Not just women

A Scottish university has issued guidance stating that it is “not just women” who menstruate and experience the menopause.

The advice from the University of Strathclyde states that “trans men and women” may have “actual or pseudo menopause symptoms”. It adds that non-binary and intersex people can also be affected. It reiterates this guidance for menstruation, stating again that it is “not only women” who have periods.

Silly party trick. “If you use different words to label women then it’s “not just women” who do things only women can do. Very impressive; even adorable; now stop talking and finish up your vegetables.

For Women Scotland (FWS) described the guidance as “misleading, deeply stupid and, quite frankly, offensive”.

Yes but offensive only to people who think women count as human, so, you know – no big deal.

Documents obtained from the university, which is in Glasgow, state that the guidance is “part of a series which outlines support for students at the University of Strathclyde, with a particular focus on promoting equality of opportunity and preventing discrimination irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, care experience or socio-economic background”.

Oh come on, that’s only 14 items, surely you can pile up more than that. Dance experience, political orientation, board games background, ability to read a map, age at birth, height, zither playing, biceps – keep going.

Its Student Menopause Guidance states: “It is not only women who go through menopause and related symptoms. Some trans men and women, who may experience actual or pseudo-menopause systems due to treatment or treatment interruptions, as well as non-binary people and intersex people can also be affected.”

In other words if you rename everything then you rename everything, so ha. Cute trick.

The independent MSP Ash Regan, who quit as an SNP minister in 2022 over its plans to make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender, said: “The promotion of ideological claims that men can somehow experience menopause or menstruation has reduced serious health provision to a nonsense, including, shamefully, within academic institutions like the University of Strathclyde, where critical thought is assumed to be foundational.

“As we have increasingly come to expect, women and girls are being treated as secondary subsets of their own sex. Only women menstruate and experience systems of menopause. It is not only wildly inaccurate to suggest that men go through some sort of ‘pseudo menopause’ but deeply insulting to the hundreds of thousands of women, in Scotland, who experience debilitating menopause systems annually.

Ah well you see that is the point. Being deeply insulting to women is the hot new way to be More Progressive Than Thou.

The University of Strathclyde said: “The university is a socially progressive, people-oriented organisation, which values the diversity of its student and staff populations and seeks to create a culture where everyone is welcome and thrives within the institution.”

Everyone except women, that is. Of course. Why would women be included?