UK — Edinburgh, Scotland. On January 8, 2020, the Scottish government faced a backlash after Equalities Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville cited research from Dr Peter Dunne as evidence that women should not be concerned about male bodies in women-only spaces.

Dr Dunne’s 2017 academic paper, cited in a Scottish Government consultation, compared male bodies to other “non-normative” people, including women (whom he labels “cisgender” women) who have had breast removal surgery:

It would be unthinkable that general discomfort could prevent a cisgender woman from using segregated showering facilities after she had a double mastectomy. In reality, UK law tolerates a considerable amount of bodily diversity when cisgender and intersex persons use single-gender spaces. Why are trans persons treated differently? … If cisgender and intersex persons can use women-only and men-only services, even when they have non-normative bodies, concerns about bodily diversity do not justify the current legal position under the 2010 Act.

“This is Dr Peter Dunne. He’s not a medical doctor,” 1H4ND tweeted. “He’s a law lecturer from Bristol. But he gets to dictate to Scotland what a woman is by claiming that penises and masectomies are basically the same thing. ‘Non-normative’ bits of the female spectrum.”

In response, Scottish National Parliament (SNP) Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP) Joan McAlpine voiced her concerns that Dr Dunne’s report suggests that “a woman catching sight of a male body in a changing room should be no more distressing than seeing another woman with a mastectomy”.

Fuck knows. Presumably not someone who has ever known a woman who's had breast cancer. — OlwenMcG (@olwenmcg) January 6, 2020

Numerous women also expressed their outrage. Women’s rights blogger Susan Sinclair labelled Dr Dunne’s claim as “particularly cruel”, noting:

This is extremely offensive to the thousands of women who have suffered from breast cancer to have their bodies used as a comparison in this way. The reason why we have female-only spaces isn’t simply that women might find the appearance of a male body offensive, it’s because of the high instances of sexual violence perpetrated against them by men.

“It’s utterly nuts! … Who ever talks about ‘unnatural bodies’? It’s MALE bodies that are the issue. … @scotgov really hate women, don’t they?” @campervanwoman posted.

MurrayBlackburnMackenzie, a policy analysis collective based in Edinburgh, stated:

The Scottish Government has chosen an academic paper that is arguing for the dismantling of sex-single protections as one of only two sources to support its claim that concerns about the impact of reform on single-sex sex services and spaces are misplaced. This raises serious questions about the evidence base for reform and the quality of scrutiny undertaken within government.

On Mumsnet,a UK website for parents, breast cancer survivors expressed their outrage, noting they were “so angry” or “boiling with rage” about being compared to a male-bodied person.

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NATS sparked outrage defending gender self-ID law plans by citing an academic’s “offensive” remarks which likened trans women’s bodies to mastectomy patients. ID ROW SNP ministers enrage breast cancer patients after using expert who made ‘offensive’ remarks about mastectomies

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BREAST cancer patients hit out after SNP ministers used an expert who made “offensive” remarks about women with mastectomies to bolster their case for gender self-ID.