The use of “preferred pronouns” isn’t just a virtue signalling politeness. Biology hasn’t changed. There are still only men and women, and that includes those with a Difference in Sex Development (DSD) such as Caster Semenya. Using the wrong sex pronouns is far more significant in that it's all transactivism or gender ideology can use to achieve its agenda of pretending sex is fluid and changeable.
In abandoning their own standards to indulge others in the pronouns they demand journalists signal that they have bent the knee to gender ideology. This is surely in breach of the NUJ Code of Conduct:
“The code's purpose is to advise members, and other journalists, on how to carry out their work ethically. It has been used by journalists over the decades to challenge unethical instructions and produce content that is 'honestly conveyed, accurate and fair'.
The code has been democratically agreed by NUJ members. The current code was updated in 2011 and forms part of the union rules as Appendix A.”
Part of the Code lays down that a journalist
1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed.
2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.
It’s misleading readers or viewers to use inaccurate pronouns for either sex. The public are not being properly informed of the facts of a story. Misrepresentation of the reality confuses the public and interferes in society's ability to have informed debate in our democracy.
Obviously some journalists are feeling defensive about this as some excuses are being offered:
"Yeah, yeah and the reason why we refer to anybody as their chosen gender, certainly in Barbie Kardashian's case, is that they've been granted a Gender Recognition Certificate by the Department of Social Protection so, like, it's you know, we're not legally bound but it's the, you know, it is what it is. And the State recognises Barbie Kardashian as a woman and if somebody decides they want to be called a woman, like you know if you're interviewing somebody about, you know, how much they enjoy surfing or fishing, and they ask you 'can you please describe me as a woman?' And you're a bit surprised because you know you had perceived them to be possibly a man or something else, then you do that. I mean, that's just out of politeness. It doesn't really matter."
"I'll just say from my own perspective, you know, people have given out about the pronouns that we're using. I will just say out of my own respect for the trans community and for the use of pronouns, I'm using what are deemed to be the correct pronouns in this case."
Who "deemed" them to be the correct pronouns? Who has the authority to say that pronouns for women can be appropriated by men? Once "preferred pronouns" become normalised it's a small step to describing the correct use of pronouns as "misgendering" leading to the risk of accurate descriptions e.g. of a man's sex being called a "hate crime". Both men and women are already being prosecuted in other countries over comments they've made which challenge gender ideology.
Women's Space Ireland
Contrast this with the reporting by former RTE journalist Paddy O’Gorman who correctly describes Kardashian as male in Gript and informs readers and viewers accurately.
Facts matter, and the facts that journalists should be reflecting in their reportage is that no one can change sex, not with hormones or surgery nor with a paper certificate issued by the State based on an individual’s self-identifying belief. Pretending men can be women is a legal fiction which presents a safeguarding risk to women and children and is thoroughly offensive to women.
And since transactivism has used as a successful ploy insistence on “no debate” about its demands the role of the mainstream media in informing the public is even more important.
What we find however is that much of the media – despite some honourable exceptions – is failing in the role in which it used to be trusted. The mainstream media is already in financial difficulties given the growth and reach of social media so to destroy its own credibility by bending the knee to gender ideology instead of reporting the facts is extremely concerning.
In adhering to the demands of an ideology on this issue too many journalists have abandoned their purpose and have chosen a side. Using "preferred pronouns" has been likened to the use of Rohypnol, also known as the "date rape drug", as Barra Kerr points out:
"I want to be alert. I want others to be alert. I want people to see the real picture, and I want those instinctive reactions that we feel when something is wrong, to be un-blunted, un-dulled by this cheap but effective psychological trick. I feel like I owe this to myself, and I absolutely owe it to other women.
And more than anything, I owe this to girls. I don’t want to play even the tiniest part in grooming them to disregard their natural protective instincts. Those instincts are there for a reason. To keep them safe. They need those instincts intact, and sharp.
And that’s why I won’t use preferred pronouns.
Using Rohypnol on others isn’t a courtesy."
