Gregory's ServerWe're seeing more and more accounts on other social media platforms censoring normal anatomical words as if they're dirty - using nonsense terms like "v&g1n@". You'll never catch us doing that. Here's why...
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85 comments
We're aware that this practice of self-censorship is rooted in concerns about posts getting deboosted or outright banned. This is definitely a real problem with automated processes on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. We ourselves stopped using TikTok entirely because it was unusable for a Vagina Museum. Someone designed the automated processes and algorithms. They didn't just magically happen. A decision has been made by some social media platforms to treat anatomical language as if it's something that must be hidden away. These decisions are dangerous. According to research by the Eve Appeal, 65% of women aged 16-25 have a problem with the word "vagina". A third of this age group would avoid going to the doctors with a gynaecological health issue due to embarrassment. Just last week, the Eve Appeal flagged that Instagram was censoring the hashtag #VaginalCancer, a tag containing vital health information. To avoid using the word "vagina" is to reinforce the decisions that have been made by social media platforms. To censor it as though it's a dirty word that you shouldn't be saying is to reinforce this taboo. We should be challenging the algorithms, not going with the flow. @Mary625 @vagina_museum on TikTok apparently. And on YouTube you can’t get payed for your video if you do say these forbidden words @vagina_museum @Mary625 you’re welcome. @kite @Mary625 @vagina_museum Maude Lebowski said it best: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xs3OWJ53rHE&feature=sharea  After challenging Instagram's decision, the #VaginalCancer hashtag was successfully uncensored. And isn't the fight for information, knowledge, and normalisation a fight worth taking up, even if it's at the expense of a few likes?   My mother would be protesting not using the correct language for parts of the human body. An English professor. Nope. She would have none of that! What an idiotic thing to censor @vagina_museum It's always amazed me, the extent that these algorithms will go to in order to promote what amounts to blunt sexism and objectification. This was never about morality. I mean there's a pad commercial I see all the time that says "scents are for candles, not vaginas". Are we really at the point where the internet itself is becoming more censored than FCC guidelines for television? Shit. @vagina_museum ahhh and the last three GYN I visited were- actively horrible- made weird comments etc - so maybe it’s not embarrassment? Maybe it’s because even with female MD’s we’ve enough past experiences to… fill a book or two. @vagina_museum I remember this feeling as a teenager trying to buy underwear in a shop. I would cringe at the checkout and feel so awkward. Until my mum asked me if I would feel as embarrassed buying socks - it’s essential clothing. Of course, the answer was no. Same goes for the correct names for body parts. If we have no issue saying the word elbow or forehead, we shouldn’t have an issue using the word vagina or vulva. They’re just body parts (and ones ~50% of the population have)  @charllthomas @vagina_museum If you want to see words for body parts a lot, study Scottish place names, for example this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Point - compare the English to the Gaelic 😉  @vagina_museum I remember a glorious rant by Germaine Greer on a BBC4 program about the origins of words. She asserted that "vagina" wasn't a good word as it comes from the Latin for "sword sheath", and it would be far far better if people just used "cunt" instead. Somehow, I doubt that the 16-25 year olds in that survey had quite the same problem with the word as Germaine.  @NaturaArtisMagistra @vagina_museum @IveyJanette @StillIRise1963 @mcnado Yikes. (Thanks for the tag!) @VirginiaMurr @vagina_museum @IveyJanette @StillIRise1963 @mcnado I actually had women get angry at me on bird for using that word. That's how brain-washed media has made some of them. @NaturaArtisMagistra @vagina_museum @IveyJanette @StillIRise1963 @mcnado That is absolutely bonkers, Puritanical nonsense. Should we be equally horrified by tibia and fibula? Or maybe phalanges. Along with vagina and penis and breast and toes, these are all parts of the human body. FFS. Humanity is the walking, talking symbol of a facepalm (face and palm, also parts of the body! ha!). @VirginiaMurr @vagina_museum @IveyJanette @StillIRise1963 @mcnado I lie not, Ma'am. Yes it's bonkers 💯 @NaturaArtisMagistra @vagina_museum @IveyJanette @StillIRise1963 @mcnado Hahahaha ... excellent point! Hell, can they even go to art museums? 😬  @vagina_museum I feel it's kind of instructive if you look at how anatomical words like that can be banned by corporate social media but inciting hatred against or even directly abusing minoritised people will return a ‘nothing wrong with this’ if it's reported. @vagina_museum “Freedom of speech” they cry. But you can’t say vagina. @Kirsty @vagina_museum  @vagina_museum this ^ even if it's a blooming "ai" that does the filtering a human somewhere approved it. Someone looked at what it's doing and said "yep that looks good ship it" someone somewhere is responsible for that filter existing. The higher up the org chart you go the more responsibility there is for that thing existing. If Zuckerberg said "don't do that" it wouldn't do that by the time he went home for dinner. @hypnobeard @vagina_museum that's because its normal to say vagina and Peenis. It's what we have as people. Call it whatever you want, pussy, kitty, beaver, fuck stick, dick, shlong. All words are valid. @gocu54 @vagina_museum @hypnobeard it’s kinda funny to call it Peenis with two e as to remind you it’s that thing you pee with. @vagina_museum They've also been censoring words like "war", "kill", etc. in a movie transcript, making it harder to find passages within said transcript. The end result is that people will use "dead" in place of everything, then censor that.  @vagina_museum I've also observed the whole shame around the lady bits has caused severe lack of knowledge of how their body works for a lot of women. this includes calling the vulva for vagina. @vagina_museum One reason that I avoid the grawlix is that if someone has decided that they are too delicate ever to read the word "vagina", and has set up their own filters to hide or collapse posts containing that word, I should respect that. Writing "vag1na" instead, in a way that is intended to circumvent their setup, seems rude. @vagina_museum If someone really wants to censor their feed the best way to facilitate that is probably the correctly spelled dictionary word, since then it can be done automatically at their end. Crucially that respects freedom and choice unlike source censorshp.
 @vagina_museum another feature of the general #enshittification of the internet and basically all the rest of end stage capitalism. @vagina_museum When I was a biology teacher I experienced that youngsters of 13-16 were really happy when they were taught right words for all parts of the sexual organs. Actually they only knew gutter expressions but knew that they are not right. @vagina_museum in addition to all the (excellent) points It just makes the world a better place.  @vagina_museum i really don't see the point especially as all of the social networks mentioned in the thread require the users to be at least 13 years old @natriumchloride @vagina_museum Social Media Networks do very little verification, if any, on their end to verify minor users’ ages.  @vagina_museum vagina? Righty’s love pushing death. Poisoning Earth is okay. Censore body names? Meow…  @vagina_museum  Good grie! What ridiculous and harmful trend. Thank you for this info. Vagina (Just feeling a little rebellious) |
First things first, if you use a screenreader, you'll have just heard your device attempt to pronounce something like "vand-g-won-at". That's not very clear, and furthermore, it's not accessible at all. That alone is a very good reason to reject this practice.