“Do you know who I am?”
A male ego so bloated it blocks out the sun women.
A woman says she doesn’t want a male gynecologist; a man (who is an actor) says “You know I played a male midwife, right?”
Oh sir, I’m so sorry sir, I said a thing without taking into account your expertise on the subject of women not wanting a man poking around between their legs. How could I have been so rude? Of course performing a scripted role as a midwife is exactly equivalent to training and work as a midwife, and how dare I say anything about it to you with your vastly greater experience and education.
But seriously – David Paisley isn’t 3. He’s more than old enough to know that there are such things as predatory men, and that some of them are doctors, and some of those are gynecologists. He should be able to see the difficulty, and acknowledge it, and back off, but instead he pulls non-existent rank and then waves away the existence of male gynecologists who assault their patients.
It’s not comparing, it’s saying that some of them are, and as with trans women in prisons and shelters and rape crisis centers, we can’t know who is which, so we take the reasonable precautions. A decent human being would understand that. Paisley is indecent.
Maren Lee isn’t even “categorising any man providing health care to women is sexual assault”, but rather saying that forcing a woman to receive such care from a man is sexual assault. Kind of like: a woman having sex with a man is fine, but forcing a woman to have sex with a man is sexual assault. It’s all about the forcing. I’m sure there are plenty of women who are fine with men performing PAP smears, but women should nonetheless not be forced to receive that kind of care from a man.
And it doesn’t require a gynecologist to do PAP tests anyway. My GP did mine. So the pool of potential predatory doctors is a lot bigger than just gynecologists.
My first thought when women request a female doctor, obstetrician, or midwife isn’t that they fear being raped or molested. They might be embarrassed about their problem or the way they look. They might have men in their life dismissing their concerns and think a woman would be more empathetic. They might think they’re more likely to be open and honest with a woman because they’re more familiar with sharing things with other women. They might be hoping a woman will have had her particular experience. There’s a whole slew of reasons which don’t involve predatory behavior, either in the past or expected from the male medical professional.
And maybe they don’t like being mansplained. I had to deal with that a lot; as a biologist, I can understand quite a lot of what a doctor says to me, but doctors never even remembered from one time to the next that I understood, and would talk down to me. I’ve been fortunate here that the doctors I’ve dealt with have been open and honest with me, and assumed I was smart enough to understand what they said, and smart enough to ask questions when I didn’t…and that was even when they didn’t remember I was a biologist.
Yes, male doctors can be extremely good, understand women’s issues, and treat her like a human, and not just an inferior version of the male body. My doctors have tended to be male, mostly because of availability. I had a female doctor for a while in Oklahoma City, but most of the time it has been a male. One doctor made me uncomfortable: he always put his hand on my knee, leaned close to me when he talked, and insisted I stay to chat with him about…things. Non-medical things. Nothing overtly sexual. I changed doctors; a year later, the doctor was facing multiple accusations of sexual abuse from former patients. I had the ability to change doctors when I felt uncomfortable, and went to a woman doctor until she was no longer on my insurance.
It isn’t David Paisley’s business which doctors I prefer…or anyone else. I would probably have a female doctor now if they were more available in my town. I just feel fortunate that I lucked into a doctor who doesn’t see his business as giving him access to vulnerable females.
Holy shit, an actual case of “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on tv”! I never thought I’d see it except outside of fiction, it always seemed cartoonishly stupid.
Anyway, “Forcing a man on us is sexual assault.” is not “Categorising any man providing health care to women as sexual assault” in the slightest, so in addition to being full of himself, Paisley is also brazenly dishonest.
Holms @5 Exactly. I play one on TV is ridiculous, and whoever doesn’t see the sheer absurdity of that is a few bricks shy of a load. I can’t believe he actually said that.
Yes, but he was “birthed by a male midwife!”* It’s part of his lived experience!! Check and Mate, transphobes!!!
He was probably eagerly taking research notes at the time in order to better play his future role.
*His mother played no role whatsoever, apparently.
“I’m not a doctor…” is from an actual TV ad from the eighties.
https://youtu.be/ts0XG6qDIco
@8 It’s a flimsy sales pitch. Paisley is too young to remember that, but let’s give him an E for effort. :P
@7, Probably an actual midwife, not merely an actress. What an inspiration she must have been to him, like he remembers any of that.
YOU’VE RETROACTIVELY MISGENDERED PAISLEY’S MALE MIDWIFE! You utter CAD! WILL NOBODY THINK OF THE PRONOUNS?!
Great, so we had a short time there where people accepted that we cannot assume that men who are teachers, bosses, religious leader, healthcare workers etc are never a danger to women just because they belong to that group. Then we were bullied for thinking that pretending to be a woman doesn’t guarantee that a man is not a danger to women. And now we’re right back to people insisting that men who are are healthcare workers can’t possibly be a danger to women. Progress, innit.
@10 My bad. There are no actresses anymore, I totally forgot. My age is showing. But if the midwife was male, and also an actress, it’s actually a compliment. ;)
Unless Paisley is saying his mother told the medical staff she wanted a female midwife but had a male forced upon her anyway—and he’s fine with that—how is the sex of this midwife relevant to the discussion?
Simon, it’s not. That’s part of what makes his comment so insufferable, irrelevant and just plain dumb (there are other points). He’s just another woke bro, who thinks his woke bro-ness magically makes him immune from being a sexist fuckwit. It doesn’t and he’s a long way from being the smartest person in the room.
Its relevant only in the substitute argument Paisley thinks is being made, that no woman should be subjected to a male midwife, that no men should be midwives. It’s “This man is an excellent midwife, and this woman doesn’t want him, how dare she!”, instead of focusing on the needs of the woman. It is perhaps similar to equating outlawing forced public prayer with outlawing prayer.
@14 and @15, yes of course. My question was meant to be rhetorical. I suppose my real question is, does he really believe he’s making a valid and convincing (unassailable?) point or is he knowingly trying to pull a sly one?
I personally can’t understand how anyone capable of tying up their own shoelaces would fail to see the difference between the existence of male medical staff and women being forced to use them. And at the same time, I can’t understand how anyone would believe that the dishonest blurring of this distinction would prove effective. Does he wonder why he hasn’t managed to convince anyone, or even notice or care that he hasn’t? Is the woke bro credit to his tally reward enough?
Simon, this time I am going to take those as rhetorical questions. ;-)
What a Maroon @8, of course you’re right about the TV ad from the 1980s — I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.
I’ll just add that Robert Young was famous for playing Marcus Welby, M.D. on TV (1969-1976) when he made this TV ad for Sanka decaf coffee (1976) — I’m not a doctor, so I can’t give professional advice. But I can give you some personal advice about caffeine.
https://youtu.be/MvIM-1XZ6VU
When my wife first arrived in England and registered with the university medical service they told her in an apologetic tone they didn’t have a woman doctor available and would it be OK to have a man. Yes, she said, I’ve only ever had men doctors. She was puzzled that they even asked her, but decided that they probably thought she was a Muslim. She found Birmingham very cold and rainy (gosh! why would anyone think that?) and always wore lots of clothes, with a hat that had ribbons down the side that covered part of her face. Her English was fluent, but obviously foreign. Nonetheless, we were surprised that anyone would think she was Pakistani.
@18 Sanka also tastes disgusting and decaf is pointless anyway. Must have taken a lot of star power to sell that shit back in the day. Must not have been any actual doctors willing to do the ads… :D
Trans activism in its entirity is dependent upon “the dishonest blurring of distinctions.” Sex and gender, for starters. What constitutes “actual violence” for another. Clownfish and humans. Black women and “trans women.” It’s baked in. I’ve never come across a non-circular definition of “gender identity” that did not depend upon sexist steretypes.
As long as they can frighten and intimidate from the high ground of captured institutions, trans activists don’t have to argue, debate or convince, so poor reasoning, and shoddy analogies don’t really matter. The more I’ve looked into this, the more I’ve come to realize that the reason behind the “NO DEBATE” stance is that they can’t debate their position, they can only dictate it.
Paisley has to twist the words of those who are questioning him, so he can make claims against things his critics have not said and do not believe. He gets to show that he’s fighting the good fight by standing up against evil TERFs, but those for whom he’s performing can’t tell, or don’t care, that he’s shooting blanks. When you won’t, and can’t argue, blocking=victory.