The Word is Woman #69

Documenting the erasure of women from language and life.

How’s it going? I’ve been in a very small padded cupboard for the last three days.

No, not THAT kind of padded cupboard! (although it often beckons, especially on Friday’s when I collate this newsletter).

I’ve been in a tiny sound proof room, recording the audiobook of Ultra Processed Women!

You can preorder it today!

Anyway, now I’m on a train, heading home. So this week’s edition of The Word is Woman is going to be a fast and furious whistestop tour through just some of the many examples you’ve all been good enough to send me recently! Buckle up!

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First up, Mother and Baby magazine tell us about Hyperemesis Gravidarum (morning sickness), and how this affects, ‘pregnant people’.

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Author and ‘educator’ Britta Bushnell says she’s always going to use the term ‘birthing person’ in this IG post. “I’m not erasing mothers, I’m making space at the table”, she claims.

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This Women in Banking and Finance event about breastfeeding, doesn’t mention women or mothers, but says the ‘key takeaway’ is to ‘talk openly’ about breastfeeding. Eyeroll.

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This post is all about ‘pregnant people with lupus’, and doesn’t mention the W word, once.

Ultra Processed Women, which I’ve just read aloud of course, has a big section on autoimmune conditions, because they’re much more common in females.

Lupus, for example, affects nine times as many women as men. So it’s particularly ironic that they are erasing sex in this post, about ‘pregnant people with lupus’!!

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Lichen sclerosus also predominantly affects women. The Lichen Sclerosus Guide, whose focus in entirely on Vulval Lichen Sclerosus, barely mention women at all on their website, and refer to them as ‘vulva owners’.

Or ‘people’…

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This post, about what a doula does, also makes no mention of women or mothers, and replaces breastfeeding with chestfeeding.

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This post, from OUH Chipping Norton Midwives, states that 1 in 4 people experience a mental health problem in pregnancy or afterwards. Do they mean dads or partners as well? It’s not clear.

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The Cut reports on cervical ‘pap smears’ that can be self administered, by ‘people’.

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And finally, this article in The Conversation does on my TWIW score card…

People - get a mention 24 times.

Women - just once - and this is in the context of describing them as one of several ‘people assigned female at birth’.

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That’s all we’ve got time for folks! I hope you have a lovely rest of your Friday, and I’ll see you on Sunday for the nosebag.

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