CNN referred to “individuals with a cervix” in a tweet about new guidelines for cervical cancer screenings, and nowhere in the CNN article linked to by the tweet does the author even once refer to women. CNN completely erases women from an article about women’s health.
ICYMI: Dem State Party Chair Says These Republican Women are not Smart Enough to be State Reps
The tweet has been retweeted several thousands of times, with thousands of people adding a critical comment or mocking CNN’s obtuseness. The replies are overwhelmingly critical as well.
CNN is following the lead of the American Cancer Society, which released the cervical cancer screening guidelines. In the first sentence, the guidelines refer to “individuals with a cervix”. After that, they mix “those” with “people” and “women” throughout the rest of the guidelines. So, they only partially erase women.
Other news outlets correctly use the term “women” in their coverage. ABC News even bravely put the word “women” in their headline. NBC News didn’t refer to “women” until the third paragraph, but did use it consistently throughout the rest of their article.
Reading these other news articles, it is hard to believe that CNN even managed it, but they take a prize for Orwellian doublespeak when leaving out any reference to women when speaking about women’s health and anatomy. Can they keep it going in future coverage?
