By Jacqueline Antonovich
-Curdled breast milk.
-A brief history of funeral invitations.
-The cure for vapours.
-Building a cyborg, circa 1920s.
-Hair stockings to ward off “perverts”?
-Is there a scientific reason for oral sex?
-The incredible, disappearing evangelist.
By Jacqueline Antonovich
-Going through menopause? Blame men?
-Mussolini’s gay island.
-Scientists sequence DNA of medieval leprosy.
-What happens to women who are denied abortions?
-26 diseases and how they got their names.
-Disappearing Americana: roadside rest stops.
-11 vintage celebrity PSAs.
-Let’s visit 1930s New York City – in color!
-Al Capone’s struggle with syphilis.
-Futuo! Cuss like a Roman.
-Ladies: You are the weaker sex.
-Ergonomic advice from the 17th century.
-American cowgirls, circa 1940s.
-Astronauts kept safe by bra designers?
-1930s public health film on bathing and dressing children.
-‘Mother’s Little Helper’ turns 50.
-1970s pictorial on teen pregnancy.
-Study reveals new health benefit of anti-depressants.
-Stalin and Churchill – drinking buddies?
-Old Soviet playgrounds are terrifying.
-Is he cheating? A 1950s guide.
-An interracial WWII romance.
-Have you ever heard Helen Keller speak?
-Plague and photography in Colonial Burma.
-The Oxford English Dictionary needs your help to solve a mystery.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Informed Choice have filed a lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS), Greenville Hospital System, the Medical University of South Carolina, and several medical personnel for allowing physicians to remove the atypical genitals of a 16-month-old toddler because that child, in the state’s custody at the time, was born with an intersex condition. M.C. had been identified male at birth, but his genitals were sufficiently indeterminate that surgeons removed his ambiguous phallus, a testis, and testicular tissue on one gonad, and surgically created an ostensible approximation of female genitals. The suit asserts that there was no medical need for this surgery, which was meant to permanently “fix” this child and turn him into an unequivocal girl, but it did him more harm than good. M.C., now eight years old, feels more like a boy, lives as a boy, and heartbreakingly has asked his mother, “When will I get my penis?”
In the past few days, Americans (and I am sure many people around the globe) have read Angelina Jolie’s startling announcement that she recently underwent a preventative double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery (and as I understand she will also have her ovaries removed). Like most people, I was awestruck by her bravery, her straightforwardness, and her honesty. As a scholar of medicine and gender and women’s history, I was instantly struck by how her melodic narrative described her agency as both a patient and a woman. Her op-ed also conveyed a dream of perfect medical care, family support, and clarity in making a very profound decision that would have a major impact on her future health. But as much as I marveled at her decisions (as did so many other individuals), my academic training immediately brought a level of cynicism that I could not easily dismiss (and I am not alone). I almost instantly began to think about Angelina Jolie the celebrity, not Angelina Jolie the common woman.
I’ve been a little hesitant to write a blog about some of my experiences in a psychiatric hospital in 1980s Britain for a number of reasons. I am aware that those who suffer mental illnesses are some of the most vulnerable members of society. This was definitely true in the mid-1980s in Britain. I write this with the utmost respect for the patients I came into contact with and the nursing staff charged with their care.
-Hippies, anthrax, and drum circles.
-The modern history of swearing.
-When you want that healthy, radioactive glow.
-A new old look at Mother’s Day.
-Let’s visit 1920s London – in color!
-The Google Maps of 1917.
-What can music tell us about Victorian health?
-A history of “Women aren’t funny.”
-Vintage Spring Break snapshots.
-Photographing a mother’s descent into mental illness.
-Did Jamestown settlers eat people?
-Found: WWI prisoner of war postcard.
-A 1936 anti-poverty film.
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