The Word is Woman #71
Documenting the erasure of women from language and life
Hi, did you miss me? I pressed pause on TWIW for a couple of weeks, in order to focus on the launch of my new book. Now that that’s over, what better time to get back in the saddle than one of the hottest days on record?!
It’s no good just sitting there relaxing and trying to keep cool with an ice lolly and a paper fan. What you need in this situation is a nice bit of rage! And you’ve come to the right place. By the time you get to the end of this post you’ll be holding the garden hose pipe over your head and yelling ‘WHY LORD WHY’ before cracking open a six pack of beer and pouring it all into a large jug. Then you can spend the rest of the evening pretending you’re 19 and in Marbella. You’re welcome.
It’s hard to know where to start if I’m honest, because in the time I’ve been focused on women and UPF, there’s been such a catalogue of erasure to pick from that it’s somewhat overwhelming.
Oh no wait, hang on, there’s a clear winner…
Yup, this is a report in UK paper the Independent that, in Wisconsin, state law has changed the word ‘mother’ in its IVF legistation to…INSEMINATED PERSON.
And then there’s the Eve appeal, who are muddling things up completely by telling us that, in addition to women, there is a ‘person with gynae organs’ who can get cancer, and that those who are getting the bad news and actually dying of it are, ‘people’.
On their website, there is further confusion - for example they tell us that 80% of vulval cancers are diagnosed in women over 60, but that ‘anyone with a vulva’ can also get it.
The NHS have been prolific in my absence, almost as if they knew my eye was off the ball. Here’s the NHS in Scotland, also on vulval cancer, and how it affects not just women, but anyone with a vulva.
Vital women’s health messaging is also muddled on the main NHS page about vulval cancer…
Up in Fife, another vital piece of messaging on women’s health is made less clear…
Lest we forget, NHS Fife are the ones who’ve currently spent nearly quarter of a million quid of taxpayers money defending their decision to discipline a nurse who objected to a man with a penis in her changing room.
So, just a wee bit ideologically captured then.
In Medway, the NHS foundation trust has posted about a trial for pregnant people with twins…
And in Derbyshire, the Maternity and Neonatal Voices group is also not even bothering with so-called ‘additive language’, and going for ‘pregnant people’.
Note how the use of ‘families’ in such posts undermines the woman as the sole decision maker in her care.
At the end of June the Telegraph reported that mothers-to-be were to be called ‘pregnant participants’ in a government report, as well as ‘pregnant users’, ‘pregnant passengers’ etc…
If your blood is not boiling yet, here’s a few more for you…this one is from the Endometriosis Foundation of America…
Back in Blighty, Tommy’s reports on some important research into miscarriage for ‘people with PCOS’…
And over in Aus, the advocacy group Migraine Australia sent out some information about migraine and miscarriage risk without mentioning women once…
I don’t know about you, but I think I’m just about ready for that pitcher of cheap lager, are you?
Stay cool everyone, especially if you are a pregnant person!
See you on Sunday for the usual nosebag, sending love to you all, Milli.
I’ve written four books, would you like one?
I’ve got a new Substack all about a life less processed, do come and join me over there if this interests you…
More work needed by women to regain what we had a few years ago - respect for motherhood and a name. The fight against the tidal wave of misogyny created by porn and the trans ideology sometimes seems overwhelming, but we have to do this for our daughters *and* our sons.
This is the battle of all battles. Either we win back what our mothers and grandmothers won for us, or we lose and consign our daughters and granddaughters to the hell of non existence, where they have to be named before they even begin to fight back.
Don’t be fooled by pathetic calls for help for “violence against women and girls”. Those are the very people who will include men in their not-so-safe spaces in order to placate aggressive men. It’s a con ladies. Either we exist as a biological sex class or we don’t exist at all except in the imaginations of men. Choose, pick a side, and fight for women or against us.
That final post seems to be erasing babies too. Pregnant people and their foetuses must really be struggling in this weather.