I was going to make this article part of my "Doofus Of The Day" series, but on reflection, that's probably not fair. The victim isn't a doofus - just someone almost completely out of touch with reality. The blame for that lies just as much with the society, and the family, that permitted that to occur, as it does with the individual.
CBC reports:
A cancer diagnosis is a life-changing moment, and especially difficult during a pandemic. But for non-binary musician Rae Spoon, the diagnosis has stirred up another layer of complication.
Spoon, who uses the singular they pronoun, had been in the middle of cancelling flights for a planned tour of the U.K., Canada and Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic when they received a phone call from their doctor saying Spoon had tested positive for cervical cancer.
. . .
... the diagnosis was another "shock" altogether, and one that's been made difficult because cervical cancer is what Spoon calls a "gendered cancer."
"All of the information I looked up … it's very hard to find any resources that don't involve gendering the person who has cervical cancer as a woman," they said.
As a non-binary person, Spoon does not identify as a man or woman. Spoon says having a gendered cancer means people will make assumptions about their gender and how they should be treated.
Spoon, who came out as transgender 20 years ago and then non-binary eight years ago, says the thought of being misgendered and being addressed with the wrong pronouns during treatment is an added stressor in a time already full of anxiety.
There's more at the link.
I read that and my mind boggled at the sheer, willful blindness exhibited by the victim. Facts are facts, and fanciful mental pictures of who and/or what "they" are won't change those facts.
- Cervical cancer affects only women, because men don't have a cervix. If you're not a woman, you won't get cervical cancer (just as, if you're not a man, you won't get prostate cancer). The fact that you have got it means that you are a woman, whether you like that or not. Period. (You should pardon the expression.)
- Your sex (which is also, medically speaking, your gender, despite all the psychological claptrap blathered about the two being separate issues) is determined by your chromosomes. With the vanishingly small exception of those who are intersex (far less than 1% of the human population, according to medical science), if your chromosomes are XX, you're female; if they're XY, you're male. All the wishful thinking in the world can't and won't change that. Period.
- If doctors tried to treat your cancer as if you were anything other than female, they wouldn't be able to succeed, and you'd die. It's because they know you're female - your opinions, desires and feelings to the contrary notwithstanding - that there's a chance they can cure you using treatment(s) designed for females.
I'm sorry if this gives "they" offense, but I flatly refuse to participate, either by omission or by commission, in a societal and medical lie. Spoon is female, both in sex and in gender. "Their" doctors obviously concur, even if "they" can't wrap "their" mind around the concept. To maintain anything else would be insane. It would defy reality.
Peter
23 comments:
Every time I read a story like this - and it's coming on for once a week these days - I get the powerful urge to look up the Progressive nitwit who first came up with this 'gender is a social construct' and beat his (or her) brains in with a nine-iron. Also the greedy medical sumbitch who decided to make a fortune by creating surgical oddities out of the mentally ill.
Might be a blessing in disguise. It's an opportunity for "them" to have "their" cervix, womb, vagina, clitoris - all of those embarrassing womanly body bits surgically removed along with the cancer, and perhaps have a straw (paper of course) installed from "their"bladder directly through the abdominal wall.... for "their" required fluid removal functions. Maybe with a non-manly and non- feminist rugged but pretty little silver tap with golden off/on handle. Losing all those body parts shouldn't be problematic since most of "their" brain is already missing.
As cruel as it may sound, society will be (as a whole) better off if Darwin is allowed to settle this issue. This type is so stubborn they would cut off their noses to spite their faces. History has many examples. I am sorry Mr. Grant in my unchristian stance, but as the old tribal dictum goes, they are just not worth the energy or resources.
C. S. P. Schofield and Bob have the complete sense, or should I say nonsense, of all this,so I will simply concur.
Also the greedy medical sumbitch who decided to make a fortune by creating surgical oddities out of the mentally ill.
Should be required public viewing.
"...the thought of being addressed with the wrong pronouns during treatment is an added stressor in a time already full of anxiety."
The horror!
Don in Oregon
Willful delusion I think constitutes being a doofus.
"Singular they"... Pardon?
English, you cretins; do you speak it?
Your original impulse - to marquee another Doofus - probably was correct. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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I'm sick of reading about these psychotic sexual freaks. Time to lock them up in a laughing academy?
I keep looking in the COVID-19 mortality numbers for all the new genders but I only see numbers for Male and Female. Are all the other genders immune? /sarc
She didn't have a problem with having the Pap Smear. Why didn't she protest that as it's also gender exclusive?
Seen on-line, a shirt that proclaims all the varied genders. Comes in Male or Female style only...
Yeah.
As to Spoon's issue, I wonder if the confusion over gender was before it's name, or after.
Another way of sparking the snowflakes. Ask them how many people have died from X disease or Y issue (natural disaster, etc.) Then ask how many men and how many women and then how many of the other genders...
If you do it right, a little light starts flashing on their neck, they say "Norman Coordinate" and then all function seizes (well, hopefully...)
Darwin for the win... sigh
Best laugh of the day! What a confused female she (not they) is (not are).
Perhaps she should look up the origin and meaning of the word hysterical.
Yep, it is indeed amazing that of the 57 or so genders out there, only Male and Female are being affected by this virus.
In what universe is “they” singular?
I suspect her family doctor notified staff about her preferred pronoun because, as I understand it, anything else would risk heavy fines and censure. This proves the doctor isn't a complete idiot.
I bet the doctor is not enough of an idiot, however, to have done a PSA test on her, just in case. Wasting time worrying about preferred pronouns is relatively low cost. Actual medical test come with a real price attached.
She might as well consider herself a clock. It wouldn't be a different insanity.
BEWARE!!!!!!! Nut cases on the loose! She can't have a Pap smear...unless she's dissing her dad...
Let natural selection have its way. Our great grandchildren will be healthier.
When I first read this at about noon today my anger surprised me so I chose not to comment then. It’s now 10pm and I can still find no sympathy for this individual. I am sick of these sad self absorbed a**holes. Look at me, look at me, I’m special and your reality is going to conform to mine or you are ‘phobic. I can find no sympathy or anything in my heart for these people. I wish I could find it in my heart to even pray for a kinder heart.
Singular "they" has a long history, from the OED:
"But that’s (it's) nothing new. The Oxford English Dictionary traces singular they back to 1375, where it appears in the medieval romance William and the Werewolf."
https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/
Or Merriam-Webster:
"Much has been written on they, and we aren’t going to attempt to cover it here. We will note that they has been in consistent use as a singular pronoun since the late 1300s; that the development of singular they mirrors the development of the singular you from the plural you, yet we don’t complain that singular you is ungrammatical; and that regardless of what detractors say, nearly everyone uses the singular they in casual conversation and often in formal writing."
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbinary-they
As for your "Gender is: Period" statements, saying something doesn't make it so.
As a biologist friend said,"Biological sex is complicated. Before you discriminate against someone on the basis of 'biological sex' & identity, ask yourself: have you seen YOUR chromosomes? Do you know the genes of the people you love? The hormones of the people you work with? The state of their cells?
Since the answer will obviously be no, please be kind, respect people’s right to tell you who they are, and remember that you don’t have all the answers. Again: biology is complicated. Kindness and respect don’t have to be."
Since they're non-binary you can't treat them for prostate cancer either.
The closest thing I can think of is the colon.
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