Blog 8 — 10 April 2020

Use this post to develop and critically reflect on the topic of your project.  Aim to articulate the central question of your project?

The central question of my project at this point will be: to what extent has the male gaze manifested in how women view themselves? To what extent does empowering women physically in the comfort of their bodies and the sexuality combat the effects of the male gaze?

In my project I will investigate the history of the speculum to contextualize the take back the speculum movement of the 70s. Since the speculum originated through the pain and suffering of female slaves, the device itself, although technically designed for female health, has been used for both good and bad on women throughout history. Given its controversial history, I wanted to see how the evolving views regarding the speculum has paralleled women’s empowerment and feminism throughout the years, specifically in regards to the male gaze. Another context that I found interesting during my research was the argument that gynecology as a practice was developed for men to involve themselves in the only place the weren’t the dominant figure: childbirth. As childbirth was originally conducted between a midwife and the pregnant woman, and gynecology and doctor practices in general were solely conducted by men, this controversial theory emerged. While I hesitate to accept this theory, given that any progress in addressing women’s sexual and genital health is an important and empowering step in the development of women’s autonomy in a sexist society, I believe there is certainly much to be discussed regarding the lack of knowledge regarding female sexuality (biologically and psychologically). As a result, I’d like to explore the history of the speculum in regards to feminism and women’s rights movements.

Ultimately, the history of the speculum and women’s rights culminate in the take back the speculum movement in the 70s. My goal here is to elucidate the connection between the speculum and women’s attempts to combat the male gaze. Since during the 70s the gynecological practice was dominated by male doctors, women used the speculum to symbolize their ability to reclaim their sexuality from men. Since the speculum was used by male doctors to examine women’s genitals, women wanted to demonstrate that they deserve and are capable of responsibility over their own sexual health. During the 70s, women would distribute speculums and encourage one another to look at their cervix with a speculum and a mirror and become more comfortable with their genital anatomy. This act allowed women the ability to determine their own rules regarding their relationship with sex, and break free from the contradictory expectations put in place by the patriarchal society. Furthermore, this was a powerful first step to destigmatizing female sexuality and humanizing how women experience sexuality (and validating that their experience does not have to be a parallel or variation on male sexuality!).

Personally, I struggle with how female empowerment has affected the female gender identity today. While contradictory sexual expectations perpetuate (sexy minx versus conservative wife-material), there is also an intentional dissemination of validating female sexuality, even encouraging masturbation to explore women’s own bodies. I feel that throughout this movement, instead of only humanizing the female, we have hypersexualized her. In media and fashion, this feels apparent, but also in how women view each other. In college at least, I see my fellow girlfriends trying to dress sexy, or not having alternatives to dressing with sex appeal besides aggressively obvious lounge wear (which has also been sexualized by the fashion industry with tighter sweatpants and cropped sweatshirts, connecting lounge wear with sex appeal once again). I want to follow the trajectory of the history of the speculum to connect it to these current events and current questions. I’d like to examine how the sexualization of the female is both a form of empowerment and restriction in our patriarchal society. I’m still wondering how to connect all these ideas, but I think there is a common stream here that I plan to connect before I finally present so we can have a productive conversation all together.

In the end, I want to follow

History of the speculum –> take back the speculum movement –> male gaze –> feminine identity