Judith Butler and Roxane Gay on Gender-Inclusive Language

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

“Pregnant people,” a phrase to include those who can bear children, but don’t identify as women, has been used more often in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade. Some feminists have pushed back against the term and other gender-inclusive language like “birthing people” and “people who menstruate,” saying that these terms obfuscate gender-specific violence against women and reduce people to their body parts. Others have pushed back to that pushback, saying that the explicit inclusion of trans and nonbinary people only strengthens the fight for gender equity. We’ll talk about why the term evokes such strong emotions, and hear your thoughts, with powerhouse feminist thinkers Judith Butler and Roxane Gay. Guests: Susan Davis, senior editor, Forum Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley Roxane Gay, author, "Difficult Women," "Hunger," and "Bad Feminist;" editor, the new anthology "The Selected Works of Audre Lorde" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:09.0	From KQED.
1:27.4	From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Women are not the only people who can become pregnant, but reflecting that reality by using terms like pregnant people has sparked pushback in the wake of Roe v. Wade's demise. And from some surprising corners, some feminists have been frustrated with gender-neutral language, saying women feel
1:45.7	pushed aside, even erased. So this hour we explore why, with feminist writers and thinkers
1:51.9	Judith Butler and Roxanne Gay. They join us after this news. Welcome to Forum.
2:12.2	I'm Mina Kim.
2:13.9	Forum Senior producer Susan Davis told a story the other day that got us thinking about some of the pushback against gender-neutral language and terms like pregnant people or birthing person in the wake of Rosa Versal.
2:26.4	The terms meant to reflect the universe of people who can become pregnant, including non-binary people and trans men and others,
2:32.7	have sparked articles and frustrated tweets from some longtime feminists, and trans men and others, has sparked articles and frustrated tweets
2:35.0	from some longtime feminists, famous women, and others,
2:38.8	worried that the abortion rights movement is erasing the word women
2:42.1	at a time when women's rights are being rolled back.
2:45.3	So I asked Susan if she could come on and tell that story
	...

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