Ouch! Launches GOOD WORDS: A Call to End Algorithmic Censorship of Women’s Health
Women’s health language is being erased online, forcing vital medical terms into secret codes just to be seen. New female-founded creative studio Ouch! exposes how this silent censorship is reshaping the way we think about our bodies, and why it’s time to take the words back.
In response to widespread suppression of women’s health vocabulary, health creative studio Ouch! launches the GOOD WORDS campaign: a striking series of posters highlighting how essential terms such as “vulva,” “uterus,” and “period” are censored by digital platforms, forcing women to navigate a growing “euphemism economy” of coded language just to find information online. The campaign calls out the culture of silence, inviting anyone to download free, high-impact prints for use in public spaces and digital sharing.
Recent research, including the June 2025 CensHERsip White Paper, documents that up to 95% of women’s health businesses in the UK say their educational content is routinely shadowbanned, hidden, or rejected by algorithms on social and advertising platforms. Key terms describing anatomy, menstrual health, menopause, and postpartum care are flagged as “adult content” or “unprofessional,” while equivalent male health language remains visible.
"There is something refreshing about a traditional print campaign as a call to arms against the online censorship of women's health. Using a range of visual icons, and with inspiration taken from the words themselves, we created this series to signal that all words associated to women's health are first and foremost good words” says Carrie Kenyon, founder of Ouch!
Taking a stand beyond the digital, the campaign’s print run acts as a symbol of leaving behind the very platforms perpetuating this censorship, reclaiming trusted physical spaces like GP offices, libraries, and community centres. Alongside print, the free digital versions encourage sharing and reconquering of digital spaces through community-driven efforts on social media.
Cultural intelligence and communications studio Casanegra decoded this creeping linguistic blackout, revealing how algorithmic content moderation distorts language and stifles vital health conversations. Their analysis reveals an euphemism economy flourishing across social platforms, where medically precise terms like vulva, uterus, and period mutate into code words or symbols to evade banishment: “down there”, “seggs” or “that time of the month”.
Highlighting this invisible censorship is Ouch!’s way of sparking urgent conversation and inspiring change.
ABOUT OUCH!
Ouch! is a female-founded creative studio specializing in storytelling across the full customer journey in the health industry. More than a production house but less than a traditional agency, Ouch! partners with brands on strategy, ideation, concept development, and large-scale production. With over a decade of collaboration among multi-disciplinary creatives—covering strategy, copy, illustration, design, motion graphics, 3D, and visual effects, Ouch! crafts authentic, relatable content that encourages reflection, connection, and real behavioural change.
ABOUT CASANEGRA
CASANEGRA is the first cultural intelligence, strategy and communications studio developing proprietary AI algorithms to decode the complex ways culture shapes identity, behaviour, and communication. Through rigorous research and analysis, Casanegra’s research reveals how culture, aesthetics, and communities influence the way brands connect with people in an ever-evolving social landscape, translating this into award-winning campaigns and strategies. This approach aims to use AI to make brands more human. Having worked with global brands like Hilton, Disney and Anastasia Beverly Hills, CASANEGRA excels at full-service advertising and strategy services.