Is 'bonus hole' the craziest euphemism yet in the trans debate?

Publish date: 2024-05-04

A cancer charity has been accused of ‘dehumanising’ women after advising medics to refer to the vagina as a ‘bonus hole’ to avoid upsetting transgender men.

Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust features a glossary on its website detailing ‘the correct language’ that healthcare professionals should use when dealing with trans men – women who identify as men.

As well as ‘bonus hole’, it also suggests the term ‘front hole’ as an alternative to vagina, the use of which it claimed may leave patients feeling ‘hurt or distressed’.

Women’s rights campaigners last night rounded on Jo’s, the UK’s only charity dedicated to women affected by cervical cancer. Bev Jackson, of the LGB Alliance, said: ‘Disgusting language like this which intentionally dehumanises women must be rejected by all reasonable people.

‘The fact is, women have vaginas. It’s appalling that anyone would think that reality is offensive. If you think it’s offensive, then that’s your problem.

Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust has been accused of ‘dehumanising’ women after advising medics to refer to the vagina as a ‘bonus hole’ to avoid upsetting transgender men

As well as 'bonus hole', it also suggests the term 'front hole' as an alternative to vagina, the use of which it claimed may leave patients feeling 'hurt or distressed'

As well as ‘bonus hole’, it also suggests the term ‘front hole’ as an alternative to vagina, the use of which it claimed may leave patients feeling ‘hurt or distressed’

‘There is no reason for the rest of society to adapt our language so as not to offend people who are offended by reality.

‘Some people wish to ignore the very clear biological differences between men and women.’

The terms feature on a section of Jo’s website specifically for medical professionals entitled ‘Language to use when supporting trans men and/or non-binary people’.

It was drawn up in partnership with the LGBT Foundation, a campaign group calling for ‘a world where queer liberation enables meaningful and lasting change’.

Caroline Fiske, founder of Conservatives for Women, said: ‘The gender movement seems actively to want to encourage body disassociation and hatred – in other words to actively create more confused young people alienated from their own physicality and their own sex.

‘What better way than to use this utterly dehumanising language about our own bodies?

‘To my mind it is grooming: create the unease, the disassociation, the alienation, and then when you have done that, you step in with euphoric rhetoric about ‘trans joy’.

‘Of course those doing this will not be around to pick up the pieces when young bodies are irreversibly damaged and young lives destroyed.

‘Is there a mechanism whereby these charities promoting harm could be struck off?’

Caroline Fiske, who founded Conservatives for Women, said the term was 'dehumanising'

Caroline Fiske, who founded Conservatives for Women, said the term was ‘dehumanising’

Kellie-Jay Keen, founder of Standing For Women, said: ‘The whole thing is loathsome, but ‘bonus hole’ and ‘front hole’ are so misogynist.

‘If a woman is so triggered by the word vagina, I should imagine she needs psychiatric help rather than the world bent to her never-ending list of irrational demands.

‘You would think that charities would have better things to do than erase female language.’

Jo’s was set up by London businessman James Maxwell in memory of his wife Jo, who died aged 40 from cervical cancer in 1999.

Its current chief executive is Samantha Dixon, who has worked for a string of charities, including The Prince’s Trust.

Last night, a Jo’s spokesman said: ‘Women are our main audience at Jo’s. However, some trans men and non-binary people have cervixes, and to reduce as many cervical cancers as possible it is important we also provide information for this group and the health professionals who support them.’

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