This is a significant ruling in gender rights jurisprudence, especially trans rights. Canada’s Supreme Court Justice Sheilah Martin has ruled that it was problematic for a lower court judge to refer to a sexual assault victim as a “woman" and instead used the term "person with a vagina.”
The citation is R v Kruk, 2024 SCC 7. Link to full case report and exact quote given below:
Para 109: "Where a person with a vagina testifies credibly and with certainty that they felt penile‑vaginal penetration, a trial judge must be entitled to conclude that they are unlikely to be mistaken. While the choice of the trial judge to use the words “a woman” may have been unfortunate and engendered confusion, in context, it is clear the judge was reasoning that it was extremely unlikely that the complainant would be mistaken about the feeling of penile‑vaginal penetration because people generally, even if intoxicated, are not mistaken about that sensation."
Why do only women get this dehumanising language ? Where are men referred to as people with prostrates ? Penis owners ? Nutsack carriers ? Semen ejectors ? Why does your version of revolution not Reduce actual men to their body parts ? Oh could it be because they already have power and this is just misogyny on the left ?
Consider how male centric this whole thing is. the reason that "person with vagina" is preferred to women is because they think women actually arent whole and complete people in and of themselves. a person with a vagina is like a person with a disability. The male is the standard issue. You ladies- you have that weird absence of a penis and we need to recognise that youre not just a person- youre a person with a vagina.
If you really did not think being born female was some sort of disability- the word woman- which means adult human female- would not cause you some great existential harm.
Whats worse is that the woman here was a rape victim. Imagine if murder victims were refereed to as " the person with the hole in the head". Imagine if you got stabbed and then court records continuously referred to you by your injured body part and then online activists celebrated that because it suited their politics? How insulting.
Whatever internalised misogyny this lady is dealing with- the compassionate thing to do is not to reify that kind of misogyny and instead help her come to terms with her body. It is the only one she will ever have.
what "not like other girls" nonsense. A person with a vagina cannot be mistaken by her rape- she doesnt identify with the female gender. Shes not a woman so we dont need to doubt her. Yikes.
Lots of regressive comments here by males trying to mansplain. It’s very simple: the word “woman” is outdated and problematic. It imposes a heteronormative, patriarchal and medicalised conception of sex and gender. It is also horribly exclusionary as it excludes trans persons and risks such persons being misgendered, which use can constitute a form of trauma and (non-physical) violence against them. Remember your sociology lessons from first year, about Foucault’s theory of biopower. It’s exactly that. The patriarchal state, in conjunction with the exploitative capitalist mercantile bourgeois class, exercising control over person’s bodies. The current BJP govt is the perfect example of it, if you do a semiotical critique of the imagery they use in propaganda ads and statements.
The term “persons with vaginas” (PWVs) is inclusive and empathetic. Some alternative usages of PWVs are “womyn”, “womxn” and “girls”/“gurls”, the last one being more of a fun way of asserting independence and breaking free of patriarchal impositions such as marriage, child-bearing and being a homemaker.
Thus, the Canadian Supreme Court deserves to be lauded. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also deserves praise for placing the rights and dignities of PWVs and LGBTQIA2S+ persons at the forefront of his governing agenda.
why is everyone so stumped about this. The world is objectively becoming a better place for all people and moving out of the binary finally, but people still find a reason to be pissed about.
The citation is R v Kruk, 2024 SCC 7. Link to full case report and exact quote given below:
Para 109: "Where a person with a vagina testifies credibly and with certainty that they felt penile‑vaginal penetration, a trial judge must be entitled to conclude that they are unlikely to be mistaken. While the choice of the trial judge to use the words “a woman” may have been unfortunate and engendered confusion, in context, it is clear the judge was reasoning that it was extremely unlikely that the complainant would be mistaken about the feeling of penile‑vaginal penetration because people generally, even if intoxicated, are not mistaken about that sensation."
https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/20315/index.do
News coverage:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/supreme-court-decision-say-word-woman-is-confusing-unfortunate
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-top-court-judges-take-on-woman-is-no-joke
Why do only women get this dehumanising language ? Where are men referred to as people with prostrates ? Penis owners ? Nutsack carriers ? Semen ejectors ? Why does your version of revolution not Reduce actual men to their body parts ? Oh could it be because they already have power and this is just misogyny on the left ?
If you really did not think being born female was some sort of disability- the word woman- which means adult human female- would not cause you some great existential harm.
Whats worse is that the woman here was a rape victim. Imagine if murder victims were refereed to as " the person with the hole in the head". Imagine if you got stabbed and then court records continuously referred to you by your injured body part and then online activists celebrated that because it suited their politics? How insulting.
Whatever internalised misogyny this lady is dealing with- the compassionate thing to do is not to reify that kind of misogyny and instead help her come to terms with her body. It is the only one she will ever have.
The term “persons with vaginas” (PWVs) is inclusive and empathetic. Some alternative usages of PWVs are “womyn”, “womxn” and “girls”/“gurls”, the last one being more of a fun way of asserting independence and breaking free of patriarchal impositions such as marriage, child-bearing and being a homemaker.
Thus, the Canadian Supreme Court deserves to be lauded. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also deserves praise for placing the rights and dignities of PWVs and LGBTQIA2S+ persons at the forefront of his governing agenda.
Stop apeing these western talking points and come up with something original.
#makeinindia