The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal, referred to women as “bodies with vaginas” on the cover of its latest edition, sparking outrage across the internet.
The Lancet posted a photo of the cover on Friday with an excerpt of an article titled "Periods on display" that read, “Historically, the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been neglected.”
The article, published on Sept. 1, covers the ways “silence, shame, and stigma surrounding menstruation are increasingly being challenged from various cultural domains.” It uses the term “bodies with vagina” in the place of the word “women” four times. The author, senior editor Sophia Davis, does occasionally use the term “women” as well as “people who menstruate.”
“By Friday evening, it had accumulated fewer than 300 likes and retweets combined – against the 4,600-plus replies and quote-tweets altogether, in a rather impressive ratio, which was also commented upon,” per RT.
Critics believe the move shows the publication’s dedication to politically correct terms rather than to accurate scientific inquiry. They also saw the terminology as dehumanizing.
Some have said the term is inclusive to people who identify as transgender.
News 18 wrote that “the problem with Lancet’s description of womxn is, even if they did try to be trans-inclusionary, they involuntarily cut off transpeople from the definition of womxn with their misguided use of the language. Anyone with or without a vagina or identifying genitals assigned to the female sex, can identify as female, irrespective of their genitals.”
“There have been increasing attacks on language surrounding women in Britain from the medical establishment recently,” reports Breitbart. “In February, for example, the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSHU) of the National Health Service (NHS) announced that midwives should use language such as ‘pregnant women and people,’ ‘breastfeeding and chestfeeding,’ ‘mothers and birthing parents’ in order to be more inclusive.”
Women Make Glasgow, a feminist group, wrote, “When women get outraged by being reduced to a vagina, you shrug your shoulders, mutter ‘inclusion’ as you alienate, and do exactly what your weird little quote alluded to, you NEGLECT our criticism and ignore our anger.”
The Lancet was established in 1823, making it one of the world’s oldest medical journals.
