Long Lost Ancient Medical Text Unearthed!

I'm sure you've all heard Todd Akin's (R) sound bite or seen this clipping. I found this you tube song response fun.

In Ancient Greece and Egypt philosophers and "physicians" believed that a women's uterus, if it was tired of NOT being pregnant, would wander around in her body, bumping into other organs--kidneys, lungs, bladder--and causing all kinds of ailments--fainting, stomach ache, insanity. Plato suggested in the Timaeus that this was analogous to the male penis, which when deprived of sex, may move of its own accord in its desire to procreate. They called this wily uterus a "wandering womb," which is the original meaning of "hysteria." Neither Plato nor Hippocrates write of a similar function of the female body to prevent pregnancy when the female body has been forced to have sex against it's will. Perhaps Todd Akin has unearthed a long lost ancient text, since the "doctors" he cites seem as mystified by the female body as Plato and Hippocrates.

Most philosophers of science (Todd Akin sits on the house committee for science) until the eighteenth century, with the notable exception of Aristotle, believed that both male and female must orgasm in order to conceive a child, suggesting that they both must like the sex act (see Thomas Laqueur's outstanding history of sex, Making Sex). Although for the sake of female pleasure in consensual heterosexual sex this idea could be revolutionary now, this historical theory does support Todd Akin's claim that she must have wanted it, and that therefore if a woman is pregnant it was not "legitimate" rape. Still the bodily function to which Akin refers that actually does prevent pregnancy (does it prevent disease as well?) in the case of "legitimate" rape is not suggested even in these earlier scientific theories of the female body. Obviously Todd Akin has found some really monumental scientific evidence, or perhaps he was merely logically extrapolating from these theories? He seems to have skipped most recent scientific writings about the female body. I might humbly suggest he get a copy of the Boston Women Health Book Collective's Our Bodies, Ourselves to balance his knowledge base.

Upon reflection: For those of you who have been angered by Rep. Akin's statement, why not take this moment of anger and turn it into a teachable moment? Send Todd a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves (available for purchase online at above link). Here are his mailing addresses. Why lambast when you can educate?

Hon. Todd Akin
117 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515

OR, his district address at:
301 Sovereign Ct., Ste. 201
Ballwin, MO 63011

Best of Luck, Todd.

Gender and Sex

We have discussed feminism now for several weeks, but we are now moving into the territory of gender studies in many of our recent readings.
I think our readings, discussion and films have raised a lot of interesting questions about sex, gender, and gender performance. Talk a bit here about your understandings of what gender is. In what ways do we perform our genders by choice and in what ways do we perform our genders without choice?

Gender is a complex system and is not simply about display or simply about biology. I think it is fruitful to examine how we define gender in society and in what ways these definitions are limiting to our individual self-expression.

Here are two pictures of the same person:

This is Nora Vincent who, as an investigative journalist, lived for a year as a man. Here is an article about her book from the NY Times.  What do you notice as different in these two pictures?

Here is an experiment I'd like you to try and then to respond on this blog. Spend the weekend observing people of all genders. Take notes. How do they move in the world? Walk? Sit? Talk to one another? Once you have a good bit of observation, try on a different gender style. Walk or sit in a way that is uncomfortable for your own gender expression. Take note of how you feel doing this and of how friends and strangers react to you. You may enlist a friend to tutor you in how to walk this way, talk this way....

Write your responses here. Also comment on the films we've seen this week. What surprised you? Where do you think gender comes from? The Codes of Gender film really stressed gender as a social construct, while Tiger Devore (what a great name!) in the Sex, Lies and Gender film seemed to assert a more biological view of gender. What do you think?