Peanut has released a glossary of modernized terms as part of its Renaming Revolution to change the stigmatized discourse associated with fertility, pregnancy, and motherhood.
The glossary can be found on Peanut’s site and will be available as a reference for anyone to use when talking to women about their experiences, with the aim of creating a stigma-free future that empowers women.
Since announcing the Renaming Revolution in March, Peanut asked their community to share the outdated and hurtful terms that they have experienced first-hand to create a new glossary of updated terms.
The glossary was created with expert panelists including Amanda Montell, celebrated author and language scholar; Dr. Viviana Coles, Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Houston Relationship Therapy; Dr. Jessica Zucker, psychologist and author specializing in reproductive and maternal mental health; and Dr. Somi Javaid, OB/GYN doctor, surgeon, and Founder of HerMD.
It’s about time medical terms like ‘inhospitable womb’ and ‘geriatric mothers’ had an upgrade
Many of the phrases that surrounded my fertility and pregnancy sound more suited to a Victorian dictionary than to women in 2021
Georgina Fuller approves of Peanut s campaign
Credit: John Lawence
I remember glancing down at my midwife’s notes as I proudly cradled my newborn son and spotting a phrase I had never encountered before. I did a double take.
The reason for my emergency C-section, after an exhausting 47 hours of labour, was listed simply, devastatingly and accusingly as a “failure to progress”.
There was nothing about the fact he was a large baby in a back-to-back position, my wonky pelvis, the hours I had spent rolling around on a birthing ball or the fact that I had tried for two whole days to give birth “naturally”.
Peanut Releases Glossary of Modernized Terminology to Reform Harmful Vocabulary Around Fertility and Motherhood
The glossary, informed by leading industry experts, serves to replace outdated terms and equip people with new terminology that reflects the modern fertility, pregnancy and motherhood experiences Peanut, the first social network to connect women throughout all stages of motherhood, today released a glossary of modernized terms as part of its Renaming Revolution to change the stigmatized discourse associated with fertility, pregnancy, and motherhood. The glossary can be found on Peanut s site and will be available as a reference for anyone to use when talking to women about their experiences, with the aim of creating a stigma-free future that empowers women.
Languages reflect the societies that use them – and English is riddled with sexism Should dictionaries include sexist words and definitions? At university I had a lecturer of medieval language and literature who was so wonderfully idiosyncratic that you will no doubt suspect I have made him up. His name was Alaric. He recited
Beowulf from memory to silence the room and was known to remove his shoes before commencing a lecture. You can find a video of him rapping the opening lines of
Piers Plowman on YouTube. He once took our class to York for the Jorvik Viking Festival, and led us round the medieval parts of the city, explaining the origins of the street names. The innocuous Grape Lane was originally Grapcunt Lane – from the Old English “
As Gabrielle Korn addresses in her memoir, Everybody (Else) Is Perfect, much of so-called "women's media" is merely a cynical marketing strategy at the expense of a thoughtful discussion of cultural values.