No Category for Women?

I have been sharing my articles on Vocal for several months now—pieces about the divine feminine, feminine rage, women’s health, cycles, and all the messy, miraculous, chaotic, powerful aspects of womanhood. I expected to select a category and keep writing. I didn’t expect to hit a wall: there is no category for women.

Yes. You read that right. Vocal has a category called Men, but not a single one for women. Nothing under “Females,” “Women,” “Feminine,” or “Girl Power.” Just a blank. You want to talk about periods, fertility, menopause, self-sovereignty, rage, spiritual awakening, or women’s health? Sorry. No place for you.

I stared at the dropdown like maybe I was missing something. Maybe I needed to squint. Maybe I was in some obscure setting, in some obscure corner of the website. Nope. Nothing. Just the Men category, with its wisdom, perspectives, health, fatherhood, brotherhood, and culture subtopics.

And then I found it: a topic called feminism. It's there—but it’s under the category Filthy. No joke. Feminine rage, cycles, sovereignty—everything relegated to a label that reads like an insult. The architecture is clear: women’s voices are still optional, secondary, or framed as “other.”

It’s both hilarious and enraging. Because there’s clearly a bias baked into the system, whether conscious or unconscious. Women’s voices, experiences, and wisdom are literally harder to post about because the site’s architecture doesn’t anticipate them. This is structural misogyny in its purest, algorithmic form.

But let’s get practical. Since there is no category for women, I did the only thing I could: I posted this article in the Men section. Under Wisdom. Under Inspiration. Under every single subtopic that could remotely fit. Because if men are reading, they need this information too and I'll assume many won’t find my work in the filthy feminist trash bin. Men need to see the truths we live, the realities we navigate, and maybe, just maybe, they learn something. They might even stop perpetuating some of the harm that makes women’s health, anger, and spiritual sovereignty invisible.

If I can plant a seed, even under the guise of a “Men” category, I will. And I did.

Think about that. There’s a system, a platform designed to amplify voices. And yet the platform literally forgets half the population. Half the perspective. Half the lived experience. Women are treated as optional, marginal, invisible unless reframed for male consumption.

It’s ironic, isn’t it? A site that markets itself as a space for voices and ideas has structurally erased the feminine in its category system. And maybe they think it’s harmless. Maybe they assume women will just “post anyway” or “choose a random category.” Or post in the feminism category under the filthy label. This isn’t harmless. It shapes perception. It signals that men’s perspectives are the default, the expected, the normal. Women’s voices? Optional, marginal, extra.

So here’s my statement, my protest, my workaround: I post in Men. I post in every subcategory I can find. I do it with humour, with sarcasm, with righteous frustration. I will not disappear. I will not wait for validation. And maybe one day Vocal will catch up—maybe one day there will be a real category for women, for feminine wisdom, for sacred rage, for women's health, for sovereign life.

Until then, I’ll be in the Men category. I’ll be there under Wisdom and Inspiration, planting seeds where they might grow. Because even miscategorized, my voice will be heard. Even in the wrong place, truth travels. Even when ignored, insight persists.

As Audre Lorde said, “I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.” And as Ursula K. Le Guin reminded us, “The creative adult is the child who survived.” Even in a system that erases us, we survive. We speak. We write. We heal. We plant. We persist.

And if anyone tells me my work “doesn’t fit,” I remind them: it fits exactly where it’s needed. Women’s voices always have, always will, and always must find a way into the conversation—even if the systems don’t want us to be seen. Even when hidden in a category called Filthy, we are visible. Even when silenced by architecture, we are heard.