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Reviews
Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology by Deirdre Cooper Owens
passivemoon's review
informative
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Medical content, and Medical trauma
cool_breeze's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Every medical professional needs to read this book. I already knew about the experiments our ancestors went through, and the fact that doctors still believe we have a higher pain tolerance. I wasn’t surprised by anything in this book as a black woman.
sybyll's review
4.0
Excellent and well researched reflection on Black enslaved women's exploitation and possible sites of resistance and knowledge in the realm of reproductive and medical health and research. Read the Afterwords as well.
Fairly quick read and it flows interestingly and easily.
Fairly quick read and it flows interestingly and easily.
sataellites's review
2.0
this was a struggle to get through and not because of the subject matter. this read like the driest textbook chapter in the world, and as such was a slog to read in spite of the subject being of interest to me. the separation of the content into chapters was also almost unnecessary given that the same few points were reiterated throughout the entire book to an almost ridiculous extent.
bhands's review
4.0
Every healthcare professional (frankly, everyone) should read this book. This book highlights the stories of African and Irish women who helped to pioneer the field of gynecology, yet received no credit. They underwent unspeakable abuse yet helped to advance this field of medicine that we benefit from today. Highly recommend!!
lizendo's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book when I had Dr. Cooper Owens as my professor. It’s well-written and thoroughly researched (as you would expect from a historian). I previously knew nothing about the history of American gynecology, so I was quite horrified by what I learned. There was a small chapter about Irish women’s contributions that seemed a bit thrown in at the last minute.
eyre_apparent's review
5.0
Excellent scholarly work and I appreciated Owens' centering the enslaved women who she names as the "mothers of gynecology."