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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Describing the female body using male language

53 replies

JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 27/06/2018 16:08

Sort of inspired by the wonderful vagina facts thread.....

I have often wondered about the implications of the fact that women's bodies are described and mapped by men. For example, Braxton Hicks cx are named for a male doctor in the 1870s who first noticed them.

Only, I'm fairly sure women had been 'noticing' them for some time before he happened along Hmm

And the oft-cited fact that vagina means scabbard, obviously labelling a key female organ in terms of its use value for men.

What other egs are there are of our bodies being mapped and appropriated by men like this? And what are the ramifications?

OP posts:
AngelsSins · 27/06/2018 18:56

God I’d never even thought of this! Just when you think your eyes are all the way open, some new hellish surprise comes along!

It’s the claiming of “discovering” women’s body parts that gets me the most, why is this even still written as fact when it’s clearly a load of bollox! The arrogance still surprises me.

JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 27/06/2018 18:36

It was definitely an interesting article, thanks! Does all this labelling of women with men's names constitute a kind of colonialism?

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BeyondFemaleElitist · 27/06/2018 16:10

I saw an article about this yesterday...

www.bbc.com/future/story/20180531-how-womens-body-parts-have-been-named-after-men