Sex & Medicine Flashcards
Medicine and Gender - initial differences/struggles
- the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of disease
- notions of ‘natural’ difference
- medicine and the regulation of gender and sexuality
3 modern day examples of women being under represented in medicine:
- Gabrielle Jackson “Why don’t doctors trust women? because they don’t know much about us”
- black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth
- women underrepresented in Pivotal trials of FDA-Approved cancer drugs
What does Ed Cohen note about masculinity and masturbation in the Victorian era?
“a non-masturbating, married, industrious, and reproductive body was the healthy standard for middle class masculinity”.
“the youth should be taught to look upon masturbation as a cowardly, selfish, debasing habit, and one which makes those who practise it unfit to associate with boys of proper spirit”.
Medical beliefs and social beliefs of differences between their brains:
‘men will never feel like women, nor women like men’
‘men’s brains were distinguished by their firmness, force, self-esteem, courage, combativeness, and destructiveness; women were known for exquisiteness, emotions, susceptibility, and ‘devotion to offspring;, as well as their secrecy, artifice, and nervousness”.
What effect did the Cold War have on medicine and sexuality?
- backlash against sexual unorthodoxy
- newspaper articles claiming ‘homosexuality can be cured’
- emphasis on the importance of traditional gender roles to national security
shift from punishment to ‘cure’
What did the Wolfenden Report 1957 advocate for?
advocated legalising homosexuality, with an emphasis on medical treatment instead
shift from punishment to ‘cure’
What are some examples of the shift from punishment to ‘cure’?
some aversion therapies ‘low-tech’ - use ‘chemical’ approaches instead
common to use emetics and hormones alongside audio, video, and images
increasing amount of machine-based aversion therapy (electro-shock treatment) from 1960s
What were these medical cures for homosexuality meant to accomplish?
they were designed to ‘train out’ reactions deemed a deviation from the heterosexual norm
Were the treatments effective? if not what were the effects?
completely ineffective
adverse side affects - physical and mental trauma
effect wore off over time - no method emerges that successful ‘cures’ homosexuality or tranvestism.
who was Magnus Hirschfeld and what did he pioneer?
1868-1935
founded the Institute of Sexology in Berline, as well as the World League for Sexual Reform
pioneered treatment of what he called ‘transvestism’ and ‘preliminary hermaphroditism’
involved in some of the earliest cases of gender-affirming care.
what does Meyerowitz note on gender-affirming care?
‘in the years before 1950 these sensationalised accounts introduced American readers to the very possibility that sex was neither as obvious nor as permanent as it might have seemed”.
Who was Henry Benjamin and what did he do?
trained in Germany with Magnus Hirshfeld
important work with trans patients from the 1940s onwards
advocates for affirmative medical care, including surgeries.
What were the Stonewall Riots and when did they occur?
June 28th 1969
key role played by trans/gender non-conforming groups, also clientele was racially diverse.
Gay activists use Stonewall to launch gay liberation movements
Trans activists pushed out - form their own groups/organisation like STAR and the QLF.
What were the ‘Difficult Decades’ and why were they difficult for gender non-conformists?
divisions between aims and agendas of trans and gay activism
mainstream gay cultures turns away from gender non-conformity
deep tensions within the WLM - trans women expelled from women’s groups
emphasis on ‘biological sex’ and gender as essential.
What does Carol Riddell note on the ‘Difficult Decades’
“patriarchal invasion is insidious. the denial of female experience in the name of ideological purity is not a product of, nor a contribution to, feminist culture. when we have to assert this right against other women, for whatever reason, confusion reigns, and patriarchy gains”.