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"It is a happy talent to know how to play."

Saying "People With a Cervix" Literally Kills Women (Especially Low-Income, English Learning, and Less Educated Women)

3/18/2022

17 Comments

 
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I received a highly offensive reminder from Kaiser Permanente recently: "People with a cervix should receive a screening for cervical cancer every three years."

Setting aside the fact that I am not comfortable receiving care from a medical team that thinks "woman" is a dirty word and would prefer to refer to me as body parts and vaginal discharges, this reminder made me angry because exclusive, woman-erasing language like this literally kills women, harming the most marginalized women the most. 

Here's the thing about female anatomy: it's complicated, and largely internal. Last summer, I read​ The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina: Separating the Myth from the Medicine, by Jen Gunter, whom I've long admired for her scientific- and evidene-based debunking of ridiculous health psuedoscience.
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What surprised me most about this book wasn't any particular fact I learned -- it was how much seemingly-basic information Dr. Gunter needed to cover before she could even begin talking about medicine. She explained that most women know very little about vaginas -- many don't realize they pee and menstruate out of different holes, or that there's no connection between the rectum and the vagina. Many don't understand basic facts about menstruation, pregnancy, or contraception.

Many don't even know what a cervix is. 

Some women will go in for a pap smear even when they no longer have a cervix.

Point is, many women have a very limited understanding of their anatomy. 

They know that they are women, and therefore have female anatomy. The rest, they leave up to the doctors. 

So then the doctors send out a reminder saying, "People with a cervix should receive cervical cancer screenings."

If I don't know what a cervix is, how would I know whether I am a person with a cervix?

This woman-erasing language is meant to be "inclusive," because a tiny percentage of males identify as women, but obviously since they're male, they don't need female health screenings, and some females identify as men, but they are female and therefore do need female health screenings. 

But in the course of "including" that tiny minority of people, Kaiser has excluded women.

In particular, women who are less educated, who did not receive proper sex education, or who are learning English. These women will disproportionately be excluded by woman-erasing language, and many will literally die of a preventable cancer as a result.

If the goal is to be inclusive, then why erase women? That isn't inclusive at all. If you want to be inclusive, shouldn't you say, "Women and people with a cervix," which would include transmen and women?

Especially considering that, objectively, it is better to risk possibly maybe potentially offending a transman than it is to risk killing women? (Though, honestly, I see no reason why a transman should be offended by the phrase, "Women and people with a cervix." How is this not inclusive?)

Or is the problem not about females at all? Is the problem about males?

Do males object to medical literature about female health care that calls women women?

Do males think they get to control the language women use to talk about their bodies, themselves, and their relationships? 

I like to give people the benefit of a doubt, so I'm going to go with no. That would reek of male entitlement at a scale I cannot imagine. 

This is obviously a silly, accidental oversight on the part of Kaiser. They were trying to do a nice thing, but they made a mistake, and I'm sure they're going to correct it. 

Either that, or they're going to have literal blood on their hands (if they don't already). Hopefully women's health and lives and safety matter at least​ as much to Kaiser as male feelings.
17 Comments
Liz
3/18/2022 04:10:30 pm

I couldn’t agree more. Not only is the language elitist and exclusionary to anyone who has trouble understanding the new jargon of the day, it seeks to divide women and prevent them from recognizing their rights as a class. Who’s to know that the people with the cervixes are the people who get pregnant, are the people who get raped, are the people who are paid less? A word exists for these people - it’s women. You should complain to Kaiser if you haven’t already.

Reply
Mike link
3/20/2022 04:08:07 pm

Good points, Eva (predictably). However, I wouldn't hold your breath for that correction.

Reply
Kat
4/8/2022 05:35:32 am

Maybe try being a little less haughty and patronising -and listening to the other side -and you might last longer on Quora.

Reply
Eva Glasrud link
4/12/2022 02:20:08 pm

Bro, I'm not haughty and patronizing. I'm just right.

Enjoy your indoctrination. :)

Reply
Kat
4/14/2022 12:31:27 am

Lol, being right (even if you were) wouldn't stop you being haughty and patronising! They're not mutually exclusive!

Enjoy the rest of your edit-block -and your next 2 minute stint
on Quora. :)

notimportant
4/25/2022 06:56:50 am

Lol I got banned from Quora for not using my name. Even after I changed my profile to include it, they still didn't let me answer any questions.

Most of the answers I've seen on that site for questions that aren't academic navel-gazing are just hilariously inaccurate and pretentious. It's a complete joke.

Eva Glasrud link
4/29/2022 11:29:33 am

NotImportant,

The reason this pathetic little troll constantly hate reads my blog (other than having nothing going for it in life, and living its entire, hateful life online) is because it's part of an organized hate group whose goal is to silence women who talk about their sex-based rights. Every time I write anything on Quora, they organize to try to get me banned, because they are a misogynistic cult that wants to erase women.

Quora allows it, because male feelings matter to them more than women's sex-based rights.

changingthenarrative
4/25/2022 07:10:12 am

I'm glad to see you haven't become part of the Borg like so many on the left leaning side have these days, Eva. This is all just narcissism and crybully behavior, plain and simple.

It started with radical feminists and their hating men and being especially hostile towards straight white males while playing the perpetual victim. It's only natural that some other group would do it to radfems in response and eventually to women in general.

Don't let them corrupt you out of thinking for yourself. We went through the same indoctrination and pressure to conform from Republicans in the Bush era, and don't you ever forget it. Many called me too far left then. They try to make me out to be far right now, and I haven't changed my views one bit in that entire time. This is all entirely to divide us as much as possible so the actual rich elites can erode even more of our independence.

Kat, I find it hilarious you're calling Eva haughty. I'm from a low-income community and don't find her haughty at all. She's just intelligent enough to know this is nonsense that comes from the entitled mindset of the worst of the trans community. I've never in my life had a problem with transgender people and accept everybody for who they are. I do however have a problem with people being crybullies and indoctrinating children for example entirely so they can have more members for their "transgender rights" army of bullies. I especially have a problem with the erasure of women and waging war against women.

Reply
Eva Glasrud link
4/29/2022 11:37:33 am

The anti-woman trans movement is the greatest example in my lifetime (and, really, that I can even think of) of mass brainwashing. It is truly amazing to see how many people are willing to deny what is plainly true and obvious and right in front of their eyes. I think a lot of the "support"/compliance they get is not from people who believe their obvious nonsense, but from spineless cowards who are afraid of getting canceled for saying biology is real.

Kat calls me names because it can't use science or logic to argue with anything I said. Science and logic are not on Kat's side.

It's always good to hear from an independent thinker -- someone who's capable of criticizing both sides, not just the opposing one.

Reply
changingthenarrative
4/29/2022 10:14:25 pm

It's a multi-pronged indoctrination that includes not just radical trans ideology but also things like DEI and CRT. I'm glad I grew up being taught the importance of critical thinking to the point where I can see through this fake science and fake history. The whole point is not just to divide but for those pushing it to take advantage of that division to grab power. The thing that made it clear to me that DEI is a scam is the fact that the most important thing about DEI is always that you need to keep paying these "experts" not just to consult but then to implement their proposed "solutions". It's a never-ending hustle with no accountability whatsoever. Don't even get me started on frauds like Robin DiAngelo, for example. The woman projected her own ignorance and racial bias onto all white people and continues to make millions acting like a white savior while deliberately pushing divisive rhetoric that is completely anti finding a solution because a solution means she's no longer needed.

All of the attempts at justification are classic white knighting, whether it's regarding LGBT or race/ethnicity or (especially insufferable) increasingly class. It's textbook narcissistic behavior.

It doesn't help that the most influential professions are becoming more and more exclusively populated by people from comfortable backgrounds who clearly were sheltered from consequences their entire lives at the same time that this most entitled group of people in this country's history is taking over the communities of the only group of people unsheltered enough to give them a reality check and challenge them. My personal favorite thing about these type of people is they always mention living on stolen land yet never once offer to give their property to any of the official tribes in the US. You'd think people who shout things like "Land back!" would be thrilled at the opportunity to make that happen. Guess not.

A person like Kat is what occurs when a person is sheltered from consequences and enabled their entire lives and never challenged. I'm sure Kat and her group have even threatened violence against others yet would be the first to cry victim if their targets returned the favor even by simply confronting them one on one in person. I've dealt with these types for many years, both online and in person thanks to growing up in a socioeconomically mixed area. Most of these people aren't even intentionally pushing an agenda. They're just entitled useful idiots with no self-awareness or control of their emotions or behavior.

This all started a long time ago. I remember the way the media that still existed in its pre-Recession form completely lied for and refused to cover Occupy in an honest way because the occupiers largely came from money. And the enabling celebs looking to tap into that market. From Occupy, these "rebels" without a cause (more like without a clue) moved on to their own personal largely narcissistic causes until the "activist" infrastructure was in place at all levels to form Antifa cells around the country to fight the idea of a Trump presidency when he had simply announced his intention to run. And just like with Occupy, the media refused to cover them honestly and call out their entitled and criminal behavior. 2016 was another one, where catering to their entitlement (the same thing that turned many working class people against Obama and the Democrats after 2012) was the reason Hilary lost yet lie after lie about the Russians hacking the election and Putin this and Putin that and demonizing working class people while the same entitled progressives whose not voting cost her the election made excuse after excuse for not voting and blamed the Electoral College. Then rioted in the streets because Trump won and even attacked his inauguration with zero prison sentences resulting from it. Then kept rioting for a decade, which really never actually stopped after Occupy. They hijacked Trayvon Martin protests, for one. And every other cause or protest over the next decade. This whole "women's spaces are transphobic!" is a part of that same entitlement that doesn't allow them to accept that anything anywhere dares to not include them. It doesn't matter what kind of space it is or who for. It has to involve the kidults or they throw a hissy fit and whine about how unfair life is. That's why they even co-opted the movements to establish spaces for people of color or whoever else, so nobody would dare exclude them. It's also exactly why they appropriated class struggle. They attack people like you who fight for sex based rights because you remind them without even trying to of the fact that they aren't actually part of it and don't beli

changingthenarrative
4/29/2022 10:20:22 pm

*belong in those female spaces.

The only antidote to this societal disease we're living through is to tell the truth and be objective about every topic, even ones that make us uncomfortable.

TL;DR version: Society has basically become like middle school because there's no actual adults or people willing to hold others accountable.

And yeah, that's the beauty of never actually picking a side. Unfortunately, it doesn't win you many friends.

Elliotte
7/31/2022 02:12:41 am

What about those of us born with both parts? I mean, cervical cancer still affects us lol.

Eva Glasrud link
7/31/2022 10:41:39 am

It is not the shocker you think it is that some people have DSDs. That doesn't mean women need to be dehumanized and literally killed by their care teams.

Mario Rodgers
5/2/2022 06:37:17 pm

Smells like transphobes in here.

Reply
Eva Glasrud link
5/2/2022 07:38:01 pm

Awww! You poor, confused little sweetie! Who brainwashed you into thinking "biology is real" is transphobic?

TOO funny!

Reply
Mario Rodgers
5/2/2022 08:17:49 pm

Who brainwashed you into thinking equality was a zero sum game?
Or that "The transgenders are coming! Run! Hide! Lock your doors!" for that matter?
Or that biology has nothing to do with why trans people gotta trans?
Whatever even happened to "gender is a social construct" anyway?
Asking as a guy with a transgender in the family who doesn't look like the predatorial image you terfs are describing.

Eva Glasrud link
5/9/2022 07:34:20 am

It's cool that you know fancy big boy words like "zero sum game," but it would be even cooler if you used the correctly instead of in a way that proves you don't actually understand what they mean.

Good for you for trying!

Males do not belong in women's bathrooms, because they are not women. 99+% of violence and sexual violence against women is carried about by males, because males are bigger, stronger, and more aggressive than women. It doesn't matter how they "identify." Women have a right to female-only spaces. That is how we ensure equality for them.

Silly little boy, this does not mean that "all transwomen are predators." It means that almost all predators are male, and transwomen are male, and women are vulnerable to male violence due to their biology. It's pretty simple.




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    Eva is a content specialist with a passion for play, travel... and a little bit of girl power.  Read more >


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