To think this is insensitively worded, to say the least?

[KimberleyClark]

From the website of the Royal Osteoporosis Society

theros.org.uk/latest-news/international-women-s-day-let-s-end-the-ageist-stereotypes-that-fuel-the-most-insidious-women-s-health-condition/?_gl=114hsiyd_up*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk7ugBhDIARIsAGuvgPboftpiYL9EHStxq48v0H5lLUXvpcznG4Nt93uHDTN9RmPFxGS6j2QaAqj8EALw_wcB

“Most are surprised to hear it affects a half of all women over 50. That’s every other mother. Every other grandmother. And it’s serious. More so than people think: as many people die from its complications as from lung cancer or diabetes. So why is nobody talking about it?“

Do women with osteoporosis who aren’t mothers or grandmothers not count?

They can't say "your sister" because not everyone has one of those; some people don't have an aunt or even a female neighbour they care about.
By the same logic they can;t say "your mother" or "your grandmother" because not everybody has one of those either.

Although I'm letting you off for this superb piece of snark alone 😂
if there's an awkward implicit assumption, it is that everyone likes their mom/gran & wouldn't like to dance on their brittle bones.

I don't like the wording as it's not taking direct to the women over 50 who need to hear it. So it's implying her children or grandchildren need to be making sure she looks after herself. Can't women over 50 be assumed to read and take care of their own health? And I can see why that's upset women without children, as there's no children looking out for them as mum.

It's a medical article. It should be fact-based and accurate and you don't have to have a medical degree to know that not all women are mothers or grandmothers.

Not all women are fertile or want to be mothers. An increasing number of us choose to be childfree and it's either sheer thoughtlessness or prejudice that allowed that inaccuracy to go through. Childfree women are women. We count. Even though some of you here obviously don't think so.

Are you normally professionally offended OP? I find it hard to get wound up about the wording of things like this which on balance have the right intent. There’s so much that doesn’t have I tend to focus my angst there.

As others have said it is referring to your mother or grandmother as almost everyone will have one of those , to make people aware of this illness which affects a lot of older women, as in one of your older relatives may have it even though you are as yet too young. It is to increase public awareness and not just have it dismissed as an 'old person' disease.
It would be nice if people could just take the message as it is intended rather than being offended because they have chosen to read it in the wrong way. The message is be aware of this disease at it affects a lot of women. Why are you offended by that ? It doesn't in any way suggest women who aren't mothers or grandmothers don't count. Men can also get it and obviously they count too. But the ad is trying to get people to care by getting them to imagine their own family. Sadly people don't respond well to bare facts - they need a story.

A someone who was diagnosed with osteoporosis in my mid fifties, and currently sporting a broken wrist which just occurred on its own, I'm glad of anything which make people aware and leads to more research and treatment, and earlier diagnosis.

If depends how you interpret it I guess. If it affects half of all women over 50 then in theory it affects half of all mothers over the age of 50. And half of all grandmothers over 50. And half of all child free women over 50. And half of all [insert subcategory] over 50.

That's assuming each subcategory is equally affected which is unlikely.

At best it's a clumsily worded statement.

I think both can be true as half is a proportion?

half of all women
half of all mothers
half of all grandmothers
half of all child free women

all the statements are true?

I can't imagine a website talking about prostate or testicular cancer in terms of men being fathers but maybe I've just not come across it.

I have osteoporosis on both sides of my family, with my dad having suffered spontaneous fractures. I don't think he ever got sent for DEXA scan before that, but mum did.

But they would be different numbers @ItWorriesMeThisKindofThing

I don’t love it, although everyone does have a mother - even if those mothers are long dead on non contact or you were raised by dads. There’s a risk that if you don’t read it properly and think about it for a minute then you could think that you are off the hook with osteoporosis if you don’t have kids. Loads of women’s health is tied to reproduction, contraception, breastfeeding and if those things aren’t really relevant then it’s best to stay clear so you don’t muddy the waters - “one in every two mothers? Well I’m all right, I’m not a mother!” - skips off and fractures wrist in mis-timed twirl.

A very good point.

I respectfully disagree with you on a number of points.

It is not a medical article. It is a PR media release to raise awareness of a medical condition.

This article does not demonstrate thoughtlessness or prejudice to women who are not mothers. It seeks to emotionally engage readers and demonstrate the scale of the problem by making all readers, male and female, think of their mothers. Everyone born has a mother (whether you like her or not).

I write this as someone who spent the majority of my life ‘childfree’.

On the one hand I see your point

on the other, I feel a bit despairing about general knowledge on health.

Aren’t they just trying to humanise a statistic? Like when people say 10% (or whatever it is) of school kids have asthma. “That’s around 3 in every class.”
It doesn’t mean kids who don’t go to school don’t have asthma,

This is incredibly insensitive and badly written. Sure, it’s trying to get you to think about your own mother or grandmother - but it also reads as these people (ie. women who have given birth) are somehow more worthy of concern than childless/child free women. They need to seriously relook at how they are positioning this message. 100% with OP on this.

Couldn't get worked up over this even if I tried.

The point isn’t that every one is a mother or a grandmother, it’s that everyone has a mother and a grandmother. Therefore, everyone is impacted by the disease and should care about progressing research and developments to tackle it.

Urm. Was Diane Abbott your maths teacher?

Exactly. It could easily have included any woman. But instead stigmatises childless women and actually says the only women worth worrying about are those who have had children. Not a chance a campaign aimed at men would be phrased specifically towards fathers and grandfathers, not even a 1% chance

It trying to pull on heart strings, more importantly its raising the real problem of osteoporosis in older women. Main reason why I was keen to start HRT when I became menopausal at an early age

Surely they should be trying to reach the women with osteoporosis themselves, most of whom can read such information and think for themselves, rather than the children or grandchildren, if they have them, of such women.

It's the same as the way in which newspapers report about women e.g. "mother of 3 found guilty of shoplifting", or "battling granny foils shoplifter".

Just report that it's every other woman over 50 that's affected by osteoporosis?

Women do exist as entities in themselves. They're not defined by whether or not they've bred.

Lol yes! This campaign is so clumsy it’s unreal. ‘Your dopey old mum or granny hasn’t the wit to think about osteoporosis so you’d better bring it up with the old crone’ is as infantilising as it gets. I didn’t click on the link but does it include info on how younger women can AVOID osteoporosis???? I was v aware of it as a young woman as my friend’s granny had it and we used to force ourselves to guzzle a half pint of milk every day (despite hating it)

Correct - assuming it’s equally likely across all those populations, half of all mothers over 50, half of all childless women over 50 - it’s still half.

I think they’re highlighting mothers and grandmothers because they assume an adult is reading it, so their mothers and grandmothers have a reasonable chance of being 50 or over. And they want people to think about others - they want a quick visualisation of proportions. It’s not an exhaustive list of “think of the over 50’s women you know” - just a “very likely many people can immediately relate to this” flag.

But men just get to be men in health campaigns.

And sometmes it isn’t a choice.