A review by cleot
Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology by Deirdre Cooper Owens

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

My only criticism is that several of the quotes and anecdotes are repeated several times in their entirety, rather than just referencing the prior passage. Otherwise a very informative and important work. Brace yourself for some rough reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Xenophobia, Abortion, and Classism

Minor: Infertility

Content warnings are in line with the experience of black and immigrant women in slavery and indenture who were used without their consent to serve as subjects in research in gynecology via non-anaesthetized surgeries, to include accounts of the abuse and sexual violence they experienced in advance of seeking medical care. Very graphic.