do you remember back then when we met

History of medicine-wise it has been a very interesting week, mostly because of the focus on the specialities.  In particular, the varying attitudes to psychiatry and people considered "insane", and the role of women in Victorian society.  One thing that really got me was how little they used to think of women back then, and how much and how little has changed since then.  It sickens me slightly to think that men thought that women's finite energy resources were mostly used up by menstruation and reproductive function, so that little remained for intellectual thought, and women were discouraged from developing their minds and using their brains, for fear of exhaustion or inducing oligo/amenorrhoea.  I suppose I live in a very tolerant society, accepting that women can enter most roles in society now.  The gender pay gap is 16-55% difference, depending where you look, and yet people never realise it.


Doctors used to believe that girls were claiming anorexia nervosa for attention, and they found it hard to reconcile their professional and personal beliefs.  And also the issue of gynaecology... how it was seen as a whole speciality with much to delve into, because women's temperament and disease was thought to be due to dysfunction of the reproductive system.


I don't want to write about feminism, or anti-feminism.  That's not my thing.  But I really admire men who enter the field of obstetrics and gynaecology.  The ones I have thusfar come across have been nothing but professional, whether there is a patient present or not, and they earn my lasting gratitude, with my asking silly questions and letting me see them section or examine patients, or indeed, letting me examine patients myself.  Whilst there are male dominant specialities, like surgery (because only men used to be allowed to study medicine and surgery), I like that there is a breakdown of this previous thought, and more women can become surgeons, and more men can become obstetricians and gynaecologists (I pick this speciality as it has been long associated with female doctors).


And as to the issue of whether or not women and men are complimentary to each other... well, I personally believe that in a couple, this can be true.  It is certainly true in mine.  And whilst women fight so hard for our rights and to be treated totally equally, I once had a discussion with my boyfriend about this... I can't remember all the details but I do remember thinking how lucky I was to be studying medicine, a topic in which he does not have the upper hand.


I feel... not stupid, but just very lacking in knowledge when we talk about topics like politics and economics and philosophy and history.  Without wanting to show off how knowledgeable he is, I'd say he has the best grasp of history, both ancient, medieval and contemporary, of anybody I know.  And that is saying something, seeing people discuss in the history of medicine course.  I wish I was more intelligent, and yet I know I wouldn't be happy with someone who could never teach me more about the world and about the history and future of it.


Anyway, so we had a reading about women in the sick role and women in the nervous role (Elaine Showalter) and it made me really angry to read it.  Obviously I can look back with retrospect, but I know those attitudes described in her chapter would not be accepted today.  I don't feel like men truly understand what women endure.  Simple things like period pain is something I cannot find a parallel for in normal male physiology.  It really hurts sometimes and it lasts several days, and women have been scorned for a long time for being dirty because of menstruation.  There has been a long discussion about female labour, and men receiving testicular trauma.  I know neither can experience the other, but I really believe that women have a harder time.


An issue that came up was gender reversal and sex.  I have always known that gender is something that society assigns (makes sense, right?) and the majority of people do conform to the expectations of their sex.  But having homosexuals does not been there has been a societal breakdown.  I do not think badly of gay men or lesbian women.  I know that people have their own desires, and they have freedom of thought and wants.  I wouldn't be uncomfortable with two men kissing in my presence, or two women kissing in my presence, although the latter is something that a lot of men I know find weirdly a turn on.  I accept that people choose to be this way, and that it is not wrong in the slightest.  And I find it discriminatory that people judge against them, just by their being who they are.


I am not sure what the point of this post is, but it's time for bed now...


xo

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