As a teenager, I loved the film When Harry Met Sally and would watch it whenever I was home sick […]
Eugenics Was Wrong Even When It Got It Right
Ann Leary’s 2022 novel The Foundling follows a young white woman, Mary Engle, who in the 1930s lands a job […]
Her Heroine Mother: Maternity and British Secret Agents in World War II
In the waning months of World War II, news began to circulate that the British had been sending operatives to […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Sixteen Year Gap: Women in Medical Trials and the Side Effects Today
Historically, women have been excluded from clinical trials creating a gender gap in pharmacology. This means that medication is geared […]
Bodies in Doubt, A New and Expanded Edition: An Interview with Elizabeth Reis
I first met Elizabeth Reis at a conference about intersex several years ago, and we became fast friends. Lizzie served […]
Manhood, Madness, and Moonshine
In November 2015, Princeton University economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case published a startling report. Among 45 to 54 year […]
“Women Cry – Men Swear”: Gender and Stuttering in the Early Twentieth-Century United States
Speech specialist Ernest Tompkins was not alone in thinking that he had figured out what caused stuttering. But when Tompkins […]
Mare of Easttown: Not Just Another Dead Girl Show
The HBO crime drama Mare of Easttown captivated viewers, who flocked to social media with theories about who killed Erin […]
