The Words We Use Are Another Form of Violence Against Female Bodies
Words Matter and Shape Our Realities — Are You Ready to Care?
Like two faces of the same coin, words have the power to make you plunge into either one reality or the other. That’s what Ilia, a creator who inspires me a lot on social media, experienced one day at the fertility clinic. As soon as Ilia entered the room, the sonographer checked again: they were both there to execute an “infertility assessment”, is that correct, ma’am? Those words together did nothing else but add vulnerability and negativity to the moment. Ilia grounded herself and calmly made her case. She asked the sonographer to erase the prefix “ in’’. So, no, we are here to make a fertility assessment. She made the appointment in search of hope, as for the past few years, she’d been trying to have a child together with her partner.
Fertility is a concept I have a hard time translating in Soninké, my mother tongue. I do not know how to say “vulva”, “genitalia”, or “low sex drive” either. For anything related to reproductive health, I naturally turn to French or English. Those two languages provide me with more vocabulary; however, they’re riddled with misconceptions, undermining statements, sexist judgments and overall violent terms.
