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Slate Culture

The Waves: What the Debate Over ‘Pregnant People’ Is Really About

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.42K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate’s news director Susan Matthews talks with Slate writer and community manager Evan Urquhart about the phrase, “pregnant person.” What started as an effort to be inclusive of transgender men has devolved into an argument that at times has become transphobic. Susan and Evan unpack what’s going on with this “debate,” and, later in the show, get into more productive ways to be a trans ally, the perils of the health care system, and how to better include trans and nonbinary people in coversations about them. In Slate Plus, Evan and Susan talk about the Torrey Peters novel, Detransition Baby. Additional Reading: “Words for Every Body” by Ray Briggs and B R George “Should feminists talk about ‘pregnant people’?” by Jennie Kermode “You Can Still Say ‘Woman’ But You Shouldn’t Stop There” by Irin Carmon “BIPOC or POC? Equity or Equality? The Debate Over Language on the Left” by Amy Harmon “Healthcare avoidance due to anticipated discrimination among transgender people: A call to create trans-affirmative environments” by Luisa Kcomt, Kevin M. Gorey, Betty Jo Barrett, Sean Esteban McCabe Recommendations: Susan: Kiese Laymon’s book Heavy and Laymon’s The Ezra Klein Show interview with Tressie McMillan Cotton. Evan: The “best game of 2021” Inscription and Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch. Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Susan Matthews and June Thomas. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is The Waves.

0:02.0

This is The Waves.

0:04.0

This is The Waves.

0:06.0

This is The Waves.

0:13.0

Welcome to The Waves.

0:14.0

Slates podcast about gender, feminism,

0:16.0

and potentially banned phrases.

0:18.0

Every episode you get a new pair of feminists

0:20.0

to talk about the thing we can't get off our minds.

0:22.0

And today you got me, Susan Matthews,

0:24.0

Slates News Director and the Editorial Director of this podcast.

0:28.0

We, Evan Urkert, writer on trans issues,

0:30.0

as well as Slates Community Manager

0:32.0

for our commenting community.

0:34.0

And today we are here to talk about the rise of the use of the phrase

0:38.0

pregnant people.

0:40.0

I wanted to talk about this because for me,

0:42.0

this has been something that has really like infiltrated

0:44.0

into my world in the past few months.

0:46.0

Specifically, I would say that that's because I've been writing

0:50.0

and editing a lot of stories about Texas's SB8,

0:52.0

which is a law that bans abortion after six weeks in the state.

...

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