Read on Twitter
people really underestimate the importance of the word 'woman'! it is a term that is specific to female humans - if an article said 'females have higher cancer rates now' then that could be referring to any animal species. if we say 'women' we know it's human specific.
the same can be said for so many species! we have does (
a deer, a female deer), mares, hens, sows, jills, cows, lionesses, b^tches, ducks, vixens, dames, ewes, and even more!!
a deer, a female deer), mares, hens, sows, jills, cows, lionesses, b^tches, ducks, vixens, dames, ewes, and even more!!
so when we use the word 'women' - especially when referring to medical situations - it's important we remember that it does refer to sex. it is inclusive of all of us as the female sex and it humanises us. other language isnt accessible to uneducated/not-english speaking women.
it's so much easier to explain what a woman is to a non native speaker than complicated parts of her anatomy especially since it relies on using terms like 'menstruation' 'uterus' or 'cervix'. not all women even KNOW they have those things because our education system
doesnt properly focus on women/our health. trans men and afab nonbinary people KNOW their sex - they know they're females/women [as the dictionary defines it]. we shouldnt enforce the idea that the word 'woman' is reflective of gender identity - im a woman without a gender!
it's incredibly important to leave our language accessible (to non native/uneducated women), clear (referring to sex not the vague concept of gender) and concise. if we erase the word woman and its definition, we erase the word that humanises the female sex. we wont have one.
