Let’s Talk Women’s Health & Social Media.
Did you know that women's health content is heavily censored? Causing femtech brands to lose large amounts of their funding.
When I attended Decoding the Future of Women last month Valentina Milanova 🇺🇦 founder of Daye highlighted the pain points of getting the message of women's health out there on social media.
It got me thinking and researching. In that research, I found out that ‘Nine out of 10 accounts which shared women’s health content said they experienced some form of censorship in the last 12 months’ according to Femtech World UK. Some just for using the correct anatomical terms for a woman's body including breast and vagina which had seen content labelled as pornographic and taken down.
The same article by the Femtech World UK quoted Clio Wood, co-founder of CensHERship and founder of &Breathe stating that:
“Creators, charities, medical practitioners and brands are being censored constantly through algorithms picking up words like sex, vagina, vulva or period. But you can’t be a period care brand without talking about periods,”
Then I found out from a study by Body Form that there are 40 words you can’t say on social media. So they have gone and done a campaign to get those words uncensored. Simply using the term undies, period or on a more serious note colposcopy could land your account in hot water.
Let’s dive deeper into the problem
Censorship on Social Media: Content related to women's health, such as images of the body for educational and awareness purposes, often faces censorship on social media platforms.
This censorship includes the removal of posts, blocking of accounts, and reducing visibility, which hinders the circulation of crucial and life-saving health information and education as well as large amounts of investment down the drain!
I mean it is already hard enough for these brands to get this funding and then social media has to make twice as hard to get the word out there.
Talk about two steps forward and one step back!
The fact that social media has provided a space to de-stigmatize women's health topics and perpetuate the idea that female anatomy is shameful gives a very strong feminine argument for finding a solution to this problem.
So I thought about this and the work I do in building communities. What can I do to help find a solution that isn’t aggressive or controlled by the patriarchy?
The Solution
Building a Community: Creating dedicated, branded online communities allows femtech brands to share uncensored educational content, ensuring that members have access to vital health information. This approach enables direct communication, fosters engagement, and builds a supportive environment where women's health topics can be discussed openly without the risk of censorship.
Which is exactly what Frida has been up to with Frida Uncensored. Get all the information you need in one central location without having to fight censorship and the algorithm.
Cue the village we have all been waiting for.
Building communities will empower women with knowledge of THEIR OWN BODY! When women feel empowered they can continue to spread the word with the resources they are given to their village, communities, friends and family.
Now how do we tackle the problem within the problem - being accessible, diverse and inclusive?
This raised the question of diversity and inclusion which Lina Chan, Director of Women Health at Holland & Barrett and founder of Parla addressed. How do we reach minority groups and make content sharable and accessible?
We reach them by translating the content into different languages, putting the content into simple terms (no jargon and doctors talk), and then there is the work of going into these communities, showing up and inviting them to be a part of the journey. A great example of this is H&B have invested in providing over 600 Women’s Health Coaches in stores across the UK. Now that is game-changing.
There is so much benefit to creating a community where you and the community are in control, you don't have to fight the algorithm or censorship and women don't need to face any more unnecessary pain.
Want to learn more about how to beat the algorithm and build a caring community? Let’s Chat.