When Did ‘Woman’ Become a Dirty Word?

“Well, it makes me – as a woman – feel uncomfortable. I have Breast cancer.”

This is the first time I have personally encountered an attempt at “transgender” medication. I think this awakening trend is limited to a small group of far-left politicians. Last year, Representative Cori Bush gave a speech on “those who are giving birth,” and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mentioned in an interview as “the body of a person who is menstruating.” “.

The encounter with that nurse caused me to dig a little deeper. I was startled to learn that the “transgender” movement had become mainstream. The Biden administration’s proposed budget calls mothers “midwives.” So does the National Institutes of Health. Harvard Medical School has been doing this since 2020, claiming that “not all people who give birth” are women. Some hospitals call breast milk “breast milk”.

In my home UK, a government-funded report recommended that the National Health Service use inclusive terms such as “breastfeeding” and “breastfeeding” ” and “first birth” or “lower birth” instead of “vaginal” birth. The report concludes that “non-ordinary” people may prefer to give birth in a private space in a hospital, so they do not “have to go to a women’s ward after giving birth”.

I understand that activists want “transparent” language to describe their bodies. But why force their preferred language on women? Why can’t we coexist?

The same politicians who use this dehumanizing jargon will acknowledge women when it is appropriate for them to do so. After last week’s leak of the draft Supreme Court decision being overturned Roe v. Wade, Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York tweeted: “I was there when we had to fight for Roe for the first time and will do anything and everything to protect women’s health and abortion rights. Last May, during a House Oversight Committee hearing on the “Black Maternal Health Crisis in America,” Ms. Maloney said that “health equity for those born black is achievable as long as we address racial disparities with the urgency, empathy and focus it requires. ”

Similarly, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill last year with language that repeatedly refers to “pregnant and postpartum people.” Last week he speak of the abortion debate: “If men can get pregnant, this isn’t even a conversation.”

There may not be a common experience for women, but there are certain physical and biological differences that only affect women. I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but men who don’t menstruate, give birth, go through menopause, or develop endometriosis, ovarian cancer, or cervical cancer. Men get breast cancer, but it’s extremely rare.

It seems to women like me that we are slowly being erased in a craze for political correctness to make sure no transgender person is offended. I respect the right to convert, but what about mine? Wouldn’t women feel disadvantaged if organizations relied solely on sexist language?

There is a death of common sense taking place in real time, and most women who stay silent for fear of being attacked are bigots. Many of my female friends and colleagues have told me privately that they want to speak up but are worried about the consequences of going public. Self-censorship is one of the reasons our language is changing to meet the needs of a tiny minority. Silence is understood as consent.

Just over 100 years ago, women fought for the right to vote. When I was a girl, my aunt Rose wowed me with stories of public suffrage protests – which Britain licensed in 1928. Rose was 16 years old and already took to the streets against the wishes of immigrant parents. “Some things are too important to sit back,” Rose instilled in me as a child. “We create our own future.”

It was the Orwellian that many of us today feel compelled to keep quiet about the female body, motherhood, and our health as women.

Posner, most recently, is the author of “The Pharmacist of Auschwitz: The Untold Story.”