The Word is Woman #34

Documenting the erasure of women from language and life.

Welcome to the Issue #34 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 26th April 2024.

---

Here we are again for this week’s samples of erasure, which just seem to keep on coming. Let’s start with a laugh though, and an example of a company who have accidentally centred female biology in their most recent ad campaign.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely feel like I’ve seen that Euphoria one somewhere before.

So in honour of Magnum, this week’s TWIW will be dedicated to Tom Selleck.

---

Staying with the monthlies, The Period Company have a new song out, it’s a Simon and Garfunkel cover version I believe? 😆 I don’t have the link to the specific post, as someone sent this to me. But their account is full of similar ‘people’ stuff.

---

La Leche League, in particular their branch in Western PA came up with some doozies this week.

First up:

Exclusive bodyfeeding by families feeding human milk.

Nope. They were only just getting started.

Then came:

Er. Isn’t Mother Nature a bit ‘exclusionary’? Surely you mean Parent Nature?

When challenged, and shown this piece of research that documents the problems with terms like bodyfeeding and chestfeeding, they doubled down.

Because ‘people of all sexes lactate and feed their children their milk’.

I hold the BBC partly responsible for this lunacy! (see here for why, if you missed it!)

---

Are you a person with lived experience of gynaecology services? You probably had a shite time - because some people’s health tends to be sidelined and under-researched for reasons we can’t explain any more now we can’t use sex-based language.

RCOG tweet is here.

---

La Leche League again, their classic manual is The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, but as documented in a previous edition of TWIW, they are changing the name to The Art of Breastfeeding. And that’s the name of their new event, the poster for which shows only babies, without a mother to be seen.

---

The NCT are looking to provide insight about ‘the experiences of people who were pregnant, gave birth and became a parent in the pandemic’.

I’ve just had a look through their facebook feed and I cannot find the word ‘woman’ or ‘mother’ anywhere. It’s all ‘parents to be’.

---

Abortion rights in the USA continue to be eroded, as does the language needed to talk about who has them and why their bodies are controlled by patriarchy.

Link here.

Link here.

Link here.

I’ve shared it before but this is a brilliant article on why sex based language is important when we talk about abortion.

---

Another one from ACOG

---

Anyway. Despair not. Because WE HAVE BADGES! (virtual ones this time!)

So. OK. If you see an example of erasure, in particular those featured here, feel free to copy and paste this special award in their comments.

Thanks to Louise Woodward Styles for creating it.

And, it gets better.

The wonderful Hannah at Womb to World Art has made these.

Hannah says you can use them (personal use only of course). Please do credit her where you can and support her via her shop.

---

And, as well as badges, we also have Tom Selleck.

---

For every oppressive idiot there is a creative woman fighting back. Remember that and have a nice weekend! Milli x

I could not keep painstakingly documenting this erasure without the support of paid subscribers. If you are one, thank you! If not, please consider signing up, you’ll get all kind of marvellous perks and my eternal gratitude. If you can’t afford it, please do take out a free sub so you never miss a post.