"Barbie" = Gynecologist?

[MsAmerica]

Online Search Interest in Gynecologists After the Release of the Film Barbie
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2821491

Barbie movie “may have spurred interest in gynecology”
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/barbie-movie-may-have-spurred-interest-in-gynecology-study-finds/

When Barbie learned what a gynecologist was, so did many other people, according to new study
https://www.wral.com/story/when-barbie-learned-what-a-gynecologist-was-so-did-many-other-people-according-to-new-study/21540933/

I would like to think it’s because people have taken an interest in women and women’s health?

Interesting that you said "people." I'm not thinking that a passing mention in a movie made women suddenly aware of women's health. I'd be thinking more that either women might have been previously embarrassed by the word, but now less so, or women said, Hm, I'm overdue for a check-up.

:) Greta knew what she was doing. And she knows what a woman is:

“When I was a teenage girl, I remember growing up and being embarrassed about my body, and just feeling ashamed in a way that I couldn’t even describe. It felt like everything had to be hidden,” Gerwig said.

Barbie, the stealth radical feminist movie! 😁As if I needed more reasons to love it.

And I think you might be surprised how many people don't/didn't know what a gynaecologist is...!

The word “people” was lifted an article you mentioned.

It also wasn’t just women that went to see the movie, which one of the articles mentions as well. ✌🏻

I love that film.

I’d have thought a lot of people just didn’t know the word so googled it to see what it meant. My 9 year old had never heard it before so asked me. I was fine to explain it to him.

A gynaecologist for a check up isn’t really a thing in the UK so he’d never have heard me mention it in passing like I would a dentist or appointment. In fact, aged 44, I’m not sure I’ve ever been seen by one. Being embarrassed or not by the word wouldn’t make any difference.

@McSilkson - wait, do you think many PEOPLE don't know what a gynecologist is, or that many ADULT WOMEN don't know?

53yo woman and have never been to one ( but know what it means). Also, are you spelling it right?

It's the correct American spelling, so would be the one used in the Barbie script.

I have only been to a gynaecologist once (outside of obstetricians in late pregnancy) and that was for a problem. Lots of women just don’t see them over the course of their lives.

In the USA it’s more common to have an overall check up with a gynaecologist (insurance dependent, obviously). In the U.K. you’d only see one if referred by your GP.

Er ... both?

Available research suggests that ignorance about female sexual anatomy is high among both sexes, and the disparity between men and women is not huge.

Breaking those results down by gender, we find that six in ten men (59%) and half of women (45%) could not even label the vagina. Slightly more didn’t know what the urethra was (61% of men and 55% of women). Around half of both genders failed to label the labia (52% of men and 43% of women).

(https://yougov.co.uk/health/articles/22596-half-brits-dont-know-where-vagina-and-its-not-just^)^

If 45% of (British) women could not label the vagina on a clear diagram, I don't have much confidence in the same women's ability to define "gynaecologist"!

*Although, technically speaking, what they were being asked to label was the vaginal opening (ditto the urethral opening), not the vagina, so this exercise was not specific or accurate enough!

I'm American. We spell it differently.

And I'm amazed. Obviously there's a big cultural difference.

I'm convinced that every American woman I know would have gone to a gynecologist fairly early in life. But now maybe I'll ask a few of them! I wonder if British G.P.'s do some of the work that American G.P.'s don't.

The practice nurse does cervical smears, the GP does coil insertions and removals, the local hospital sends out appointments with radiologists for routine mammograms…

Is that the sort of thing you were thinking of?

The reason Americans go to the gynecologist is primarily because they prescribe birth control pills so we would typically see one in high school. Our gyno is kind of like our GP …

This is also why they fight tooth and nail to prevent birth control being sold OTC (don’t believe anyone when they say it’s Xtian conservatives, it is absolutely the medical establishment). They want women and girls to keep booking that yearly appointment.

I've always wondered why American women have regular check-ins with their gynaecologists, as seen in films and TV shows. What is it they're getting that we're not, in the UK?

Even for just basics like pap smears and breast exams, maybe Americans have been trained to go to specialists. Which now is ironic, because more and more doctors are shrugging off patients and telling them to see the assistant, not the actual doctor.

Am I the only one who finds it deeply unfeminist? The idea that having acquired a set of female genitals the first thing she thinks of doing with them is to take them along to a doctor to make sure they're not faulty?
Another 50 something women here who finds it mind boggling that Americans seem to think that regular gynaecological check ups are necessary. Damn those pesky, troublesome, diseased female bodies in need of constant monitoring...

Umm... Your take is interesting, but I personally think it's back-to-front. I think the whole point of the gynaecologist scene was to reveal that Barbie was a real woman now, complete with real female reproductive organs, and was a way to get her to essentially say, "Yay! I've got a vagina!" in a subtler and funnier (and American) way.

And I believe that educating certain people about gynaecology may have been a secondary intention, which was evidently fulfilled!

The spirit of the whole thing clearly seems to be, let's get female bodies out into the open and be proud of them, which is corroborated by Greta's words.

That's an odd way of thinking about it. Why is it unfeminist to look after your body? You don't because you think it's "faulty", but because it needs looking after and checking for cancer etc... Have you never had a mammogram or smear test? If you haven't, then you should be doing! Just because in the UK nurses do the checks, it's the same in the States, just done by a gynaecologist. Same same, different name!

@Throughahedgebackwards Also, I don't think that failing to acknowledge reality is feminist. The reality is that the female reproductive system is considerably more complicated than the male one, and tasked with vastly more strenuous functions, i.e., creating and bearing new life, and consequently there are many more things that can and frequently do go wrong with it. Mother nature isn't perfect. Women are much more susceptible than men to UTIs, STDs (including HIV), general genital infections, e.g., thrush, and incontinence of both kinds. And that is without factoring in the many common complications caused by pregnancy and childbirth, e.g., approximately 6% of first-time births result in a third- or fourth-degree tear involving the anus and/or rectum.

Meanwhile, endometriosis affects at least 10% of female people of a reproductive age (and that is likely an underestimate). And fibroids have a prevalence as high as 70-80% by the age of 50!

I don't think the American system is a bad idea at all. It certainly sounds preferable to what we have in the UK, where even women with advanced diagnosed endometriosis (like me) struggle to see a gynaecologist. There are currently approximately 600,000 women on the gynaecology waiting list in the UK, which represents a greater post-Covid increase than for any other medical specialty (surprise, surprise). And that doesn't include the large numbers of women who will just be suffering in silence and not seeking medical help for their problems.

The truth is that gynaecological problems are extremely common and affect almost all women at different points in their lives, but the only ones that receive routine attention in the UK are cancers, including the relatively rare cervical cancer, which carries an estimated lifetime risk of 1 in 142. If it's highly unlikely to kill a woman (even if it might make her wish for death), our health system doesn't care much.

Can I ask, since we're into comparisons of national doctoring patterns (an interesting tangent in a movie forum!) - as an American I would normally go for occasional check-ups with an ophthalmologist, too. Do you not do that in England?

@MsAmerica do you have an eye condition?

If you don't have an eye condition here, an optamologist (not a doctor) in the high street can test your eyes, detect conditions like cataracts,glaucoma etc and refer for medical treatment. Most people won't need to see an ophthalmologist.

If you just need to get a prescription for glasses, contacts etc an 'optician' (looose term for optamologist' does the job!

I'm not in the UK at present, am in Ireland at the moment, and this is free here.

Aargh I meant to say 'optometrist'.
They are not doctors.

Most people won't need to see an ophthalmologist, unless they have a medical condition.

I’ve lived in America for nearly 20 years and have never seen a gynaecologist. My family doctor does my Pap smears and breast exams, and prescribed birth control when I was on it. I get mammograms at the hospital.

If I need to see a gynaecologist I will, but so far I’ve been lucky enough not to have any conditions that have required it. Neither of my early 20s daughters have seen gynaecologists either.

But when we get smears in the US we get a an exam. The doctor internally
checks position of the reproductive organs.

Do nurses do that in the UK?