40 Unbelievably Wrong Opinions About The Female Body That Were Shared Online (New Pics)

If you’re a straight woman, chances are the photos on this list will disappoint you but not surprise you. Unfortunately, many women have found themselves in relationships with men who couldn’t find a clitoris if their life depended on it. And while it does require being curious and caring enough to listen to women and learn about their anatomy to actually be able to label the female reproductive system, that’s certainly not rocket science. But if you ask any of the men featured in the Bad Women’s Anatomy subreddit, it might be even more challenging than rocket science…

This online group, which was created in 2014, has documented countless occurrences of men demonstrating just how little they know about the female body, but with great confidence. The group has amassed an impressive 566k members, and it showcases just how failed sex education is in many places (in schools and in homes). From judging women for having hair on their bodies to assuming you can tell who is a virgin based on how they feel, there seems to be no end to the amount of ignorant things men have said about women online. 

Now, I want to be clear that this group is not shaming men in general. There are plenty of men out there who have no problem doing research on their own and talking to their partners to understand the female body. But the guys who feel comfortable spewing ignorant, misogynistic and downright ridiculous claims online about women’s bodies deserve to be called out. According to one survey, 17% reported that they didn’t think gynecological health issues was anything they needed to know or worry about, and a quarter admitted that they weren’t comfortable discussing gynecological health with their partner.

This is unsettling considering that gynecological cancers, including those of the ovaries, uterus, cervix, vulva and vagina, are the fourth most common cancer among women in the UK, killing thousands of women annually. It’s important for women to feel comfortable discussing these issues and for them to feel safe bringing them up in front of their partners. Plus, when men view women’s reproductive health as shameful or taboo, they’re likely to pass those beliefs onto their children as well, furthering the stigma surrounding women’s bodies.  

Unfortunately, men aren’t the only ones who have trouble identifying parts of the female reproductive system. According to a 2020 poll, one in ten women were unable to correctly label a diagram of their own reproductive system. 57% even admitted that they didn’t have as much knowledge about their own bodies as they probably should. When asked whose fault it was for having such a poor understanding of the female body, over a third of the women blamed teachers, while 28% pointed the finger at their parents. A quarter also said the government’s education standards were lacking, and 24% said religious organizations were a factor.     

This lack of knowledge can have serious impacts on women’s health as well. 52% of those surveyed said they don’t feel like they can properly advocate for themselves in doctor’s offices. And the top issues women want more information about are what the different organs do, menopause and perimenopause, when a woman is most fertile, how the reproductive system works, the stages of pregnancy, menstruation and puberty. While it’s easy to laugh about the unfortunate state of education we receive on the human reproductive systems, it’s not so funny to know that this leads to women being diagnosed later than men on average for over 700 diseases.    

In the United States, in particular, part of the reason we understand so little about women’s bodies is because they weren’t required to be included in clinical research until 1993, when Congress finally passed the NIH Revitalization Act. And for some reason, decades later, the gender health gap persists, Priyanka Jain and Laine Bruzek write for Fortune. “To this day, we don’t truly know how women metabolize and react to many medicines, why some adverse reactions are more common in women, nor how women experience or manifest pain,” Jain and Bruzek note. “The efficacy, dosage, and side effects of many drugs were never tested on women.”

Clearly, as the photos on this list show, having a lack of understanding doesn’t stop many men from mansplaining away online about women’s bodies and health. But if you’re a man or a woman who’s actually interested in learning something about the female reproductive system you might not have known already, let’s start with discussing the menstrual cycle. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Menstruation refers to the periodic shedding of your uterine lining when pregnancy doesn’t occur that cycle.” Most menstrual cycles take about 28 days and include three phases: follicular (when the egg develops), ovulatory (the releasing of the egg), and luteal (when hormone levels decrease if the egg doesn’t implant).