There are an awful lot of misconceptions about how women’s bodies work.
Whether it’s malevolent ignorance or a lack of education, men seem to have a lot of incorrect ideas about anatomy, menstruation, childbirth, and even the nature of sexual assault.
Even worse, our legislators are predominantly male and are often responsible to making or voting on legislation about women’s bodies, despite their lack of knowledge.
Below you’ll find 30 Tweets that show just how little some men know about women’s bodies. And since we clearly have to debunk some ridiculous ideas, we’ll even take the time to explain why they’re wrong.
1. Biblical biology
And the best part of this is that it’s a complete misinterpretation of the Bible anyway, which says that a rib was taken from Adam to create Eve. So, if anything, the assumption should be that men have fewer ribs (which, of course, they don’t).
Stick to real human anatomy – we have skeletons and X-rays and everything now – if you’re going to tell a woman what her body’s made of.
2. Hole in one
In fact, there are two openings, one leading to the vagina and the other to the urethra.
And yes, they do two different things and serve different purposes.
3. Sanitary luxury
First of all, sanitary products for women are just as necessary as something like toilet paper ,and women suffer without access to them.
And can we just establish right now that women don’t control the way they bleed during their periods? We’re not sure how people came up with this idea, but let’s put it to bed now.
Every period is different and none of them can be “held in.”
4. Father knows worst
By this logic, if a hymen is still intact, no blood would come out – and we know that’s not true (well, most of us do).
Tampons have nothing to do with virginity.
5. Pre-med doesn’t mean you know anything about medicine yet
Vaginismus causes muscle spasms in the pelvic floor and can make sex painful for women. But that has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the vagina can be penetrated.
This one is really harmful because it also assumes women can somehow fend off a sexual assault with their vaginas. That’s the height of ignorance and puts the blame on a woman being assaulted.
6. Two things that do not go together
If a woman has been raped, there was absolutely no consent of any kind.
How horrifying that a police office – who has pledged to protect the men and women in their district – could misunderstand the law so thoroughly.
7. Teach your children well
Menstruation is a fact of life and while men might not want to know all the details, if they intend to ever be with a woman, they should get their facts straight as soon as possible.
We’re not sure how old the “boy” referred to in this Tweet was, but he’s clearly got some education ahead of him if he thinks periods can be planned so neatly.
8. Men don’t get menopause
Needless to say, a woman’s uterus stays right where it is and any ideas to the contrary are straight out of medical texts from 2000 years ago when the Greeks thought the uterus could move around the body.
Menopause causes periods to stop and ovaries to lose their reproductive function, but a woman will still, in fact, have a uterus.
9. Daddy dumbest
Well imagine how his poor daughter felt when he accused her of having sex at age 13 just because she was going through puberty.
Girls can’t do anything to control when or how they mature, so dads are just going to have to get used to the idea that their daughters will have breasts.
It’s a fact of life and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.
10. A recipe for disaster
We get that men are squeamish about menstruation, but it really only takes 5 minutes to do some research and figure out what’s going on.
Maybe then they wouldn’t be someone’s “ex.”
11. Choose your own adventure
The thing is, you can technically try to schedule your period by taking birth control pills strategically, but even that doesn’t work all the time.
But at the end of the day, men need to stop assuming that women have control over their biological processes.
12. At least they were getting educated
But students would do well to remember that they’re there to receive information they don’t have, so maybe they should do more listening.
In any case, it doesn’t get drafty down there during ovulation.
Now you know.
13. Wake up call
But it’s safe to say this young man’s education and family failed him when it came to understanding female anatomy.
14. Umbilical cords: not reusable
That’s pretty disappointing.
If he had, he’d know that umbilical cords are a one-time use thing.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t wing it in the same way when it comes to parenting.
15. College confusion
Not only is this a failture to understand conception but simply gravity as well.
Oh, and women have no reason to lie about the pain of childbirth. That should go without saying.
If you can’t handle how badass a mother is for giving birth, then don’t father any children.
16. Sad sack
Let’s just clear this up: if a woman ovulates and there is no sperm to meet with the egg she produces, then her uterus sheds its lining in order to prepare for the next round of ovulation.
No babies are involved in menstruation. A baby (or, more accurately, a zygote or embryo) only forms after an egg has been fertilized with sperm.
Women don’t lose a baby when they menstruate. Not even close.
17. What are we, cows?!
Donated breast milk might also be pasturized for safety reasons, but if you’re breastfeeding your own child, milk from the breast is just fine.
We think “older male relative” has spent more time on the farm than he has with women.
18. Do you even lift?
None of these things can be made bigger with exercise. Otherwise, there would be a lot of busty and fit women out there.
19. Med school fail
It’s true that if you skip the placebos in a packet of birth control pills you may be able to skip your period.
Since birth control keeps women from ovulating anyway, there’s no reason to shed the lining of the uterus with menstruation, so it’s safe and we promise there’s no mysterious blood backup as a result.
20. Just no
Do men get turned on when they’re asked to turn and cough?
End of story.
21. Newsflash: Women aren’t werewolves
And in case you didn’t know, menstruation has nothing to do with the moon.
The misconception may come from the fact that the average menstrual cycle lasts 29 days and the lunar cycle is 29.5 days. But if you think about it, you’re bound to get off the lunar cycle eventually because of the tiniest difference in length between the two.
Woman don’t know presicesly which days of the month they’ll have their periods, although they can usually make a good guess based on their history.
22. Birth control bozo
Have you noticed that a lot of these Tweets are about someone’s ex? Maybe it’s because women don’t want to be with men who are so delightfully ignorant about their bodies.
The guy in this Tweet seemed to think that women only take birth control pills when they’re planning to have sex.
In fact, you must take them continuously (with a week of placebos, if you choose) in order for them to be effective.
23. Commercial failure
If you leave it up to the rest of the world to teach your kids, they might end up believing that menstrual blood is blue just because of a silly commercial.
24. Loose women
Vaginal muscles can weaken during childbirth and aging, but you can not judge a woman’s sex history by the tightness of her vagina.
25. Feminine hygiene products aren’t diapers
Again, the vagina and urethra are two different openings and tampons have no effect on urination.
Even maxi pads aren’t eqipped to absorb urine.
26. Nursing nag
But, alas, those people are everywhere, and this guy thinks it’s a mother’s job to make eye contact every second she breastfeeds.
He sounds like a real charmer.
27. We hope his kid didn’t inherit his personality
Anyone who thinks one gender is solely responsible for a child’s personality doesn’t have the kind of personality we’d like to see more of.
Some people need an education in conception, development, AND genetics.
28. That’a a hell of a miracle
Since the uterus holds the fetus during pregnancy, there’s literally no chance of bearing a child without one.
29. Abortion distortion
Birth control pills prevent the act of conception – that is, they either keep a woman from ovulating or prevent the implantation of a sperm into an egg. Conception – even the most restrictive definition of it – requires a sperm to penetrate an egg, causing cell division.
Make sure you get your biology without a side of politics on this one if you want to make an informed choice.
30. We could go on…
But many men who read the various Twitter threads that these snippets came from were good sports about getting informed or working harder to correct other people’s ignorance instead of just laughing it off.
And some even apologized for the amount of ignorance out there.
Just because we can find so many examples of ignorance doesn’t mean all men have knowledge gaps.
They key is knowing when you’re uninformed – and not making or supporting legislation until you fix it.
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