{"id":221,"date":"2009-12-17T13:18:42","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T12:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=221"},"modified":"2009-12-17T13:18:42","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T12:18:42","slug":"too-braney-by-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/12\/17\/too-braney-by-half\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Braney by Half?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favourite blogs is spEak You’re bRanes<\/a>, “dedicated to the dribble-spattered lunacy of BBC ‘Have\u00a0Your Say’ discussions”.\u00a0 It’s splenetic, merciless\u00a0and very, very funny in its dissections of the bigoted, ill-considered and illiterate bilge that gets posted under the guise of “discussion” on the BBC news website.\u00a0 To be fair, the Beeb has to take some responsibility for the low quality of debate, posting topics that attract copper-bottomed loonies like bees to honey… but I digress.<\/p>\n

The site recently targeted<\/a> this\u00a0goldmine of imbecility: “Should pregnant women be given designated parlking spaces?”.\u00a0 And I was prepared to join in the pointing and laughing.\u00a0 But then I found myself… well, not exactly agreeing with the idiots, but certainly in the awkward situation of thinking “You’re clearly coming about it the wrong way, but you’ve accidentally stumbled on an interesting point” in relation to one post.\u00a0 The proposal under discussion – since rejected<\/a> –\u00a0was that heavily-pregnant women should be given the same parking rights as the disabled.\u00a0 That seems fair enough to me; perhaps not a huge legislative priority, but something small that could easily make the lives of a significant number of people just a little bit easier, and therefore something to be applauded.<\/p>\n

But one\u00a0contributor had offered this:<\/p>\n

Another great idea of Britains namby pamby outlook on life.Pregnency is a wonderful thing in life,not a illness,people used to say only in America,thats changed to only in the U K,pathetic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(The interesting grammar is in the original.)\u00a0 The response on SYB was this:<\/p>\n

Wonderful\u2019s right! It\u2019s that beautiful kind of \u201cpregnant glow\u201d they get about them, isn\u2019t it? I know it\u2019s only sweat, but there\u2019s still something magical there. So it stands to reason that they\u2019ll only get more lovely the further you make them haul the shopping.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, while I agree that the phrasing of the original comment was perhaps a bit\u00a0unfortunate, and the “namby pamby” comment is a bit strange, there’s something right about it.\u00a0 I’m thrilled that I’m never going to have to be pregnant – it looks to be waaaaay<\/em> too much like hard work – but, still, pregnancy is not a disability, and there is something perhaps a bit odd about treating it as such.\u00a0 Pregnancy is not a problem to be solved; it’s just something that happens to almost half of the population, and could happen to a little over half\u00a0of the population,\u00a0in the course of their utterly normal lives.\u00a0 It’s no big deal.\u00a0 And so, while efforts to make the lives of the pregnant are utterly praiseworthy, there is a part of me that thinks that giving pregnancy a status even approaching that of a disability is not quite right, either.\u00a0 A condition doesn’t have to be a disability to merit a helping hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favourite blogs is spEak You’re bRanes, “dedicated to the dribble-spattered lunacy of BBC ‘Have\u00a0Your Say’ discussions”.\u00a0 It’s splenetic, merciless\u00a0and very, very funny in its dissections of the bigoted, ill-considered and illiterate bilge that gets posted under the guise of “discussion” on the BBC news website.\u00a0 To be fair, the Beeb has to […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1240,963,472],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogosphere","category-curios","category-thinking-aloud"],"yoast_head":"\nToo Braney by Half? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/12\/17\/too-braney-by-half\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Too Braney by Half? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my favourite blogs is spEak You’re bRanes, “dedicated to the dribble-spattered lunacy of BBC ‘Have\u00a0Your Say’ discussions”.\u00a0 It’s splenetic, merciless\u00a0and very, very funny in its dissections of the bigoted, ill-considered and illiterate bilge that gets posted under the guise of “discussion” on the BBC news website.\u00a0 To be fair, the Beeb has to [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2009\/12\/17\/too-braney-by-half\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-17T12:18:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/12\\\/17\\\/too-braney-by-half\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/12\\\/17\\\/too-braney-by-half\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Too Braney by Half?\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-17T12:18:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/12\\\/17\\\/too-braney-by-half\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":493,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Blogosphere\",\"Curios\",\"Thinking Aloud\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/12\\\/17\\\/too-braney-by-half\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/12\\\/17\\\/too-braney-by-half\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2009\\\/12\\\/17\\\/too-braney-by-half\\\/\",\"name\":\"Too Braney by Half? 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