In 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, my friend and I were in the midst of writing our honors […]
A Return to the Abortion Handbook?
During one of my last visits with abortion activist Patricia Maginnis in 2015, she handed me The Abortion Handbook for […]
Modern Medicine Has Improved Our Lives, But What About Our Deaths?
In 1929, a young woman entered Koch Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Her symptoms may have included coughing, difficulty breathing, […]
What Happens Under the Ether: Vaginismus and the Question of Consent in the Nineteenth Century
Content Warning: sexual violence; gynecological and obstetric violence. Vaginismus is having a moment. A sexual disability that is medically classified […]
Can every baby be a Gerber Baby? A century of American baby contests and eugenics
In 2018, Gerber made headlines for selecting baby Lucas as the winner of its Spokesbaby Contest, making Lucas the first […]
Losing ‘sorrow in stupefaction’: American Women’s Opiate Dependency before 1900
In 1791 Elizabeth Blake tried to help her sister, New Yorker Catalina Hale, to end her years-long dependency on laudanum, […]
Why We Need the Pink Triangle in the Era of “Don’t Say Gay”
Before the rainbow flag became synonymous with the LGBTQ+ community, the emblem of queer activism was the pink triangle, a […]
Better Sight, Better Light: Eyesight and Selling the Farm Wife on Electric Modernity
On a chilly Monday in early February 1940, hundreds of locals had crowded into a “big top” tent in Johnson […]
Jim Bob’s Humbug: Freaks, Fitter Families, and 19 Kids and Counting
On May 25, 2022, Joshua Duggar (34) was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison and 20 years’ probation after […]
Healing on Credit: Medical Bills and the Politics of Medicine in Eighteenth-Century Pondichéry
Jacques Albert, the surgeon-major of Pondichéry, India, probably thought that Marie Cuperly was “good for it” when it came to […]
