanhood to a bodily part or function. Anyone who refers to me as a “menstruator” instead of a “woman” would not walk away unscathed.

That this lunacy has reached the UK’s National Health Service and the office of Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer shows that it’s not some fringe issue confined to Twitter.

The NHS’s pregnancy website advises: “8 in 10 people under 40 years old will get pregnant within 1 year of trying”. Really? Eight in 10 people will get pregnant despite only half of them having a uterus, fallopian tubes and other requisite parts necessary for carrying a child.

Linking motherhood with womanhood is increasingly seen as exclusionary to trans activists who have disproportionate influence on both the public and private sector.

Linking motherhood with womanhood is increasingly seen as exclusionary to trans activists.

And so it was disappointing but not terribly surprising that much-loved children’s charity Barnardos had decided to axe its Mother of The Year award to be more inclusive. The statement explaining why they were abandoning an award that for 25 years had brought the charity nothing but positive PR and a boost in donations was dripping in PC palaver.

“We believe that the celebration of mothers in the absence of others does not truly represent all the families and care givers we celebrate daily in our contemporary world,” Barnardos said.

What utter madness. Who could possibly be offended that a wonderful mother is acknowledged once a year by a charity devoted to helping vulnerable children?

Any prize is by its very nature is “non-inclusive” given there can only be one winner. Every mum nominated and many others that aren’t could rightly claim that they deserve the mother of the year award.

Celebrating mothers and motherhood does not in any way denigrate other caregivers. And cancelling an event that left people inspired by the strength and devotion of mothers is not a win for diversity.

The desire to appease loud activists is seeing girls and women sidelined and bizarrely it’s a trend championed by the bulk of the modern feminist movement.

Women who do speak up are labelled bigots, transphobes and TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) for insisting that the term “women” not be appropriated to the point where it has no meaning, and for wanting to protect women’s sports and spaces from biological males who identify as female.

“We’re living through the most misogynistic period I’ve experienced,” wrote JK Rowling, who has been a high-profile target of the trans lobby.

“Never have I seen women denigrated and dehumanised to the extent they are now. Everywhere, women are being told to shut up and sit down, or else.”

Sadly, many feminists who are normally hypersensitive to any hint of sexism, real or imagined, ignore the misogynistic vitriol, threats and deplatforming that women are subjected to for simply stating biological facts such as men don’t menstruate.

The influence of the trans activists has seen self-identification trump science and led to government bodies making ludicrous decisions in the name of inclusion. We’ve had male sexual predators who identify as women put in a women’s prison with little regard for the safety of prisoners.

These are not fanciful “what if” scenarios, they have already happened. In the infamous case of “Karen White” a rapist put in a female prison sexually assaulted two female prisoners before being sentenced to life in a male prison.

It’s important for the apathetic masses to wake up and stop ceding linguistic territory to radical activists. What starts with words soon manifests in policy.

IN SHORT

Once again public opinion is wildly at odds with media opinion. Listen to talkback radio, read the letters or just listen to the chatter at your local cafe, and you’ll hear an enormous outpouring of support for Eddie McGuire and anger at the way he was treated.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

[e-mail]