People with periods

[Smurftastic]

I follow 'The Eve Appeal' on fb and noticed that they seem to be avoiding the word 'woman' in their campaigns. Example in attached pictures 'How do we support everyone with a cervix to get screened?', wouldn't it be easier 'How do we support women to get cervical screening'?? My daughter has a cervix, but at the age of 2 I'm sure she doesn't need screening. Another one 'Some people experience (...) a degree of spotting between periods'. I'm confused how a charity for women's cancers is not using the word 'woman' anymore. You could argue some women had their cervix removed an don't need the screening, but I've not seen 'People with testicles, make sure to check them', even though some men might not have their testicles intact. AIBU to feel a little irritated by this.

the question is what on earth do they mean by women and why would the rest of us dropping the word woman help?

By 'woman' they mean something utterly divorced from the body.

If the rest of us drop the word then they succeed in this redefinition.

What worries me is the fact that a lot of my female friends seem to think in the lines of 'nobody is right and nobody is wrong' and 'as long as people are happy is the main thing'- and by people they mean those trans-identified. This neo-speech has crept in so many places and it's slowly becoming the new normal. I'm still fuming, I've been reading twitter and Posie Parker, I think I might have to buy the t-shirt!

'What worries me is the fact that a lot of my female friends seem to think in the lines of 'nobody is right and nobody is wrong' and 'as long as people are happy is the main thing'- and by people they mean those trans-identified'

So true, along with 'it's a very complicated issue' (it really isnt) and variations of 'it doesn't cost anything to be kind'. Minds being so open that brains have fallen out, I think

"if transmen are happy to talk about cervixes and periods but will be excluded by the word woman ..."

That's a good point.

They drop the word 'woman' because they believe transmen will feel excluded by the word. Why do they believe that transmen will not feel excluded by use of the word 'cervix'?

In what way is 'cervix' not female-only? If the type of transman who CovidicusRex described as "extremely fragile about gendered language" would not respond to a health campaign using the word 'woman' why would respond to one which uses the word 'cervix'? Both words are female-sexed?

I think what I'm trying to say is, that no cervical cancer campaign can reach someone who is at that level of denial; no matter what words are used they must inevitably imply femaleness. And if they cannot be reached no matter what words you use, then you should use the words that will reach the most women/females/cervix-owners. Which will be 'woman'.

Shouldn’t health messages be clear not a guessing game

Yes, they should. Health literacy is a huge issue in the country. As well as making information accessible for non-native speakers, we also need to think about people with LDs, or more broadly a low level of anatomical knowledge.

Women find it hard enough to talk about their bodies and all this touchiness about language will make it even worse.

What worries me is the fact that a lot of my female friends seem to think in the lines of 'nobody is right and nobody is wrong' and 'as long as people are happy is the main thing'- and by people they mean those trans-identified'

To some extent this goes along with the way we've taught about tolerance.

To some extent this goes along with the way we've taught about tolerance.

Unfortunately it’s always the women that are expected to do all the tolerating and that tolerating means women told to roll over.