Case Study Revised — 5 April 2020

I plan to ground my analysis of the impact on the male gaze on female sexuality and identity through an investigation of the speculum. I will begin with a discussion of the speculum’s origin to examine the criticism of its nature during the 70s. Then, I will discuss what “the male gaze” meant to women in the 70s, as I believe it differs from the term’s use today. Finally, I will discuss the Take Back the Speculum movement and how it addressed the issue of “the male gaze” and empowered women to look beyond the prescribed gender roles of the era.

 Originally, the speculum was a controversial tool, since it was developed not for women’s comfort and health, but as a means to diagnose issues around genital health and the cervix. It was developed originally through experimentation on slave women without their consent and led to surgery within the vagina but without anesthesia. Given the nature of the speculum, it was a controversial physician’s tool, since looking under the skirts of a women was considered inappropriate under any circumstances.

Over time, the physician’s role evolved into gynecologists, which in the 70s was a role dominated by men. The feminist movement took issue with this, questioning why people of the opposite sex were controlling women’s genitals and sexual health. Since the speculum had its roots in a time period where women’s health and sexuality were strongly neglected and oppressed, in the 70s, the Women’s Health Movement encouraged women to use a speculum on themselves to become more comfortable with their bodies and remove the control of their genitals and genital health from men. While the act symbolically wrestled the speculum out of the hands of dominating, male gynecologists, it also reflects the women’s ability to wrest their own image and sexuality from the hands of men. The feminist movement stated that women define themselves and deserve agency over their body and image, and women will refuse to be defined by the multitude of men that are encouraged to judge and stare.

For my presentation, I would like everybody to read page 37 of Women and Their Bodies: a Course (https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/cms/assets/uploads/2014/04/Women-and-Their-Bodies-1970.pdf) and “This Most Dangerous Instrument: Propriety, Power, and the Vaginal Speculum” (https://www.jognn.org/article/S0884-2175(15)33792-8/pdf).

Annotated Bibliography

(sorry the MLA indentations didn’t translate to the blog post)

Berger, John, director. The Ways of Seeing (Episode 2). British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZR06JJWaJM
• In “The Ways of Seeing,” John Berger discusses how women view themselves through the male gaze. Through mirrors and classical art, Berger investigates the many ways women are objectified for the male viewer, either by themselves or by portrayals of themselves by photographers and artists. This was published in 1972, so it acts as a primary source of the new discussions regarding women’s liberation in the 70s by employing historical analysis of previous presentations of women. However, due to its date of publication, it lacks a historical view and analysis of the movement in the 70s.

“Vulva Mapping: An Experiential Guide to the Universe between Your Legs.” Foria Wellness, Foria Wellness, 22 Aug. 2018, http://www.foriawellness.com/blogs/learn/vulva-mapping-guide-to-female-sexual-anatomy.

• https://www.foriawellness.com/blogs/learn/vulva-mapping-guide-to-female-sexual-anatomy
• This Foria Wellness Article, “Vulva Mapping: An Experiential Guide to the Universe between Your Legs,” illustrates, encourages, and instructs women to explore their genitals and to become comfortable with this physical aspect of their sexuality. The article intentionally refers to medical and non-medical terminology to include all women in this educational and empowering experience. This article frames itself by referencing the Take Back the Speculum movement from the 70s and recreating the exploratory process. While not a primary source, this article clearly describes the intimate details of an encounter in the 70s as well as indicates the progress society has made since that time. This article successfully illustrates the experience for the modern woman who never attended such an event and provides experiential context on why this may be an empowering act even without the historical context.

Boston Women’s Health Collective. Women and Their Bodies: a Course. New England Free Press, 1970.

• https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/cms/assets/uploads/2014/04/Women-and-Their-Bodies-1970.pdf
• “Women and Their Bodies: a Course” was the first publication of “Our Bodies, Ourselves” and is an educational piece on women’s sexual health and advice on women’s experiences like relationships, sexuality, pregnancy, abortions, and the medical profession. Half factual and informational and half anecdotal, the Boston Women’s Health Collective created this educational and accessible resource for women to advise them in health issues and normalize the experience of being a woman in a patriarchal society. Knowledge is power, and by educating women about their bodies and healthy expectations on how to be treated, they empowered women. They are often credited with founding the movement for women to Take Back the Speculum and examine their own bodies. This is a valuable resource since it documents the beginning of a powerful movement, although it certainly goes beyond the scope of this case study in its ~150 pages.

Sandelowski, Margarete. “This Most Dangerous Instrument: Propriety, Power, and the Vaginal Speculum.” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, vol. 29, no. 1, 2000, pp. 73–82., doi:10.1111/j.1552-6909.2000.tb02759.x.

• https://www.jognn.org/article/S0884-2175(15)33792-8/pdf
• This journal publication outlines the history of the speculum leading up to (and beyond) the Women’s Health Movement in the 70s. It explains why they chose the speculum as an iconic symbol in their movement and its impacts. They discuss that the speculum symbolized men looking at women’s bodies and having exclusive rights to “looking,” and how taking back the speculum uprooted that idea and encouraged women to look for themselves and take agency over their sexual health and identity. This is a scholarly, peer-reviewed source, giving it a large amount of credibility, and its publication date lends its history validity as well since it was published 20 years after the Women’s Health Movement.

Eveleth, Rose. “Why No One Can Design a Better Speculum.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 14 Nov. 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/why-no-one-can-design-a-better-speculum/382534/.

• https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/why-no-one-can-design-a-better-speculum/382534/
• This article begins with misconceptions around women’s sexual health in history, then summarizes the history of the speculum in order to contextualize newer designs for the speculum and why they have not been implemented. While this source goes beyond the scope of my case study, it has a good history of the speculum and women’s rights and empowerment nested within it.

“Conclusion and Afterword to Chapter 7: Nazi Medicine and American Gynecology: a Torture Cross-Cultural Comparison.” Gyn/Ecology: the Metaethics of Radical Feminism: With a New Intergalactic Introduction, by Mary Daly, Beacon Press, 1990, pp. 293–313.

• https://archive.org/details/gynecologymetaet00daly
• Honestly this book just in general seems like an interesting radical feminist text, although I probably won’t use this text as a reference for this case study (purely given what I’ve read so far). This chapter I’ve selected is interesting, however, since it claims that many American gynecologists were to some extent trained in Germany, and connected these institutions to Nazi practices in concentration camps, as many of their teachers/professors became involved in prison camps. It intends to highlight the ideology behind American gynecology as well as demonstrate that the patriarchy is a widespread global infrastructure that women must fight, not just part of American society.