The Price Slave Women Paid For The “Birth” Of Modern Gynecology
If taking a stroll through New York’s Central Park, one might see the statue of Dr. James Marion Sims. Known as the “father of gynecology,” His greatest achievement and claim to fame was curing the problem of the vesico-vaginal fistula. However, controversy exists because he found his surgical cure, use of silver sutures and speculum from performing a number of trial and error procedures on slave women from 1845 to 1849.
Since the mid- twentieth century, academia has debated whether Sims was an ingenuous doctor who furthered the progression of medical science for women or a 19th monster who conducted painful unethical experiments on women who couldn’t say “No.”
In 1993 Durrenda Ojanuga, Ph.D. wrote that the problem with Sims’ experiments were that he used the institution of slavery to harbor human guinea pigs to perfect his procedures. Violating all concepts of human rights and medical ethics, the women were property subject to Sims’ trial and error experiments.
According to Ojanuga, such slave experimentation was not popular at the time. Rumors and whispers even began to circulate around town about the young doctor who kept experimental slaves. Other doctors would engage in experiments often using white patients with informed consent, according to Ojanuga. The slave women possessed no agency, no means to deny the upwards 30 operations endured for four years each. As property of their master, it was he who determined that they should be submitted to experimentation, not them.
Ojanuga writes that after the procedure was perfected, White women wanted the vesico- vaginal fistula operation as well. However, no White woman could endure the operation without anesthesia and it was only after use of anesthetics that Sims was able to do the surgery at the Women’s Hospital he later founded.
Although it was commonly believed that Blacks did not feel the same pain as Whites, the truth was that the slave women, as human chattel, could not cease the operation like the White women. In a time when investigation of almost any malady involving the vagina was considered improper amongst White male doctors, slave women served as the means to further Euro-American medicine due to their subjugated status. Being powerless, they could only endure the extreme pain and embarrassment that was repeatedly administered. Sims experiments are “…a classic example of the evils of slavery,” wrote Ojanuga, “and the misuse of human subjects for medical research.”
If you are interested in more research on the ways in which black women have been exploited by the medical system, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a great read.
Oklahoma Rep. Justin Humphrey outright confirming that y’all think of us as subhuman incubators:
“I understand that they feel like that is ‘their body.’ I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host.’ And you know when you enter into a relationship you’re going to be that host and so, you know, if you pre-know that then take all precautions and don’t get pregnant. So that’s where I’m at. I’m like, hey, your body is your body and be responsible with it. But after you’re irresponsible then don’t claim, well, I can just go and do this with another body, when you’re the host and you invited that in.” (source)
Note he said this in defense of his bill that he authored that would require “written permission from her male sexual partner,” to get an abortion.
Um does this guy think being pregnant is summoning a demon or something cause that’s demon summoning language
@white feminists: stop telling brown girls they’re “harming” feminism when they shave their body hair and conform to beauty standards. It’s much harder for brown women to pull off not conforming than white women. There’s a very harsh double standard when it comes to body hair and beauty standards in general on brown girls. (if ur white maybe reblog this to support ur brown sisters)
Ok forgive me but I just need gush about Anissa Pierce (AKA Thunder), a DC superhero, because first of all look at her, she’s amazing:
A badass woman of color whose power is to control her own density (which sounds kind of strange at first until you realize that means she can make herself completely invincible and kick everyone’s ass by dropping herself on top of them holy shit)
Not only that but she’s got a medical degree because she wanted to graduate before becoming a superhero so like???? she’s a fucking doctor oh my god
And she’s multilingual (English, French, and Spanish) so that’s amazing
But wait! There’s more!!
She has a girlfriend who is also a woman of color and is also super badass:
That’s Grace Choi, a seven foot tall (so big!!!) Amazonian and Asian-American woman who is clearly amazing.
Grace is an abuse survivor with superhuman strength, durability, and healing so good luck trying to beat her up, she’ll kick anyone’s ass
So anyway the two of them are cute together and they’re each super awesome LGBTQ+ women of color which is great
Also here they are playing video games because that’s adorable:
Also she can make herself bulletproof so here’s a bulletproof black lesbian
A friend and I were out with our kids when another family’s two-year-old came up. She began hugging my friend’s 18-month-old, following her around and smiling at her. My friend’s little girl looked like she wasn’t so sure she liked this, and at that moment the other little girl’s mom came up and got down on her little girl’s level to talk to her.
“Honey, can you listen to me for a moment? I’m glad you’ve found a new friend, but you need to make sure to look at her face to see if she likes it when you hug her. And if she doesn’t like it, you need to give her space. Okay?”
Two years old, and already her mother was teaching her about consent.
My daughter Sally likes to color on herself with markers. I tell her it’s her body, so it’s her choice. Sometimes she writes her name, sometimes she draws flowers or patterns. The other day I heard her talking to her brother, a marker in her hand.
“Bobby, do you mind if I color on your leg?”
Bobby smiled and moved himself closer to his sister. She began drawing a pattern on his leg with a marker while he watched, fascinated. Later, she began coloring on the sole of his foot. After each stoke, he pulled his foot back, laughing. I looked over to see what was causing the commotion, and Sally turned to me.
“He doesn’t mind if I do this,” she explained, “he is only moving his foot because it tickles. He thinks its funny.” And she was right. Already Bobby had extended his foot to her again, smiling as he did so.
What I find really fascinating about these two anecdotes is that they both deal with the consent of children not yet old enough to communicate verbally. In both stories, the older child must read the consent of the younger child through nonverbal cues. And even then, consent is not this ambiguous thing that is difficult to understand.
Teaching consent is ongoing, but it starts when children are very young. It involves both teaching children to pay attention to and respect others’ consent (or lack thereof) and teaching children that they should expect their own bodies and their own space to be respected—even by their parents and other relatives.
And if children of two or four can be expected to read the nonverbal cues and expressions of children not yet old enough to talk in order to assess whether there is consent, what excuse do full grown adults have?
I try to do this every day I go to nursery and gosh it makes me so happy to see it done elsewhere.
Yes, consent is nonsexual, too!
Not only that, but one of the reasons many child victims of sexual abuse don’t reach out is that they don’t have the understanding or words for what is happening to them, and why it isn’t okay. Teaching kids about consent helps them build better relationships and gives them the tools to seek help if they or a friend need our protection.
I wish this post featured the OP’s name more prominently; it’s by Libby Anne of love joy feminism, and she writes fantastic stuff. A survivor of Christian patriarchal fundamentalism, she writes about parenting from the perspective of someone working through her own traumatic experiences. I love reading her blog.
The thing about this is that sculptures like these in art history were for the male gaze. Photoshop a phone to it and suddenly she’s seen as vain and conceited.
That’s why I’m 100% for selfie culture because apparently men can gawk at women but when we realize how beautiful we are we’re suddenly full of ourselves…
“You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,” thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.” ― John Berger, Ways of Seeing
I know I’ve reblogged this before but it’s so important.
Today’s installment of why“but it has always been like this!” is a bullshit argument: @nitratediva lays down the law about the role of women in early Hollywood
“Her appearance is a major factor in why I’m with her, to be honest.”
“The real reason women get a reduction is for the sake of their own vanity.”
“I’m only 27 and the thought of having a woman with small breasts for the rest of my life is impossible”
So you’ve been with a guy two years, mention you’re thinking of getting a breast reduction, get all that fanfare and suddenly realise that guy was only with you for your boobs. I have no words.
Dear ladies: Leave asses like this behind. they dont care about your wellbeing in the least. You deserve better. I’m confident that some guys realize the importance of breast reduction. My boyfriend is well aware that Gs run in my family. At an F, I’m already larger than most my family at this age. Sure, he’s probably looking forward to my chest continuing it’s regular growth, but we’ve had conversations for a while now that likely at some point I will need reduction. Trust me, I love my titties, but I’d like bras that support because going braless hurts. Imagine heavy balls of fat just tugging at your skin. Do you know anyone that sells a 28G or a 30F? I doubt it, because the only companies that do, have to be custom made for a wopping $75 per bra. Bra shopping is the most difficult thing because I can’t even try it on. My boyfriend totally understands that eventually I will need to go back down to a realistic size. When my parents were together, my father fully supported my mother’s decision to look into breast reduction.
Dear guys: my boyfriend’s friends may refer to me as a hot piece of ass, and invite me to hang out with them. I’ll take the compliment and wink back, but I’m very open that I want nothing to do with them. They ignored my existence for 6 years. They didn’t have an interest to talk to me until I lost weight, and went up some sizes. My boyfriend was my friend well before the weight loss. That’s why I’m with him vs those shits. Compliments are great, but there’s no point in me wasting my time with some fucker that doesn’t treat me like a person. Don’t be an ass. That’s all it takes to be a decent guy. And if u disagree with me, that’s the exact reason you don’t have this tamale as your arm candy. 😘
What I find really fascinating about these two anecdotes is that they both deal with the consent of children not yet old enough to communicate verbally. In both stories, the older child must read the consent of the younger child through nonverbal cues. And even then, consent is not this ambiguous thing that is difficult to understand.
myblog 