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Original poster

Men that don't know what a cervix is

112 replies

biddyboo · 18/08/2024 19:39

So David Lammy is probably the most well known example, but the whole boxing fiasco has been quite illuminating in illustrating how many men don't have a clue what a cervix is (whilst arguing with absolute conviction that IK has one). Some men also seem to think that it is something that is checked for at birth 🙄

Here is the latest example I've seen

https://x.com/OkayBiology/status/1825174768460673063

For those not on X, it's journalist Benjamin Butterworth mansplaining about cervixes to two exasperated women.

I must ask my oh when he gets back if he knows what a cervix is. I suspect he has a vague idea. Do the men in your life know what the cervix is?

x.com

https://x.com/OkayBiology/status/1825174768460673063

OP posts:
CowTown · 19/08/2024 05:01

murasaki · 18/08/2024 22:20

Dp's effort was 'the bit at the top they scrape for a smear rest, right?', well yes dear, not a completely correct definition, but not bad.

I got the same answer from my DH—knowing it was where smear samples were collected, but not knowing it’s actual job.

LunaNorth · 19/08/2024 04:04

emsie12345 · 19/08/2024 01:00

"Separates the upper fanny from the lower fanny" 🤣

He’s getting ‘cervix’ mixed up with ‘Duchess of Sussex’.

emsie12345 · 19/08/2024 01:00

"Separates the upper fanny from the lower fanny" 🤣

annejumps · 19/08/2024 00:12

I've learned that a surprising number of men seem to think that women can start and stop our periods when we want, that is, like holding pee.

Manxexile · 18/08/2024 23:38

Retiredfromthere · 18/08/2024 20:29

My OH did not know what a cervix is. He does now. And he did know that your womb and uterus are names for the same thing. So not entirely hopeless.

In his defence he comes from an age when the girls (e.g. me) were taught Biology. The boys were taught Physics. But we are quite elderly and I would have thought that anyone under 50 (even males) would have been taught at school about basic reproductive anatomy at school as part of sex ed.

I'm male, aged 66. Never studied biology or chemistry (except as general science - only physics as a separate science subject) but we covered human sexual reproduction and male and female reproductive anatomy in what was called "Sex education" in either first or second form at secondary school in 1970 or 1971. So I'd have been aged somewhere from 11 to 13?

Must that have been some groundbreaking and revolutionary idea and everything's gone backwards since then?

BashfulClam · 18/08/2024 22:59

TitusMoan · 18/08/2024 22:40

More men need to be told that cervix-bashing is not necessarily something women like … but I suppose much of what they view on screens would not give this impression 😡

This is always why I tell men that length isn’t the size women think matters. It just hits the cervix and is uncomfortable.

Retiredfromthere · 18/08/2024 22:51

Grammarnut · 18/08/2024 22:32

I am more than 50. I know where my cervix is. I have touched it, in fact, though not seen it. Can't remember when I learned about it. Probably when pregnant - or possibly drawings showing the menstrual cycle - I did human and general biology at school.

Show quote history

Well I know where my cervix is. Did biology and human biology and watched the scary giving birth film and all. But I think the logic during my schooling days was the girls needed to know about reproduction and biology and men did not. At least he is claiming no formal schooling in biology. (To be fair he does understand Physics and I do not). Most importantly he straight up admitted he did not know where it was. Which is better than a lot of men it seems.

TitusMoan · 18/08/2024 22:40

More men need to be told that cervix-bashing is not necessarily something women like … but I suppose much of what they view on screens would not give this impression 😡

BackToLurk · 18/08/2024 22:36

Omlettes · 18/08/2024 22:34

Does the womb have a view?

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Of balls

Omlettes · 18/08/2024 22:34

GrumpyPanda · 18/08/2024 19:49

Not just cervixes. There was a genius on Twitter claiming the Algerian boxer has, I quote, "a uterus and a womb."

Does the womb have a view?

Grammarnut · 18/08/2024 22:32

Retiredfromthere · 18/08/2024 20:29

My OH did not know what a cervix is. He does now. And he did know that your womb and uterus are names for the same thing. So not entirely hopeless.

In his defence he comes from an age when the girls (e.g. me) were taught Biology. The boys were taught Physics. But we are quite elderly and I would have thought that anyone under 50 (even males) would have been taught at school about basic reproductive anatomy at school as part of sex ed.

I am more than 50. I know where my cervix is. I have touched it, in fact, though not seen it. Can't remember when I learned about it. Probably when pregnant - or possibly drawings showing the menstrual cycle - I did human and general biology at school.

AquaFurball · 18/08/2024 22:30

lcakethereforeIam · 18/08/2024 20:02

True that. Here's a woman with her cervix

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As a crazy cat lady I fully support the ability to have Serval spare cervixes!

murasaki · 18/08/2024 22:20

Dp's effort was 'the bit at the top they scrape for a smear rest, right?', well yes dear, not a completely correct definition, but not bad.

newtlover · 18/08/2024 22:14

well I asked DP and he said
'its the opening to the womb'
'yeess...but can you be a bit more precise?'
'well, its.... (makes curving gesture with hand, accurately describing the shape of a cervix)...its why a cap works'
can't say fairer than that

Original poster
biddyboo · 18/08/2024 21:54

KingscoteStaff · 18/08/2024 21:47

I teach Year 6 sex ed and ALL my class know what a cervix is!
We have a box for anonymous questions at the end of each session and one said ‘Girls. Three holes? Really?’ So we went over things again…

"We have a box for anonymous questions at the end"

I love this! Great idea.

OP posts:
KingscoteStaff · 18/08/2024 21:47

I teach Year 6 sex ed and ALL my class know what a cervix is!
We have a box for anonymous questions at the end of each session and one said ‘Girls. Three holes? Really?’ So we went over things again…

Chersfrozenface · 18/08/2024 21:45

FFS, they knew in the 17th century that there were three holes - and in "they" I'm including men.

There was this expression for women being shagged, which they thought hilarious, derived from naval warfare - "shot twixt wind and water".

We've managed to go backwards.

AugustDieSheMustTheAutumnWindsBlowChillyAndCold · 18/08/2024 21:24

I went to a girls grammar school in the 1960s.

Biology was compulsory for the first three years. It started with simple beings (amoeba) and got as far as cockroaches. That's as far as my formal biological education went.

O level Biology was for the top set, Human Biology was for the lower set. I chose Physics and Chemistry.

Our total sex education consisted of one lesson from the Headmistress (who had a degree in Biology) about STIs. I probably didn't hear "cervix" mentioned until I was pregnant.

DworkinWasRight · 18/08/2024 21:16

Mumoftwo1316 · 18/08/2024 21:13

My dh knows but mostly because he was there when I gave birth and it failed to dilate and the midwives kept poking it to see if it had dilated yet (to my extreme distress!)

He might have known before then but definitely knows now.

I think if a man who has kids doesn't know, you can bet he wasn't a good birth partner (if he was a birth partner at all)

I was going to say the same - I’d expect a man whose partner had given birth to know what the cervix is.

Joystir59 · 18/08/2024 21:16

Friend of mine tried to insert a tampon up her urethra. Didn't know she had a vagina. She was 13 and it was 1970. Seems not much progress has been made according to some of the posts here

Mumoftwo1316 · 18/08/2024 21:13

My dh knows but mostly because he was there when I gave birth and it failed to dilate and the midwives kept poking it to see if it had dilated yet (to my extreme distress!)

He might have known before then but definitely knows now.

I think if a man who has kids doesn't know, you can bet he wasn't a good birth partner (if he was a birth partner at all)

HoppityBun · 18/08/2024 21:13

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 18/08/2024 20:44

I didn't see much point asking my husband because he wouldn't know what the word means in English and in his language it's just called the neck of the uterus.

Cervix does in fact mean neck. That’s why we all - men and women- have a cervical spine

DeadsoulsAngel · 18/08/2024 21:12

HoppityBun · 18/08/2024 21:11

Me too

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Terrifying isn’t it…

HoppityBun · 18/08/2024 21:11

DeadsoulsAngel · 18/08/2024 20:48

Alarmingly I’ve known women who think that. Seriously!

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Me too

LunaNorth · 18/08/2024 21:08

My DH knows. I’m quite impressed. I’m not sure I’d be able to label and define all his plumbing.