The Word is Woman #63

Documenting the erasure of women from language and 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 28th February 2025.

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Hello! Are you a self identifying woman?

My dog Polly says she definitely is, as long as this means she gets free access to the fridge and the biscuit tin, just like I do.

Travel really is a tonic though, right?!

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NHS Bedfordshire is excited to share the new name for their service for breastfeeding…families.

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And Somerset Maternity and Neonatal Voice, also part of the NHS, have a check in service for people after their birth.

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Here’s a breastfeeding group for…parents.

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And in the Sydney Morning Herald early menopause was a thing had by ‘people with a uterus’.

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The W word is (almost) completely missing from this call for the experiences of clinicians of the ‘parent-infant relationship’ of ‘birthing people in the perinatal period’.

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And an outfit called Carriage House Birth want to help you support…birthers and birthing families.

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Science of the Universe (1.8M followers) wanted to make you laugh with these in utero pictures, but the real joke was all about erasure.

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And - oh god, are you bored yet…

…because this is getting a bit repetitive - Ok so some dairy or other doesn’t want their raw milk drunk by pregnant…people.

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Oh and shoe company Clarks are casting for BOYS, no wait, make that MALE IDENTIFYING CHILDREN…

This is ironic because as a UK mum I can assure you that if I had to make a top 5 of the most irritatingly gendered clothing and shoe outlets for kids, Clarks would be my Number 1. It’s all pink and bows and completely flimsy and impractical for girls, and dinosaurs and stomping and adventurous for boys. So much so that I used to buy my pre-school aged daughter their shoes from the ‘boys section’, much to the shop assistant’s horror. Sorry, make that the ‘male identifying section’.

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But hang on, what’s this? A spate of headlines about a WOMAN?

And - would you Adam and Eve it? - she’s not been the only woman in trouble with the law this week.

Honestly, these chicks have got too much time on their hands!

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That’s all the atrocities we’ve got time for this week. Next week I’ll be coming live to you from Prague, so expect some disruption to the usual service, but hopefully that will be refreshing! I know it will be for me!

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