Taboo subject

At the dawn of modern medicine, a collective of healthcare gurus agreed that a civilised world deserved a formalised and scientific approach to making folk live longer. And, lo, our kin from back in the mid-nineteenth century duly rejoiced.

During this time of trail-blazing revolution, however, a memo – perhaps the most important ‘heads-up’ in the history of the human race – was lost. It was the memo that told these early influencers, albeit in hushed tones, that ‘women’s bodies were different’.

We don’t know precisely how old this memo was, but it certainly predated the era of Alexander Fleming and perhaps even the discovery of Post-it notes.

And this film is, at its heart, about the lost memo. It is about the ‘slightly embarrassing’ realisation that institutions of health delivery – which should have known more than any other industry that women are different – had not completed their first biology homework assignment.

Featuring Women in Pharma’s dynamic duo of Miriam Kenrick and Sarah Sowerby, and directed by Helen Lambert, Taboo runs towards danger and never stops running towards it. Yep, this is a film everyone should see.

Indeed, Helen frames this subject matter with unflinching boldness, providing it with a cinematic quality that takes individual, relatable monologues and combines them to form an epic story arc.

During the introduction, Taboo allows irony, parody and uncomfortable truths about gender iniquity to percolate through the lens of humour. This interplay of vintage and absurd footage creates a ‘distant’ backstory, but then we are transported to the present and, suddenly, the dichotomy of gender distinction comes into sharp focus (warning: some of the footage contains women who don’t appear to be intimidated by tradition or anachronistic hierarchies).

Indeed, case studies of astonishing lived experiences of women let down by the healthcare ecosystem start to unfold. Many of the candid contributors are starkly set on jet blackness (behind whom only the abyss lies). You are compelled to listen to the humans in the foreground – and listen you do.

Truths about being dismissed, ignored and made to feel silly are shared. In the worst cases these women are met with apathy by medical professionals and left to speculate, without support, in the vortex of self-diagnosis.

With precision medicine, self-care, AI, accelerated drug development and modern clinical trials, the world does need to acknowledge more than ever that women’s bodies are different. The individuals involved in creating this remarkable film have demonstrated that women are starting to seize the narrative.

And if all this makes for uncomfortable viewing, especially amid the healthcare overlords, it has ultimately achieved part of its aim. Its other primary objective is to light the touchpaper for universal change – to finally get the memo read.

Make no mistake, Taboo transcends its running time of 20 minutes. It is a story that is as old as time itself. It is a story that reverberates through the decades and centuries. It is a story of our times

To watch the movie at an exclusive showing in London search ‘fienta taboo tickets’