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A seemingly innocuous crossword clue in an ABC magazine has been slammed as “hate speech” by a breast surgeon, sparking a furious backlash.
Dr. Rhea Liang, a clinical associate professor at Queensland’s Bond University, tweeted her dismay to find the crossword in a February issue of Gardening Australia that asked for a five-letter word meaning “adult human female.”
She argues that the obvious answer ‘female’ discriminates against those born with male sexual organs who identify as female.
‘Disappointed to see uninclusive language in your publication, ABC Australia. This sentence is a siren song for hate,’ she wrote.
The tweet drew a fierce response from commenters who denied there was anything offensive about it.
Bond University Clinical Associate Professor Dr Rhea Liang was not happy with one of the clues given for the crossword puzzle in ABC Gardening Australia magazine.
Dr. Liang said that there is a proportion of adults, born genetically male, who are also female.
‘You are a doctor’, said the first answer.
‘If you don’t acknowledge the *fact* that a woman is an adult human female, why should someone let you get close to them to practice medicine on them? Because if you ignore that biological fact, what else will you ignore? ‘
Dr. Liang, who lists her academic specialties as breast cancer treatment, as well as diversity and inclusion in medicine, did not back down from her claims, arguing that the definition excludes trans people.
“A female is most commonly an adult human female (word order is important), but there is a proportion that are also adults, genetically born male, who are female,” Dr. Liang insisted.
“It’s quite a complex area, not just limited to genes and identity. Humans are complex, that’s our beauty.
This did not impress his critics, who called the claims “ludicrous”.
The February issue of Gardening Australia has unexpectedly become a hotbed of gender politics.
“I thought this was a parody and actually laughed out loud,” one person responded.
‘But not. You really just called a crossword puzzle a transphobic siren song for hate.
‘For 10,000 times: Woman is not a dirty word. The definition of female IS ‘adult human female’. Grow up and get some self-respect.
Dr. Liang thinks this tweet proved her point.
“I find it interesting that many of these responses have proven my point: this sentence *is* a siren song for hate,” he wrote.
“I would imagine that many of these people, when told that ‘fat’ is offensive to some, would similarly defend its use by saying ‘yes, but *you’re* fat.'”
He went on to explain that the correct dictionary definition should read ‘adult human female’, putting biology last.
The word woman has become such a controversial term that Dictionary.com, the leading online English resource, called it the word of 2022.
Dictionary.com defines ‘woman’ as ‘an adult female person’.
The definition has become so convoluted that Australia’s top health chief found himself stumbling over his words when asked by Liberal Senator Alex Antic to define what a woman is during an estimates hearing in April.
Dr. Brendan Murphy awkwardly said that he would have to make a note of the question.
Dr. Liang wrote, when asked for an alternate definition of a woman: “Anything you want: lady, damsel, gender of aunt, Harry Styles song, whatever.”
“You only need to google the phrase ‘adult human female’ to get anti-trans hate pages,” she said.
“It’s such a well-known hate phrase that it led to a ban on running for the UK Parliament.”
A Twitter user came up with a sarcastic solution by replacing the “offensive” crossword clue.
In support of his argument, he retweeted an article describing how Natalie Wood, a potential candidate for Britain’s left-wing Liberal Democrats, was expelled from the party because she was wearing a T-shirt that read: “Adult Human Female.”
Dr. Liang also had her followers sing her praises.
‘Great material, thanks for sharing and educating! xoxo’ wrote one person.
“Friendly reminder that if I said ‘adult female cat’ or ‘adult male fox’ it would sound and look peculiar,” another person tweeted.
Dog whistles are designed to fit inadvertently and be able to be removed with plausible deniability. It disturbs me that people seem so eager to fall for it.
A sarcastic solution was offered by one Twitter user, posting the track list but replacing 20 in ‘Adult Human Female’ with ‘Anyone who identifies as female’.
“Here, fixed,” they tweeted.
‘Congratulations on achieving the remarkable feat of sucking the joy out of absolutely everything, including the humble and nondescript crosswords.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Dr. Liang and ABC for further comment.