A weekly check-up of gender, medicine, and history in the news I Gooped myself. Comics and medicine. Misogyny in lesbian dating. A brief history of masturbation. Is digital crime history too white? The long history of not having kids. The women who refuse ultrasounds. The mystery of a lake full of skeletons. The bikini turned… Read more →
Category: News
Najila and Neymar; or, The Normalization of Violence against Women in Brazil
You may have heard of Neymar, Brazil’s soccer darling.1 With the speed and skill to rival the all-time greats, he’s been on the international scene for almost a decade, leading his team in two World Cups and clinching an Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. But he’s also faced intense criticism from… Read more →
This is Not a Culture of Life, This is a Culture of Un-Death
Last week at a Vatican conference on abortion, Pope Francis “argued that children who were not expected to live long after birth deserved to be treated in the womb ‘with extraordinary pharmacological, surgical and other interventions.’” He intimated that parents who did not use extraordinary measures were not caring for their children, saying that “Taking… Read more →
Intersex Revolutionary War Hero Did Good Because Doctors Did No Harm
The startling knowledge that the Polish nobleman and military leader, Casimir Pulaski, a hero of the American Revolution, may have been intersex should leave us with two important takeaways. First, people have always been born with intersex traits, or atypical sex development. Even the ancient laws of the Talmud recognized this fact, offering rules for… Read more →
Sunday Morning Medicine
A weekly check-up of gender, medicine, and history in the news The history of Women’s History Month. The failed Soviet rival to the flapper dress. The mystery of the 1957 gay wedding photos. The historical significance of black queer films. How fashion forensics are helping solve crimes. Is testing the DNA in museum artifacts worth… Read more →
Sunday Morning Medicine
A weekly check-up of gender, medicine, and history in the news Lady Death. “We all expected to die.” Scope Magazine (1941-1957). Tear gas and the U.S. border. The story of the pile of limbs. The boy left behind in Nazi Vienna. Daisy, Daisy, the Cycling Countess. The forgotten abortion-rights activist. Presumed heterosexuality in the archives. Why… Read more →
The Trump Administration Wants to Define a Person’s Sex at Birth. It’s Just Not That Simple
A memo circulating through the Trump Administration proposes that several government agencies should define sex as “a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” according to the New York Times. This definition is a blunt instrument that, along with its cruel dismissal of the transgender population,… Read more →
Sunday Morning Medicine
A weekly check-up of gender, medicine, and history in the news A diet for old age. The sensory history of pine. 9 cold remedies from history. The Texas archives war of 1842. A Viking, a sheep, and climate change. Sugar castles and suckling pig arches. Why I wanted to learn to perform abortions. Donald Duck:… Read more →
The Privilege of Despair
A preternatural calm settled over me on Saturday afternoon as I heard the news of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. I wasn’t reconciled to the outcome; my calm did not come from satisfaction. Instead, it came from the awful confirmation of a different kind — that the United States was still the white… Read more →
Sunday Morning Medicine
A weekly check-up of gender, medicine, and history in the news Diagnosing the past. An epidemic of plagues. The medical imagination. The history of surgical gloves. The fight for Betty Boop’s soul. Demolishing the California dream. Teeth whitening in the Victorian Era. A forgotten soldier on a forgotten front. What we know about art and… Read more →