When Did ‘Woman’ Become a Dirty Word?

The movement to ‘degender’ medicine amounts to erasure of the female sex (A reprint)

One year ago today, Patricia Posner, my wife and partner in journalism, wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal titled “What Did ‘Woman’ Become a Dirty Word?” It kicked off a firestorm of online discussion and commentary. In response to a lot of people who were blocked from reading it in full because of the WSJ’s paywall, I am using its anniversary to reprint it in full for the first time.

Meanwhile, although I might be slower than usual in posting a new story on Substack, it is because I am in deep research on several complicated topics. Watch this space for developments. And in the meantime, enjoy Trisha’s opinion piece.

During my recent treatment for breast cancer, a nurse assured me that my “chest cancer” prognosis was promising.

“Chest cancer?”

“We try not to make anyone feel uncomfortable,” she said. “Everyone has a chest.”

“Well, it makes me—as a woman—feel uncomfortable. I have breast cancer.”

It was the first time I had personally encountered the effort to “degender” …