“Chestfeeding is not a word. That’s because human infants cannot extract nourishment from a chest. The only body part that produces milk is called a breast.”
Lionel Shriver points out that even Microsoft’s spellcheck underscores “chestfeeding” with a “chiding red squiggle”. The new “inclusive” term is one of many being introduced by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. Writing in The Sunday Times, Shriver pointed out that the newly named “perinatal services” (rather than the current “maternity services”) cater to the “tiny number of natal females who transition to male socially but not medically and give birth. As of 2017, the UK had two such people.”
“Our post was an ill-considered attempt to acknowledge the distress that our event with Julie Bindel may have caused even though it occurred some time ago. I regret the apology.”
Mark Rubbo, MD of Readings bookshop in Melbourne, apologises for an apology by his staff in which the bookshop condemned its own invitation three years ago to feminist author Julie Bindel after being lobbied by non-binary author Alison Evans who is appearing at the bookshop. Bindel said: “This is about extreme misogyny and bullying. If we don’t all stand up against this – as businesses, individuals, political activists or just as decent people – then we’ve had it.”
“They loved one another.”
The words to appear on Maureen Colquhoun’s headstone when she is buried next to her partner Barbara (“Babs”) Todd in Ambleside in the Lake District. Colquhoun was the first MP in Britain to declare she was a lesbian – only to be deselected by the Labour Party. Later she came to be hailed by the party as a pioneer on issues like equal rights for women and access to abortion.
“We are on the brink of losing robust, high-quality data on sex in the UK. Once gone, we may never get it back.”
A letter in The Times from leading social scientists condemning senior government statisticians who have signalled their intent to abandon the principle of collecting data on biological sex in favour of data on subjectively defined gender identity. The academics wrote: “The Office for National Statistics is conflating the two distinct variables of biological sex and gender identity in next month’s census. Meanwhile the Scottish government’s chief statistician is proposing to cease the collection of data on sex, bar in some exceptional circumstances.”
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