The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
shanaqui's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
The health of female-bodied people has long been a thorny problem. Those in charge of medicine and health have so often been men, and the "default" or "correct" body has been thought to be male. I'm not just talking about in Victorian times or something -- in modern times, medication has often only been tested on men, because women are inherently too variable and would throw off the results. (This makes a certain sense when you think about good experimental design, until you remember that the medication is supposed to work for women too, and will be given to them without further testing, so we really should actually know about the effects of the hormone cycle on it.)
Elinor Cleghorn's book aims to discuss that history, to discuss the whys and wherefores and the impacts on women, not just now, but in the past, and not as something that's necessarily getting better, but as something which still affects women now -- including herself. It's not just that women's bodies are considered strange and different, but the experiences of female-bodied people about their own bodies haven't been believed, and they haven't been trusted to have any insight or understanding.
Obviously this book is a hard read in that way, chronicling a lot of mishaps and a lot of misogyny, some of it completely institutionalised. But it's a useful one, if you want to take a good hard stare at it. None of it was too surprising for me, but that's because I've gone out of my way to know this kind of thing; I know some folks for whom it would be revelatory. It's certainly one place to start in understanding why the health of female-bodied people hasn't been prioritised, and why that still affects people living now.
Elinor Cleghorn's book aims to discuss that history, to discuss the whys and wherefores and the impacts on women, not just now, but in the past, and not as something that's necessarily getting better, but as something which still affects women now -- including herself. It's not just that women's bodies are considered strange and different, but the experiences of female-bodied people about their own bodies haven't been believed, and they haven't been trusted to have any insight or understanding.
Obviously this book is a hard read in that way, chronicling a lot of mishaps and a lot of misogyny, some of it completely institutionalised. But it's a useful one, if you want to take a good hard stare at it. None of it was too surprising for me, but that's because I've gone out of my way to know this kind of thing; I know some folks for whom it would be revelatory. It's certainly one place to start in understanding why the health of female-bodied people hasn't been prioritised, and why that still affects people living now.
aclayton_'s review against another edition
5.0
SUCH an important book! Absolutely infuriating and heartbreaking treatment of women throughout history (shock)
barnfieldkatherine033's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.25