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Public Privates: Performing Gynecology from Both Ends of the Speculum
In Public Privates, a book about looking and being looked at, about speculums, spectacles, and spectators, about display, illumination, and reflection, Terri Kapsalis makes visible the practices and representations of gynecology. The quintessential examination of women, gynecology is not simply the study of women’s bodies, but also serves to define and constitute them. Any critical analysis of gynecology is therefore, as Kapsalis affirms, an investigation of what it means to be female. In this respect she considers the public exposure of female "privates" in the performance of the pelvic exam.
From J. Marion Sims’s surgical experiments on unanesthetized slave women in the mid-nineteenth century, to the use of cadavers and prostitutes to teach medical students gynecological techniques, Kapsalis focuses on the ways in which women and their bodies have been treated by the medical establishment. Removing gynecology from its private cover within clinic walls and medical textbook pages, she decodes the gynecological exam, seizing on its performative dimension. She considers traditional medical practices and the dynamics of "proper" patient performance; non-traditional practices such as cervical self-exam; and incarnations of the pelvic examination outside the bounds of medicine, including its appearance in David Cronenberg’s film Dead Ringers and Annie Sprinkle’s performance piece "Public Cervix Announcement."
Confounding the boundaries that separate medicine, art, and pornography, revealing the potent cultural attitudes and anxieties about women, female bodies, and female sexuality that permeate the practice of gynecology, Public Privates concludes by locating a venue from which challenging, alternative performances may be staged.
From J. Marion Sims’s surgical experiments on unanesthetized slave women in the mid-nineteenth century, to the use of cadavers and prostitutes to teach medical students gynecological techniques, Kapsalis focuses on the ways in which women and their bodies have been treated by the medical establishment. Removing gynecology from its private cover within clinic walls and medical textbook pages, she decodes the gynecological exam, seizing on its performative dimension. She considers traditional medical practices and the dynamics of "proper" patient performance; non-traditional practices such as cervical self-exam; and incarnations of the pelvic examination outside the bounds of medicine, including its appearance in David Cronenberg’s film Dead Ringers and Annie Sprinkle’s performance piece "Public Cervix Announcement."
Confounding the boundaries that separate medicine, art, and pornography, revealing the potent cultural attitudes and anxieties about women, female bodies, and female sexuality that permeate the practice of gynecology, Public Privates concludes by locating a venue from which challenging, alternative performances may be staged.
232 pages, Paperback
First published February 19, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 9, 2024
Very educational and informative. A good read
October 10, 2008
ooooh, i loved this book. it's a totally fascinating history of gynecology, dating all the way back to the very first attempts made by philosophers & would-be scientists to understand things like where babies come from & what the hell periods are. people had some very alarming, crackpot theories. it eplains how gynecology eventually became a legitimate branch of medicine, but the weird protocols that continued to be in place--like doctors just reaching underneath a sheet that decorously covered a lady up & groping about in order to deliver babies & perform gynecological exams. you know, lest a lady's modesty be threatened. it explains the evolution of the speculum & some of the more unsavory ways in which modern-day gynecology was perfected (for example, the guy who eventually came up with the speculum design perfected his invention on female slaves--this was during the 1800s). as someone who is very fascinated by reproductive health & technology, i was captivated by this book, & i think every vagina-having person should give it a read. & also probably it would behoove other people who don't have vaginas to read it too--understand what's going on down there a little bit better. i think it's out of print--it's kind of an academic book. but if you can track down a copy, it's totally wortwhile. it's kind of like a mary roach book, almost. except that it doesn't try as hard to be funny. which is kind of a good thing.
November 6, 2012
"Public Privates: Performing Gynecology From Both Ends of the Speculum" is a book about. . . . . .wait for it. . . pelvic exams. No joke. And guess what? It's a surprisingly good book.
"Public Privates" author, Terri Kapsalis is a writer, a stage performer, and a gynecological teaching associate (GTA). A GTA teaches pelvic exams to medical school students by instructing the students in how to conduct the examination while demonstrating said exam on her own person. Kapsalis says she even got the idea of writing the book while in the midst of a demonstration of how to conduct a pelvic exam.
This book is a good one, but not all of the chapters are created equally. Here's a brief summery of the chapters (or what I got out of the chapters, anyway):
In chapter one, Kapsalis explains how the behavior enacted by a woman during a pelvic exam both reinforces, and contributes to, various aspects of the female gender role.
For instance, a female is to remain passive during an examination. She's not to wiggle around or argue, and she's never to question the doctor.
During the pelvic exam, a woman is often seen as a separate entity from her pelvis, and she is compartmentalized and objectified by her physician. She's to go along with this as the physician is an authority and "knows what's best."
Kapsalis goes further to state that the medical view of a women's reproductive organs is one of pathology. As women throughout history have been considered flawed and inferior, their sexual organs are understood to be inherently diseased. There's no assuming that you're healthy when you are a female. You've got to have an authority figure check you out regularly to certify that your organs are working properly and there's no immediate danger of death-because-you're-a-girl disorder.
In chapter 2, Kapsalis recounts the history of gynecology, which is a horrifying one. She tells the story of "The Father of American Gynecology" J. Marion Sims, M.D. Sims is a revered figure in medical history. And from the sounds of it, a horrible person. He kept female slaves in his backyard hospital and performed experimental operations on them hoping to perfect a type of surgery. He used no anesthetic, and yet he operated on the women scores of times. In the process of his experiments, Sims invented the speculum and became an overnight sensation.
Chapter 3 tells of how medical schools teach pelvic exams, and recounts the history of all the trouble they had to go through in order to get models for students to practice examinations on. Kapsalis writes about the trouble with hiring prostitutes to pose as patients, the use of cadavers and manikins for the students to practice on, and the eventual development of the GTA position she currently holds.
Chapter 4 is an evaluation of various photographs and drawings in gynecology textbooks. Kapsalis takes note of the fact that there are only 2 photos of healthy female reproductive organs in one of the most popular gynecological texts of the time. Kapsalis compares the gynecological text to that of a text on urology and finds that the urology text presents many photos of healthy male reproductive organs. She uses this finding as evidence of how medical students are conditioned to view women's reproductive organs as diseased.
After chapter 5, "Public Privates" starts to lose steam. Chapter 5 is mostly about an old prostitute who works as a performance artist. During her act the old prostitute/ stage performer inserts a speculum into her body, and then has people from the audience line up and take turns shining a flashlight up her vagina to look at her cervix. I thought the whole chapter was weird and boring.
Chapter 6 was no better, as Kapsalis analyses several movies I've never seen based on their portrayal of gynecology and female health issues. This was by far the dullest chapter, and I think it should have been left out of the book.
Chapter 7 was good though, as it investigated women's alternative health options and emphasized the positive attributes of a woman centered health practice.
Personally, I found this book to be informative and fun. At times it was kind of academic, but still readable. Further, whenever a topic is a juicy one, sometimes it's worth accepting an academic presentation. In the case of this book, I'd say it's well worth reading if you have an interest in the topic!
"Public Privates" author, Terri Kapsalis is a writer, a stage performer, and a gynecological teaching associate (GTA). A GTA teaches pelvic exams to medical school students by instructing the students in how to conduct the examination while demonstrating said exam on her own person. Kapsalis says she even got the idea of writing the book while in the midst of a demonstration of how to conduct a pelvic exam.
This book is a good one, but not all of the chapters are created equally. Here's a brief summery of the chapters (or what I got out of the chapters, anyway):
In chapter one, Kapsalis explains how the behavior enacted by a woman during a pelvic exam both reinforces, and contributes to, various aspects of the female gender role.
For instance, a female is to remain passive during an examination. She's not to wiggle around or argue, and she's never to question the doctor.
During the pelvic exam, a woman is often seen as a separate entity from her pelvis, and she is compartmentalized and objectified by her physician. She's to go along with this as the physician is an authority and "knows what's best."
Kapsalis goes further to state that the medical view of a women's reproductive organs is one of pathology. As women throughout history have been considered flawed and inferior, their sexual organs are understood to be inherently diseased. There's no assuming that you're healthy when you are a female. You've got to have an authority figure check you out regularly to certify that your organs are working properly and there's no immediate danger of death-because-you're-a-girl disorder.
In chapter 2, Kapsalis recounts the history of gynecology, which is a horrifying one. She tells the story of "The Father of American Gynecology" J. Marion Sims, M.D. Sims is a revered figure in medical history. And from the sounds of it, a horrible person. He kept female slaves in his backyard hospital and performed experimental operations on them hoping to perfect a type of surgery. He used no anesthetic, and yet he operated on the women scores of times. In the process of his experiments, Sims invented the speculum and became an overnight sensation.
Chapter 3 tells of how medical schools teach pelvic exams, and recounts the history of all the trouble they had to go through in order to get models for students to practice examinations on. Kapsalis writes about the trouble with hiring prostitutes to pose as patients, the use of cadavers and manikins for the students to practice on, and the eventual development of the GTA position she currently holds.
Chapter 4 is an evaluation of various photographs and drawings in gynecology textbooks. Kapsalis takes note of the fact that there are only 2 photos of healthy female reproductive organs in one of the most popular gynecological texts of the time. Kapsalis compares the gynecological text to that of a text on urology and finds that the urology text presents many photos of healthy male reproductive organs. She uses this finding as evidence of how medical students are conditioned to view women's reproductive organs as diseased.
After chapter 5, "Public Privates" starts to lose steam. Chapter 5 is mostly about an old prostitute who works as a performance artist. During her act the old prostitute/ stage performer inserts a speculum into her body, and then has people from the audience line up and take turns shining a flashlight up her vagina to look at her cervix. I thought the whole chapter was weird and boring.
Chapter 6 was no better, as Kapsalis analyses several movies I've never seen based on their portrayal of gynecology and female health issues. This was by far the dullest chapter, and I think it should have been left out of the book.
Chapter 7 was good though, as it investigated women's alternative health options and emphasized the positive attributes of a woman centered health practice.
Personally, I found this book to be informative and fun. At times it was kind of academic, but still readable. Further, whenever a topic is a juicy one, sometimes it's worth accepting an academic presentation. In the case of this book, I'd say it's well worth reading if you have an interest in the topic!
March 26, 2021
I loved this! A real eye opener
July 15, 2020
really loved the chapter on film analysis, textbook analysis, this was a really freeing read in the sense that it totally validated the fear i have had since i was 18 about going to the gynecologist, and allowed me to think about alternatives ways i could take for my health. anyone have a spare speculum?
December 8, 2023
An eye-opening and disturbing history of gynecology, I learned so much! Towards the end of the book, it turned into more analysis/anecdote than facts/statistics/history, which I personally found a little less captivating, still a great read though.
November 19, 2011
This is a stunning combination of history, education, and speculative fiction regarding alternative modes of female sexual health care. Kapsalis has produced a highly informative & well-researched book. Despite being at times so academically & "theory-dense" that it becomes difficult to read, overall Public Privates is fascinating, informative, and empowering. It will make you think. Should be required reading for everyone training to become a doctor.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews