Steminist blog

Those Who Resist

Shreyasi Mukerji

A friend had once recommended that I watch the British biographical drama called Joy, released in 2024 and directed by Ben Taylor. Having struggled with past infertility issues and undergoing IVF at the time, I was scared to watch something that would trigger me with unwarranted emotions. I had chosen a difficult path, despite the physical and emotional trauma it caused me, not only because I desperately wanted a specific life for myself, but also because I could, thanks to science.

The research on IVF did not emerge in a neutral scientific environment. Early researchers faced accusations of playing God, moral outrage, religious condemnation, ridicule from parts of the medical establishments, and claims that they were creating “unnatural life”. Yet they continued because they believed in the importance of representing women’s needs and giving women agency over their own bodies and make choices as they see fit.

This wasn’t just science; it was defiance. But scientific breakthroughs in women’s health have almost always been treated as moral transgressions first, and medical progress later. Even today, PCOS (now called PMOS) is poorly understood, endometriosis takes 7-10 years to diagnose, and women’s pain is still often treated as hysteria. Women are less likely to be given pain relief, more likely to be misdiagnosed in the event of a heart attack, and more likely to experience conditions like migraines, which are often under-recognized and undertreated. They are underrepresented in clinical trials, face significant financial barriers to accessing treatment, and receive minimal postpartum care. We are still treated using a system that wasn’t fully built around us.

Women’s suffering deserves real solutions, not dismissal. Much of what we take for granted today exist because of the progress created by those very movements that our predecessors were quick to question. Politicizing women’s bodies is dangerous, and common, and it allows society to disguise resistance to women’s progress as moral concern or debate.

After the birth of my baby, I actually watched the movie Joy, and it left me thinking about how fragile progress actually is. The things we now accept as normal were once fought for. They were argued against, slowed down, resisted. They only exist because some people refused to accept what was “normal”. The pattern hasn’t changed; it has just become easier to overlook. The only difference is that we have the benefit of hindsight. What we do with it is a choice.