A Friday tweet from The Lancet advertising its new issue got deservedly ratioed because it couldn't bring itself to use the term "women," when talking about periods, and instead used the quote about how "Historically, the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been neglected."
Our new issue is here! On the cover—'Periods on display' and the cultural movement against menstrual shame and #PeriodPoverty.
— The Lancet (@TheLancet) September 24, 2021
Plus, @WHO air quality guidelines, low #BackPain management, community-acquired bacterial #meningitis, and more. Read: https://t.co/eP1Lx7D116 pic.twitter.com/DchfiHnYEs
Not only is the level of wokeness ridiculous, it's also hypocritical to the very point its making, as some Twitter users pointed out.
Honestly can't believe that you can't see what's happening here. You're telling us that you've noticed that for hundreds of years you've neglected and overlooked women...and then...in the same breath..you are unable to name those people you've been ignoring. Why can't you see it?
— Milli Hill (@millihill) September 24, 2021
Are we just supposed to accept this? Are we extremist for objecting to women and girls being de-humanised. Are we really just “bodies with vaginas” to medical professionals?
— Susan Dalgety (@DalgetySusan) September 24, 2021
Do you refer to men as ‘bodies w penises’? Of course not. You only use demeaning terms to refer to women because you are misogynist scum. Please w your fake concern that women are neglected. You are contributing to it. You are perpetuating it.
— Yasmine Mohammed ?? ?????? ???? (@YasMohammedxx) September 25, 2021
Recommended
I find it frightening, to be honest, being reduced to a part of my anatomy. It's intensely regressive.
— Carole Rogers (@CARogersNo1) September 25, 2021
Bodies with vaginas? Oh dear god. You can’t write that and then talk about menstrual shame in the same sentence
— Stephanie deGiorgio (@DrSdeG) September 24, 2021
I hope that one day medical science will discover a name for “bodies with vaginas.” Dr. Fauci, the vicar of science on earth, might help.
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) September 25, 2021
[I’ll also retweet.]
A large majority of the retweets were quoted tweets pointing out the absurdity of the language, including and especially when it comes to how people aren't so keen on trusting science now.
I wrote a very long (pinned) thread about why people don't trust "the science" any more but I could have just retweeted this for brevity. https://t.co/knQfg5TkS7
— Konstantin Kisin, Clownworld Skeptic (@KonstantinKisin) September 25, 2021
How you gonna play like you care that female bodies and female biology has been excluded from medicine and science WHEN YOU WONT NAME IT https://t.co/Aen07ASUNP
— Dr. Jessica Taylor (@DrJessTaylor) September 25, 2021
So, according to The Lancet, there are ‘men’ and then there are ‘bodies with vaginas’, but remember folks, no one is trying to eradicate the word ‘woman’. pic.twitter.com/DgdydwdUv5
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) September 25, 2021
The Lancet is shooting itself in the foot here by tweeting and writing about "bodies with vaginas." In all seriousness, the article posted to its website "Periods on display," by Sophia Davis, has some worthy tidbits as it references the plight of young women and girls in other nations who have to miss school because of their periods.
Davis does actually write about "women," including in the one paragraph where she does refer to women in such an unnecessary way:
Historically, the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been neglected—for example, the paucity in understanding of endometriosis and the way women's pain has been seen as more likely to have an emotional or psychological cause, a hangover from centuries of theorising about hysteria. This exhibition and the Vagina Museum as a whole aim to redress this lack of attention.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member