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One of the problems with convincing yourself that something is true when it is blatantly not is that often you end up having to bend reality as a result. A prime example is the idea that a man can become a woman just by self-identifying as a woman and vice versa. Even worse is when you’re not just mixing the kool-aid but others are drinking it too. Daily Mail explains:
The American Cancer Society has been slammed for using the phrase ‘individuals with a cervix’ in its latest pap screening advice, rather than women.
Cervical cancer screening is now recommended to start at 25, instead of 21, and HPV testing should begin at 25 rather than 30.
But in updating its advice, the ACS used ‘individuals with a cervix’, rather than ‘women’ in its guidance, because transgender, non-binary and gender-nonconforming individuals can also have a cervix.
The phrasing was ridiculed online, with one Twitter user saying: ‘Individuals with a cervix is a long way to just say women.’
[…]Some people, however, leapt to the defense of the ACS.
To me and you the phrase “individuals with a cervix” is ridiculous and clumsy. To someone convinced that gender can be self-defined it makes perfect sense.
They argued that it was ‘the correct way to phrase that statement’ to make it inclusive and inoffensive.
The controversy echoes one involving JK Rowling last month, when the Harry Potter author mocked the global development website Devex for its report about ‘people who menstruate.’
‘”People who menstruate.” I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’ Rowling tweeted on June 6.
And not just “people who menstruate” or ‘individuals with a cervix’. Following transgender logic you can no longer say “men should get their prostate checked” but you now have to say “individuals with prostates should get their prostate checked”. And, of course, following the same logic, it’s now possible for a “man” to get pregnant and for a “woman” to get testicular cancer.
In Latin there is a phrase which is quite apt here – reductio ad absurdum.
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