You are aware that Hanne Blank keeps one of the best LiveJournals I know, are you? In case you weren't, go and friend misia now! (She doesn't particularly make a secret of who she is, and often talks about the book she is writing).
I like her lj a lot--but the speech is on her realname website, and while she certainly doesn't maintain anonymity, I wasn't sure I wanted to underline the connection, so I went for the simple solution.
Well, she has a link to her realname website on her userinfo page -- and she has linked to her speech in her LJ. I do appreciate your caution though. I'm afraid I'm not always as careful as I should be, and more so in RL than on LJ... (though in this case I did think about it, for once)
Hanne Blank is writing a book about the cultural history of virginity. I think of it as doing cognitive therapy on the culture.
Or at least a significant and dysfunctional part of the culture, anyway.
I had never been under the delusion that virginity was about anything other than property rights--men's (alleged) property rights in wife and children, not women's. Still, Blank's examples of just how badly girla and women have been treated in the interests of keeping their *virginity* intact were sobering.
I've been following her lj--misia--and what's in the speech is only a few of the major examples.
Also, I had no idea that there's no solid physical basis involved--iirc, the existance of a human hymen wasn't established until they were doing dissection in the Renaissance, and (again iirc) they wildly overestimated how common and complete hymens are.
See also link and link for somewhat about the clitoris being much larger than a lot of people thought. The articles disagree on whether it was completely new information or something known to anatomists but suppressed/lost in information for the general public. If the first one's right, the "general public" included a lot of surgeons.
If the first one's right, the "general public" included a lot of surgeons.
Of course it would. Most surgeons are specialists and, unless they specialize in gynecological surgery, wouldn't have any more reason to look at clitorises in the course of a normal day than would the typical man (or woman, for that matter).
By the way, I take back part of my initial remark. As a child, I bought the Christian line wholesale, which naturally included virginity before marriage and physical fidelity afterward. (Though at that point in time, I didn't understand what virginity was.) Then, when I was 10 years old, I had a sudden epiphany; most people don't believe any of the stuff the Church teaches; it's just a social thing, to go to Mass and identify as a Catholic.
From then on, I pretty much lost my so-called faith, but I didn't bother making it official until adulthood.
Excuse me--I didn't just mean a lot of surgeons in general, I meant a lot of surgeons working on women's urinary tracts and such who didn't know where the nerves were and therefore didn't know to be as careful as the surgeons who do prostate operations.
There's a lot of incompetence in medicine--some of it seems to be based on prejudice. I tried to call you earlier today, but the number I've got didn't work--if you'd like to get a call, could you email me at nancy(at)netaxs (period)com?
Depends on what you mean by "incompetence". Negligence, yes. Stupidity masquerading as cost-cutting, yes. Incompetence in the sense of ignorance I've not heard much about. And as for ignorance based on prejudice (e.g., ailments unique to women, or which have a different incidence or symptoms in women than men and thus are mis- or not diagnosed) is, I fear, common enough.
Does failure to reliably wash hands between patients count as incompetence?
On the prejudice side, I've heard all too much from fat people who've been told "come back when you've lost weight' rather than getting a careful diagnosis.
I think failure to reliably wash hands between patients counts as criminal negligence--more than mere incompetence, ignorance, or even ordinary negligence. Good Lord, most *laymen* know the importance of washing hands when dealing with wounds, and in avoiding the spread of germs. I would simply refuse to believe any physician who claimed not to know this is important, no matter how inadequate the medical school that had trained him or her.
As for prejudice in the treatment of fat people, you are sadly also right; in fact, I know someone who suffered this kind of treatment-impairing prejudice personally. He got the kind of ignorant rudeness you describe for many years, with no improvement in his general health or downward change in his weight (despite his doing substantial amounts of walking) until he finally switched physicians. The new physician did some tests and learned that he had a benign tumor located on his pituitary gland that was pressing on the gland and affecting his hormonal balance and, hence, his weight. He recently (as in a few weeks ago) had said tumor surgically removed. I'll let you know how he progresses.
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zvi and
no subject
Date: 2005-05-01 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-01 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-01 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-02 03:24 am (UTC)Or at least a significant and dysfunctional part of the culture, anyway.
I had never been under the delusion that virginity was about anything other than property rights--men's (alleged) property rights in wife and children, not women's. Still, Blank's examples of just how badly girla and women have been treated in the interests of keeping their *virginity* intact were sobering.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-06 11:42 am (UTC)Also, I had no idea that there's no solid physical basis involved--iirc, the existance of a human hymen wasn't established until they were doing dissection in the Renaissance, and (again iirc) they wildly overestimated how common and complete hymens are.
See also link and link for somewhat about the clitoris being much larger than a lot of people thought. The articles disagree on whether it was completely new information or something known to anatomists but suppressed/lost in information for the general public. If the first one's right, the "general public" included a lot of surgeons.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-07 01:39 am (UTC)Of course it would. Most surgeons are specialists and, unless they specialize in gynecological surgery, wouldn't have any more reason to look at clitorises in the course of a normal day than would the typical man (or woman, for that matter).
By the way, I take back part of my initial remark. As a child, I bought the Christian line wholesale, which naturally included virginity before marriage and physical fidelity afterward. (Though at that point in time, I didn't understand what virginity was.) Then, when I was 10 years old, I had a sudden epiphany; most people don't believe any of the stuff the Church teaches; it's just a social thing, to go to Mass and identify as a Catholic.
From then on, I pretty much lost my so-called faith, but I didn't bother making it official until adulthood.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-08 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-08 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-09 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-09 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-09 11:25 am (UTC)On the prejudice side, I've heard all too much from fat people who've been told "come back when you've lost weight' rather than getting a careful diagnosis.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-10 03:56 am (UTC)As for prejudice in the treatment of fat people, you are sadly also right; in fact, I know someone who suffered this kind of treatment-impairing prejudice personally. He got the kind of ignorant rudeness you describe for many years, with no improvement in his general health or downward change in his weight (despite his doing substantial amounts of walking) until he finally switched physicians. The new physician did some tests and learned that he had a benign tumor located on his pituitary gland that was pressing on the gland and affecting his hormonal balance and, hence, his weight. He recently (as in a few weeks ago) had said tumor surgically removed. I'll let you know how he progresses.