JK Rowling is right: The Guardian should be embarrassed by this pro-trans propaganda
The Guardian has long been celebrated for its typos. The other day, however, it ran a headline which appeared to have an entire word missing. It read: 'One in three across UK are overdue for cervical cancer screening.'
One in three what? Mothers? Midwives? Marchionesses? Members of Bananarama?
I scanned the article's intro to locate the mislaid noun. Unfortunately, though, I ended up even more confused. Because the answer turned out to be 'people'.
'A third of people across the UK,' reported someone with the unusual job title of health and inequalities correspondent, 'are overdue their cervical cancer screening, while in parts of England some are at greater risk of the disease than others due to a low uptake for the preventive vaccine.'
Naturally, I was alarmed. Because 'a third of people across the UK' includes me. In all my 44 years on this Earth, I've never had a single screening for cervical cancer. Am I in danger? Should I ring my GP and demand a detailed inspection of my cervix as soon as possible?
Then again, there is another way to interpret this story. Which is that the poor old Guardian is so desperate not to offend trans activists, it's got itself tied up in knots.
Any sane newspaper, after all, would simply have used the word 'women'. But The Guardian daren't do that. Because then it would be besieged by horrified ideologues, irately reminding it that trans women are women but don't need cervical cancer screenings – while trans men are men but do need cervical cancer screenings. To use the word 'women', therefore, is hateful and trans-exclusionary.
Sadly, there's just one drawback to The Guardian 's wonderfully inclusive approach. Which is that other readers will be baffled. They'll think: 'Does it mean a third of women? Or a sixth?'
As JK Rowling put it on social media: 'This is what happens when you erase the word 'woman' from your reporting: you disseminate inaccuracies and falsehoods. If you prioritise an ideology over giving clear and accurate information, you aren't journalists, you're propagandists.'
To be fair to The Guardian, however, it doesn't always get it wrong. Less than a month ago, it ran the headline: 'New AI Test can predict which men will benefit from prostate cancer drug.' So they are clear about the difference between men and women sometimes. When the cancer only affects men, anyway.
Still, it would be nice if they and other progressive outlets could be consistent. In an important medical context, such nonsense is enough to give you a thumping headache.
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