The Word is Woman #58

Documenting the erasure of women from language and life.

Welcome to the Issue #58 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 four 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 23rd January 2024.

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Something very interesting has happened. You might remember that last week I featured this post from Derbyshire Maternity and Neonatal Voices.

and they then updated that post to this:

And if you remember, I mentioned that I’d emailed the press office at Joined Up Care to ask for a copy of these ‘communication guidelines’.

You’ll never guess.

THEY DON’T EXIST.

That’s right. When Derbyshire Maternity and Neonatal Voices said they were changing to inclusive language to align with ‘communication guidelines’, they simply made this up.

This actually really did shock me. Just a blatant lie. But why?

I’ve emailed Derbyshire Maternity and Neonatal Voices to try and find out. Watch this space!

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Meanwhile, it’s been an interesting week for biological reality, hasn’t it?!

Pic credit @esme_saysno

Now, please don’t panic and think I’ve gone all right wing on you. Truth be told, my politics are much more aligned with Melania’s hat.

Nevertheless, there was a definite Terf vibe to his executive order, ‘Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government’.

For example:

It certainly feels like whoever wrote it (and let’s face it we all know it wasn’t the Donald) has really got their finger on the pulse of gender critical feminism - who knows, perhaps they’ve even been reading this newsletter. I shall await my invite to the White House - I think I know the perfect hat.

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Who knows, though, if Mr Cheeto’s ideas about the binary nature of sex and the importance of clear language catch on, it could spell the end of this newsletter. In the meantime, there’s clearly a need for it, as long as the phrase ‘pumping people’ remains in circulation…

Yes this is from the US based outfit, Babies in Common, who seem to have erased the words ‘woman’ and ‘mother’ from their entire website. Instead, it’s all ‘parent’s milk’ etc.

Pumping people must win some kind of special TWIW prize though, right?

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Next, do you have a cervix?

If you’ve got one, the Breastfeeding Network think you should get it checked.

Joking aside, there are some women, perhaps of low literacy or with English as a second language, or who are maybe the 46% of women who don’t know what a cervix is, who might not know that this post refers to them. The argument of the Breastfeeding Network (in the comments) is that women who have had a hysterectomy may no longer have a cervix so that’s what the ‘anyone with a cervix’ thing is all about.

I wonder who might be most likely not to understand the poster, person A - a woman who has had a hysterectomy, or person B - a woman who, for whatever reason, isn’t really clear what a cervix is?

Person A doesn’t understand the poster, turns up for a smear, they say, Oh, you don’t have a cervix, you don’t need this. Nothing is lost except a little inconvenience.

Person B doesn’t understand the poster, doesn’t go for a smear, and potentially increases her risk of cancer.

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In spite of the fact that myself and many other fantastic women have made this argument over and over, the RCOG are at it too in their post for the same cause.

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And the next post on their grid is also rather odd…

So-called ‘additive language’ is an attempt to #bekind and inclusive, but it nevertheless works to change the meaning of woman from a descriptor of sex, to an identity. If woman means ‘adult human female’, then there are only women waiting for essential gynaecology care.

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Well, that’s all we have time for this week dear friends, and I must away to a lovely Airbnb to celebrate my ‘big’ birthday. I will send you out the nosebag on Sunday, and see you again next week!

REMINDER: Thursday 30th Jan is my writing group, Writing for Change, zoom link coming soon. (paid subscribers only)

With love, Milli x

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Please support me to keep documenting the erasure of women from language, with a paid subscription. If you can’t afford it, please do take out a free sub so you never miss a post. And do ‘like’ this post and share it! It all helps. Thank you.

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Alternatively you can buy me a coffee / wine / gin….

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Or you can pre-order my next book, Ultra Processed Women…