The Word is Woman #14
Documenting the erasure of women from language and life.
It’s my 3rd Canceliversary! (Yes, that’s now a word!) Three years since I was viciously hounded on social media (more on that here) for challenging the above slide and politely reminding the author that, erm, it’s not really ‘birthing people’ who are seen as the ‘fragile sex’ and erm, ‘obstetric violence is violence against women’ - what a shockingly bigoted thing to say!
Welcome to the Issue #14 of The Word is Woman, a weekly section of my substack where I document examples of the erasure of women from both language and public life.
For the past three years, ever since I spoke out about language changes in maternity such as ‘birthing people’, I have been sent hundreds of examples of convolutions of language in which the word woman is erased and replaced in the name of so-called ‘inclusivity’. Uterus owners, menstruators, non-men, bleeders, birthers, and even bodies with vaginas…the list of names we have been called and continue to be called is a seemingly endless catalogue of offence.
At the same time, we are seeing male people taking the place of women on sporting podiums and in public roles, and also being applauded as the ‘first woman’ to achieve a certain award or accomplishment, or the ‘best female’ or ‘woman of the year’ in their field.
The Word is Woman is a place to keep track.
So here is this week’s The Word is Woman for the week ending 24th November 2023.