A surgeon and professor is being mocked after criticizing a crossword puzzle which used “adult human female” as the definition for “woman,” calling it “un-inclusive.”
On January 18, Dr. Rhea Liang posted a screenshot to her Twitter calling attention to a crossword she had seen in a Gardening Australia magazine. Liang expressed she was “disappointed” to see “un-inclusive” language being used as a hint for one of the crossword lines. In her screenshot, Liang underlined a hint which read “adult human female.”
Liang claimed the definition was a “siren call for hatred,” and tagged Gardening Australia‘s parent media group, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Liang is a breast and gender surgeon at Robina Hospital in the Australian state of Queensland. She’s also a co-lead and clinical associate professor in the faculty of sciences and medicine at Bond University.
On her Bond University profile, Liang is described as having a particular research focus on breast cancer management, as well as “diversity and inclusion in medicine.”
Despite having a both a background in advocating for women in the medical field and a specialization in women’s healthcare, Liang began to attract attention on social media for her post railing against a definition of “woman.”
Many users initially believed Liang was joking, or was a parody account intended to mock the absurdity of trans activists. Some expressed shock when they realized she was being serious.
I thought this was parody and actually laughed out loud.
— Jess 💜🤺💚 (@anonotanon) January 19, 2023
But no.
You really just called a crossword puzzle a transphobic siren call for hatred.
For the 10,000th time: Woman is not a dirty word. The definition of woman IS “adult human female”. Grow up and get some self-respect.
“Unbelievable, this person claims to be a breast surgeon in her bio, but thinks adult human female is un-inclusive. Honestly you literally couldn’t make this up,” tweeted one user in response.
Some Twitter users were also quick to point out that as a doctor specializing in breast cancer, Liang should be aware of what a woman is.
Sall Grover, the founder of women-only social media application Giggle, replied to Liang’s post and noted that an understanding of biological sex should be considered important in women’s healthcare.
You’re a doctor. If you won’t acknowledge the *fact* that a woman is an adult human female, why should anyone let you come anywhere near them to practice medicine on them, because if you’ll ignore that biological fact what else will you ignore?
— Sall Grover (@salltweets) January 19, 2023
Liang responded to Grover, writing: “A woman is most commonly an adult female human, (the word order is important) but there are a proportion who are also adults, born genetically male, who are women.”
Liang continued to call the definition “adult human female” a “hate phrase” stating: “You only need to google the phrase ‘adult human female’ to get pages of anti-trans hate. It’s such a known hate phrase it’s caused a ban from standing for the UK Parliament.”
In an effort to prove her point, the women’s health doctor then shared an article about Natalie Bird, a mother of two and domestic abuse survivor, who was banned from running for public office for wearing a shirt that said ‘Woman: Adult, Human, Female.’ Bird was also targeted by trans activists after asserting that women’s refuges should be segregated based on sex.
“Adult human female” has been used as a slogan by women’s rights campaigners who aim to protect single sex spaces by reaffirming that males cannot be women.
Despite being a long-standing definition, the words were popularized as a political slogan by Standing for Women, a rights campaign established by Kellie-Jay Keen. Keen sells t-shirts reading the definition, such as the one Natalie Bird was reprimanded for wearing, to fund her campaign.
Many critics of gender ideology have also pointed out that trans activists have failed to provide a coherent alternative definition for the word woman.
The question “what is a woman?” became a popularized slogan after conservative podcaster Matt Walsh made a documentary in 2022 highlighting the harms of gender ideology. A focal point of the feature were interviews with trans activists who seemed unable to provide a definition for “woman.”
Confusingly, Liang added a tweet to her original post today asserting that “adult female humans” is a more “inclusive” way to define “woman.” Ironically, Liang is frequently consulted by Australian media on the experiences of “female” doctors.
I think I inadvertently proved the point of the tweet.😱
— Rhea Liang (@LiangRhea) January 19, 2023
To be clear, I’m not against the word ‘woman’- I’m one myself. I’m merely asking for the correct phrase ‘adult female human’ to be used, rather than the phrase ‘adult human female’. Such a small change to be inclusive.
The definition of the word woman has become so divisive that Dictionary.com labelled “woman” as their 2022 Word of the Year.
“Searches for the word woman on Dictionary.com spiked significantly multiple times in relation to separate high-profile events,” the Dictionary brand wrote on their site.
According to Dictionary.com, searches for the word “woman” increased 1,400% after Ketanji Brown Jackson’s supreme court confirmation hearing where she failed to give a definition of the word, claiming she did not have the specialty to do so.
Their definition for female reads, “belonging or relating to the sex that can give birth to young or produce eggs,” which undermines their newly expanded definition of the word woman as males do not belong to the sex that can give birth. Many have stated that this second definition renders the word meaningless.
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