Reading the founder of the Positive Birth Movement, Milli Hill, denounce Adam Kay’s book This Is Going to Hurt as “blatantly disrespectful towards women” (‘Childbirth as it really is’: This Is Going to Hurt actor defends series accused of misogyny, 18 February), my feminist antennae went on red alert. Here were accusations of “women’s trauma being played for laughs” and Rachael Dewey, a community midwife, declaring that the show “demeans women’s experiences/bodies”. I read Kay’s book in May 2020. Had I missed something? I immediately reread my copy.
I see no misogyny or demeaning of women, and I delight in the explicit anti-racism and how the narrative confronts homophobia. The humanity of the book (and the TV adaptation) is indisputable. It tackles the complexity of lives and identities in an institutional setting in the context of the political culture of the time. While everyone (apart from the consultants) is a victim of underfunding, understaffing and overworking, they are also survivors, working together to do the best job they can. And shared humour is part of that process. Driving the book and the script is the effort to understand and a commitment to do justice to people’s experiences and lives.
Such humour does not make light of difficulty or injustice, but involves a creative processing of experiences and relationships, including distress, failure, grief, violation, bullying and anger. Has Kay added to our understanding and our sense of humanity? Has he illuminated our vulnerability and frailty? Yes. This is no act of exploitation. His writing helps us better understand what is at stake: that the NHS is not just a service (under real threat) but represents our core values as a would-be democratic and humane society.
Val Walsh
Liverpool
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