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” …
