Quick! What do all of these female body parts have in common?
Fallopian Tubes, G-spots, Skene’s Glands, Bartholin’s Glands, Gartner’s Ducts, Graffian Follicles, Pouch of Douglas, Glands of Montgomery, and Hydati of Morgani?
If you said that most of them seemed mildly unappealing, you’d be partially right. But let’s be honest, what is rather astounding is that every single one of them is named after a man. So in essence, at least nine parts of the female body that reside in the pelvis (one of the most intimate areas on a woman’s body), are named by the men who identified them!
Along these lines, I’ve often been fascinated with the power of language to impact a person’s sense of self. For example, the following is an abbreviated list of medical terms that were and often still are routinely used to describe common female conditions and functions. Wouldn’t you think that someone would have developed more appropriate means of expressing these concepts by now?
Advanced geriatric status | Women over 35 |
Senile gravida | Pregnant woman 35 or older |
Elderly prima gravida | First-time pregnant woman 35 or older |
Senile vaginitis | Dry postmenopausal vagina |
Vaginal atrophy | Same as above |
Incompetent cervix | Cervix that tends to dilate prematurely during pregnancy |
Infantile or juvenile uterus | Small, completely functional uterus |
Inadequate pelvis | Pelvis considered too narrow to allow a vaginal birth |
Expected date of confinement (EDC) | The due date for childbirth |
Habitual aborter | A woman who tends to have recurring, spontaneous miscarriages |
Whats funny is that there is nothing funny about this at all. Thank you for an enlightening article! I’d love to work together to come up with terms that don’t insult women and perptuate ignorance and harm