Companies that make money out of women, erasing women.

[SirVixofVixHall]

I am on the email list for thinx as I forgot to unsubscribe when I realised how they speak about the only sex that buy their products.
I have just had this in my inbox. An entire article on endometriosis, that fails to mention it is only women who get it. You could be forgiven for thinking that both sexes suffer, as even though they mention painful periods, they also say that not everyone has them.
“People with endometriosis “ but who are those people Thinx? Which people get their endometriosis symptoms ignored or dismissed ? Why might that be ?
They make money from women and yet ignore their entire customer base. www.shethinx.com/blogs/thinx-piece/know-your-endo-jessica-murnane

Maybe we need a list of companies who do this ?

I’d rather see a list of companies who do recognise women so I can support them.

Yes, that is a good point, and a much better idea !

So, companies that recognise women and girls exist...

Hey girls. Sell tampons, pads and pants and support U.K. girls who are in period poverty. Very good subscription service.

@Monicuddle

I’d rather see a list of companies who do recognise women so I can support them.

I disagree. I think it’s important to start listing the companies that are erasing women. I don’t want to unknowingly support businesses who in turn are supporting the erosion of women’s rights and safety.

The other irritating thing to me is using Endo and Friendo.

It's so sort of. Dunno. Trivialising? Upbeat?

Are massive issues in male healthcare referred to by chirpy cutey abbreviations like this? And the 'endo community'.

Is there an erectile dysfunction 'community'? What about prostate cancer being called 'prosty'? Would that happen? I feel like it wouldn't.

To be fair endometriosis sufferers have been using the terms Endo, adeno, lap etc since before I was diagnosed (nearly 20 years ago) and there is a big endo community. So I can’t fault them there. It’s a pain in the arse to say and type, and most people can’t pronounce it.

This has actually been a huge argument in the endo community over the past year especially, as there are trans men in the Facebook groups etc.

What drives me insane is when you point out that this disease affects those who are biologically female, you’ll always get someone piping up about the minuscule number of cases reported in biological males (it’s something like under 10 cases in the literature, can’t remember exactly although I expect it’s under-diagnosed as no one would be looking for a it in men) vs 10% of women. So now we can’t even discuss the fact that it’s something that almost exclusively affects women.

I’ve withdrawn from most endo groups to be honest as they’ve become pretty insufferable for lots of reasons - mainly very young women making inaccurate statements about treatments, catastrophising about cancer, sad faced selfies in hospital gowns with IV accessories, plenty of woo... it’s a shame as the endo forums that existed when I was that age were a massive help to me.

Sorry, bit of a tangent there!

Modibodi is the same. The teen section mentions young women and girls. The.mens section mentions men. The women's section well...

I just don’t engage/buy. I positively do give my money to businesses who don’t play this game.

Whether they really believe it or it’s purely for marketing, I don’t care. If they don’t speak to me, I won’t buy.

I’ve stopped buying from companies that treat women as a commodity when they want to but also engage in the dilution of our rights.

I noticed that a lot of so called ‘feminist’ clothing companies love selling things with slogans and words like ‘woman’ ‘femme’ and ‘liberté, egalité, sororité’ but then state that of course they’re inclusive (this’ll be somewhere on their website/ promotional literature. I had a jumper arrive with one of the slogans above and a card that had #transrightsarehumanrights in with it - just in case anyone dared think they were all about women!)
If they REALLY wanted to use inclusive slogans that reflected the sentiments of some of the groups they’re ‘being kind’ to, they’d have tie dyed pastel jumpers with words that rhyme with ‘surf’ and ‘piss’ on them.
Funny how that actually doesn’t make a huge amount of business sense. It’s almost as if that would make women feel uncomfortable. So it’s one thing to OPENLY acknowledge the discomfort we’d feel with those slogans on but it’s ok to cover it all up by saying ‘be kind’!
Well who is being kind to women?

So, those companies won’t get my money any more. And that includes you as an umbrella organisation ‘The Stylist’. (Sadly).

@Whatwouldscullydo

Modibodi is the same. The teen section mentions young women and girls. The.mens section mentions men. The women's section well...

This shit makes my blood boil.

Great idea for a thread naming companies who do support women. Will definitely look into the one mentioned above

Hello Body Shop, hello Lush.

I think that’s ‘eff off body shop and much surely? And quite a few others.

There are so many good alternatives out there - I have switched to other brands and companies and found some really good things.

I have complained to the Endometriosis Society about their social media that always uses people rather than women, but they just ignore me. This is a sexed disease with such poor diagnosis rates because it affects women, not 'people'. I was diagnosed back in pre-internet days after suffering for a decade and the Society was a big help to me as the only source of information. I'm sad to see what it has become as I would still like to be involved but cannot support the erasure of women in their messaging.

The Eve charity keeps popping up on my Facebook, looking for money. The messages are split between mentioning ‘woman’ and studiously not saying the word (people with, those who have...).

I was in a bookshop recently which had a display of the shortlisted books for the Women's Fiction prize. Guess which of those books was given most prominent placing?

The one that fell off the table and landed behind a big bookshelf perhaps? 😇

@MoonCatcher

I was in a bookshop recently which had a display of the shortlisted books for the Women's Fiction prize. Guess which of those books was given most prominent placing?

If you’re referring to the Torrey Peters book, it didn’t make the shortlist. It was on the long list.

There’s a joke in there but I don’t want a suspension/ban...

Just read the article men must be running scared that they can get too now.

@NiceGerbil

The other irritating thing to me is using Endo and Friendo.

It's so sort of. Dunno. Trivialising? Upbeat?

Are massive issues in male healthcare referred to by chirpy cutey abbreviations like this? And the 'endo community'.

Is there an erectile dysfunction 'community'? What about prostate cancer being called 'prosty'? Would that happen? I feel like it wouldn't.

Actually snorted my tea at “prosty”

@EmptyOrchestra

To be fair endometriosis sufferers have been using the terms Endo, adeno, lap etc since before I was diagnosed (nearly 20 years ago) and there is a big endo community. So I can’t fault them there. It’s a pain in the arse to say and type, and most people can’t pronounce it.

This has actually been a huge argument in the endo community over the past year especially, as there are trans men in the Facebook groups etc.

What drives me insane is when you point out that this disease affects those who are biologically female, you’ll always get someone piping up about the minuscule number of cases reported in biological males (it’s something like under 10 cases in the literature, can’t remember exactly although I expect it’s under-diagnosed as no one would be looking for a it in men) vs 10% of women. So now we can’t even discuss the fact that it’s something that almost exclusively affects women.

I’ve withdrawn from most endo groups to be honest as they’ve become pretty insufferable for lots of reasons - mainly very young women making inaccurate statements about treatments, catastrophising about cancer, sad faced selfies in hospital gowns with IV accessories, plenty of woo... it’s a shame as the endo forums that existed when I was that age were a massive help to me.

Sorry, bit of a tangent there!

I am very confused now. How can male people get endometriosis when they do not have an endometrium ?

The whole piece really annoyed me as the two friends I have who had endometriosis have both needed a hysterectomy, after years of agonising pain being dismissed. In one case a Doctor said something that alluded to my friend being frigid, as she was discussing that she was finding sex painful.
Hillary Mantel was admitted to a mental hospital due to her pain from endometriosis being dismissed as all in her head. It is a disease that has huge consequences for women, and women still go back and forth for years before a diagnosis, as with so many other female issues ( i have an autoimmune condition that took a decade to diagnose).

Well I've learned something new today because I was also about endometriosis in men but here you are:

endometriosisnews.com/endometriosis-in-men/

This bit stood out to me:

"The majority of male endometriosis cases are thought to be a consequence of prolonged hormone therapy. For example, two cases of endometriosis in men who had undergone prostate cancer treatment were published: one in 1979 and another in 2012. Prostate cancer treatments contain estrogen."

Shall we take a guess where my cynical little brain has started going and the possible implications?

Not women-related companies, but ones that I can think of who've been overtly misogynistic and hence I will no longer purchase from (and I used to be a big customer) include: Body Shop, Lush, Oatly (non-dairy products), Innocent (smoothies etc).