i hate gendered language when it comes to bodies

[SillyMcGoof_]

hi! this is more going to be a rant/maybe vent because this topic just really frustrates me. (also i hope that this is the correct section to put this topic in)

i hate when people treat vulvas, pregnancy, periods, breasts, etc as only a women's thing, and generally just use gendered language for that stuff. i feel so alienated whenever i hear someone talk about anatomy that i have and slap the word woman on it.

its just so frustrating and makes it harder for me to reconnect with my body. it would be alot easier to do so if all language regarding bodies was gender neutral, but alas we live in a cisnormative society.

it honestly makes my blood boil whenever i hear people use terms such as “male” and “female” when it comes to anatomy, or language similar to that. this could very well be an overreaction on my part but its just so exhausting having people (most of the time unintentionally) invalidate my entire existence by using this language.

i am not a woman. i am not a female. i have a vulva, i have a uterus, i have breasts, but i am not a woman or a female. i want to look up stuff related to my anatomy without having words like “woman” shoved in my face all the time, because not all people who have “female anatomy” are women/female, and not all women/females have “female anatomy”, and vice versa

i know that alot of the people that do use this gendered language aren’t aware of the impact it can have, and if they’re genuinely just uneducated im not at all saying that they’re a bad person for using language like that as long as they’re willing to learn, its just really frustrating, disheartening, and alienating to hear it all the time, and it causes me alot of dysphoria, which sucks because i know that if all language regarding bodies wasn’t gendered, i probably wouldn’t experience this kind of dysphoria.

again, i definitely could just be dramatic, but yeah. sorry for the long rant, and feel free to delete this if its too much, and if im being at all disrespectful let me know. im just tired and angry when it comes to this stuff and felt like i should talk about it

[Heather]

Same! And this is certainly welcome here: we were one of the first sources of this kind of information to make it inclusive and to try and get others to do the same, so we certainly get it!

[SillyMcGoof_]

mhm. that’s honestly alot of what i love about this site! how inclusive it is and the lack of overly gendered language!