I challenge the Children's Minister, Vicky Ford, and the Department for Education, on their use of language regarding "period products”. The Minister tweeted on 19 Dec 2020 that: "...period products is an issue that largely affects women and girls."

"...Largely"?  So boys and men also need period products, do they?

This is a prime example of what Liz Truss, Minister for Women and Equalities, recently called "dangerous groupthink" and "virtue signalling”. We all know that only women and girls menstruate, so we should ask: why would Vicky Ford want to give the impression that she believes boys also menstruate? The only answer I can think of, is that she wishes to signal her virtue to the gender ideologists who now seek to control our every word, even at the expense of truth and reason. 

Vicky Ford presumably places groupthink and virtue-signalling above science, truth and reason. She knows that only females menstruate; she is not stupid. We should be concerned that she feels the need to pretend to believe otherwise. Why engage in word-games that deny the reality of women's and children's lives?

Vicky's tweet

If you have time to read the comments beneath the tweet, you will see how disappointed and angry women are that a government minister would play such games, particularly after some very encouraging statements to the contrary from other ministers. The views of women are nicely summarised in this response from the Conservative Women's Pledge: "No. Only women and girls menstruate. Fact. Sex matters. Obfuscation only helps those who seek to undermine the rights of women."

One would hope that Vicky Ford might have taken the comments on board, but clearly she has not. Despite the obvious outrage from women's groups, Vicky and the DfE have this week (on 21 January 2021), contrived to publish nearly 700 words on the government's "free period product scheme" for schools, without once using the words: girl, young woman or female. This is a remarkable example of deliberately 'woke' communication. It is also misleading and confusing to both girls and boys.

You can read what Vicky Ford and the DfE published here.

The drafting is clearly very deliberate. No mention of 'girls', who are the pupils who menstruate and who need the products.

Instead, we have:

• "No pupil should ever have to miss school because of their period"
• "for all young people"
• "menstruating-age pupils"
• "products for your pupils"
• "available to everyone who needs them"

This is the language of gender ideology. This is how gender ideologists seek to undermine sex and sex-based rights. Boys obviously do not menstruate, but you wouldn’t think so from reading this official Gov.UK publication. It is time for this nonsense to stop.

It is alarming that both a government minister and a government department appear to have been captured by gender ideology, and the Conservative government should be very concerned indeed.

The government should be concerned because it is obvious to anyone who has been awake during 2020 that the Conservative Party has won many supporters by taking a sensible stance on gender ideology and women's sex-based rights. There are many examples on social media of Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and SNP voters explicitly saying they will not vote for a party that promotes gender ideology. I am sure that this is recognised within the party, and this needs to be pointed out to Vicky Ford and to the DfE, as well as to any other MP and government department that stops using language that is grounded in truth, reason, science and reality.

We know that the Conservative Party is the only major political party that can be relied upon to protect women and girls. None of the other parties seem even to know what a woman or a girl is! 

We have been encouraged by recent events including the government's decision not to implement changes to the Gender Recognition Act to permit easier self-id of gender; and by the sentiments of Liz Truss's recent 'anti-woke' speech. It was therefore all-the-more disappointing and of great concern to see the Children's Minister, and the DfE, communicating with such obvious disregard for truth and reality. The Conservative Party must stop its MP’s pandering to gender ideology in ways that undermine sex-based rights. 

It is clear that a small ideological elite with very different social and political values is trying to influence Conservative government policy, and it is vital that the voice of true conservatives be heard. The overwhelming majority of people know that only females menstruate, but many people are afraid to say what they really think or stand-up against the lunacy of gender ideology because they’re afraid for their jobs and reputations. That means that Conservative politicians have to be brave and call-out colleagues when they suggest that it is not only women and girls who menstruate.

Maintaining a clear and vocal position on the importance of sex and sex-based rights and protections, under-pinned by truth and reality-based language, is not only morally right; it will give the Conservative Party an enormous advantage with voters and this will become increasingly important as public awareness of this issue grows over the coming months and years, as it most certainly will. 

When a Children's Minister, and a government department with responsibility for education, communicate based on ideology rather than truth and reality, we should be very concerned indeed. 

We expect the government and the Conservative Party to take our concerns seriously, and put a stop to this nonsense.