Meet the winner - Victoria Ford writes a blog about her social action journey
Victoria Ford is an MPhil student in Health, Medicine and Society at Robinson College, who recently won a Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award.
Medical Herstory: Rewriting the Narrative of Women’s Health
Young women are often told that publicly discussing their sex lives, bodies, and genitals is a sure-fire path towards receiving disrespect and derailing a career. However, what happens when you base your career on just that? My academic and activist work leans into the taboo, discomfort, and shame surrounding women’s bodies in order to challenge this outdated narrative. My social action journey explores the risk and reward that comes with being unapologetically outspoken, authentic, and resilient while helping others to do the same.
“‘Wear only white underwear’. This advice is suited for a Victorian etiquette manual, not a doctor’s office. Nonetheless, three physicians offered the same dismissive words over a year long search for relief. According to medical professionals, the root of my chronic pain was my underwear color choice. As my primary care doctor repeated: “some people get colds, some people get chronic yeast infections.”
These are my words. In 2018, my story appeared on the front page of McGill University’s student newspaper. I was completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies, while living with chronic yeast infections. Frustrated with dismissive advice and a lack of answers, I spoke out. I took a risk and wrote publicly about the messy, painful parts of myself as a call to action towards more compassionate and comprehensive healthcare. After sharing my own story, I quickly learned I was not alone, as others began sharing similar experiences. With my background in gender studies and sexual violence support, I knew firsthand the power of believing stories that had been repeatedly dismissed or overlooked. I realized that we needed a platform for these stories, so I created one.
Today, this story, along with many others, is published through my initiative: Medical Herstory. Medical Herstory is an inclusive online platform where women and individuals across the gender spectrum share first-person experiences on unmentionable topics in order to challenge larger gender expectations and healthcare inequities. These stories include navigating painful sex and birth control, having an abortion or miscarriage, and living with ovarian cancer or chronic illness.
Although my platform focuses on women’s lived experiences, these issues are tied to larger structures of sexism, racism, and ableism that implicate all of us. Despite popular belief, medicine is not untouched by gender expectations, stereotypes, and discrimination. Instead, medical encounters can magnify such structures onto individual bodies. By linking these issues to lived experiences my hope is that we can work to expand research, resources, and incite change inspired by vulnerability.
This year, when I enrolled at the University of Cambridge for an MPhil in Health, Medicine, and Society, I set a goal to normalize discussing our bodies. I joined ten initiatives across campus and in the Cambridge community dedicated to health and intersectional feminism, creating an alliance dedicated to gender health equity through Medical Herstory. Gaining leadership roles within organizations such as Cambridge Students for Global Health, and the Robinson College Feminist Society, I mobilized my privileged position at our elite University to create spaces for unconventional conversations. This included hosting pub quizzes, interdisciplinary panels, and casual conversations on sexual and reproductive health. Across Cambridge, I was met with open minds, a willingness to learn, and dedicated volunteers, solidifying that it is time to re-write the narrative.
Receiving a Vice Chancellor’s Social Impact Award for my work on women’s health and Medical Herstory demonstrates a move towards deconstructing the stigma around discussing sexual health. It shows that talking about our bodies, when they are messy, uncomfortable, or embarrassing can be not only acceptable, but exceptional.
