145. Parents
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2021
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
When you're trans and pregnant, some of the vocabulary of pregnancy, birth and parenting might not fit you. In fact, some of it might not even work for people of ANY gender. Trans parents Freddy McConnell and CJ talk about gender-additive language, inclusive for women and other genders, and about how in English law, the word 'mother' becomes semantically very complicated indeed.
Find out more about the topics covered in this episode at theallusionist.org/parents.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the illusionist, which I, Helen Zoltzman, hand knit language a matching set of |
| 0:08.7 | chunky scarf, hat and mittens. Now language looks like a catalog model in the 1970s. |
| 0:14.1 | This episode is all about the language around pregnancy and parenthood when you're trans. |
| 0:19.0 | Two guests talk about their experiences and bear in mind they're not representing all |
| 0:23.7 | trans people, just themselves. But I do think what they have to say is relevant to all |
| 0:28.5 | genders. A lot of the language in this area doesn't work great for a lot of people, including |
| 0:33.5 | cis parents. Also, I hate to acknowledge it, but the current discourse... |
| 0:39.0 | You can't say mother anymore! |
| 0:41.2 | Well the word mother is about to appear in this episode a lot of times, so not wanting |
| 0:46.0 | to face a whole lot of legal trouble. I checked in with the language police, yeah, pretty |
| 0:50.1 | well connected. And they said, no of course you can say mother, and also don't bother us |
| 0:54.2 | with spurious inquiries, and also we don't exist. The move is towards language that is additive, |
| 1:01.5 | so it is referring to cis women and other people. The point is to make the language more |
| 1:07.3 | inclusive. Say it with me, inclusive, because who always benefits from transphobia? |
| 1:13.5 | The patriarchy! And what was it that hurt us all in the first place? |
| 1:17.8 | The patriarchy! |
| 1:19.8 | Glad we're all clear about this. On with the show. |
| 1:32.8 | Sea horses are this incredible species, as well as just being beautiful, and generally |
| 1:37.6 | like a good mascot animal, because they're so cute and stunning. They are a species where |
| 1:44.8 | the male is pregnant and gives birth. But it's often a fact that it's like euphemised, I've |
| 1:49.9 | noticed, when people talk about sea horses in science context or marine biology contexts, |
| 1:56.6 | they'll say that the sea horse carries the eggs, or they'll say the sea horse, sometimes |
... |
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