Some chilling procedures

Friday’s reading was not only a transition from the articles on disability that we have been discussing, but the reading itself had some shocking information. The reading entitled “Managing Women’s Minds” by Elaine Showalter talked about the treatment of women in the realm of psychiatry during the 1800s. The bulk of the article talked about stereotypes of women and what types of practices were done to alter the behavior and appearance of women who strayed from the norm. Although most of these practices were done in asylums, there were several examples of doctors with certain procedures or different treatments that were done to women outside of the confines of a psychiatric ward. The treatments that struck me the most included injecting ice water into females’ rectums or actually icing the cervix. Along with clitoridectomies, these procedures were all done to combat the nymphomania in women.
With the description of the gentile female with a certain appearance, it reminded me of the lecture by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson today about the medical genocide during WWII. The two events appear to relate because they both involve treatment of people who supposedly have something wrong with them by using a medical ideology. The main component of the success of the treatment of a group of people on the basis of conforming to a certain set of society ideals, is the use of doctors. By having the suggestion for outrageous procedures to curb female sexuality come from doctors, the methods are often trusted and the doctors are entrusted to do as they wish. The unfortunate event of manipulation of medicine as a result of societal pressure has happened throughout history, with women in psychiatric asylums in the 1800s and the extermination of disabled people during WWI are just two examples. What I do wonder about is if this is happening now, in the US.
The last paragraph of the article was equally as interesting when Showalter brought up the point that “despite its limitations, asylum superintendents thought it offered a more tolerant, comfortable, interesting life than some women could expect outside” (98). Although I do see the irony that women receiving oppressive treatment to attempt to conform them to society, it is the pressure of society’s values that brought them there in the first place. In this respect, the women outside, though not receiving psychiatric treatment, are experiencing the pressure of society every day. This also makes me wonder what sort of pressures women face today that are comparable to the feminine, dainty woman of the 1800s. One idea that I did have is the pressure today for women to be skinny and the eating disorder clinics are modern asylums, though I am sure that there are much better examples.