We are the Femedic.
The Femedic exists to normalise taboos surrounding women’s health. By researching questions we know women are asking about their health and working with experts to provide in-depth answers, we aim to generate and elevate discussions about the wide range of factors that influence health, from social discrimination to mental wellbeing.
We do all this because being a woman is a key social determinant of experiencing health inequalities.1Too many women are made to feel like what they are experiencing isn’t real, that they should feel embarrassed for seeking help, or that they shouldn’t speak openly about their experiences.
Women are at the core of everything we do. And we’ll keep starting, and elevating these conversations until gender ceases to be a reason for someone to experience health inequalities.
The Femedic is not:
- Going to dismiss your questions or concerns through generic or condescending advice
- A place to make you feel guilty for not knowing enough, or not having enough time
- A ‘quick fix’ to broader or ongoing problems
- Provocative for shock value
- A substitute for medical advice from your doctor or another healthcare professional
- Here to prescribe you a ‘one size fits all’ solution: we know that everyone is different
The Femedic will:
- Report truthfully on existing problems
- Answer your questions in the depth and dignity deserved
- Fight for your right to make educated and informed decisions about your health
- Strive to tell a broad and diverse range of stories that reflect the truth of women’s experiences
- Address, discuss, and challenge social and political factors that impact women’s health outcomes
- Avoid and challenge stereotypes about modern female life, like ‘the woman who has it all’
In our images you won't see:
- Stereotypical, tired representations of womanhood
- Women posing unnaturally or being overly stylised in a way that enforces damaging beauty and body image standards — unless it is necessary to depict a particular aspect of culture or politics we’re discussing
- Images that promote one particular body type as ‘better’ than another
- Images of ‘perfection’
We will strive to represent:
- The diversity of women’s bodies
- The diversity of women’s experiences
- True images of women fully existing in the world, for themselves, not for others: eating, using sanitary items, feeling unwell, yawning
- The visual truth of women’s bodies, just as we report on the truth of their experiences
References
1. Vives-Cases, C., et al., Gender and health inequalities: intersections with other relevant axes of oppression, Global Health Action, vol 8, issue 1, 30 November 2015