Medical Bondage

Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology

By: Deirdre Cooper Owens

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

The accomplishments of pioneering doctors such as John Peter Mettauer, James Marion Sims, and Nathan Bozeman are well documented. It is also no secret that these 19th-century gynecologists performed experimental caesarean sections, ovariotomies, and obstetric fistula repairs primarily on poor and powerless women. Medical Bondage breaks new ground by exploring how and why physicians denied these women their full humanity yet valued them as "medical superbodies" highly suited for medical experimentation.

In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white "ladies". Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities.

Medical Bondage moves between southern plantations and northern urban centers to reveal how 19th-century American ideas about race, health, and status influenced doctor-patient relationships in sites of healing like slave cabins, medical colleges, and hospitals.

©2017 the University of Georgia Press (P)2019 Tantor

Sadly, very little has changed.

I am a Registered Nurse with 25 years of experience. Sadly, I have witnessed some of the atrocities inflicted upon black / brown women during the Antebellum Era during the course of my career. I enjoyed this book for the knowledge and truths told. It broke my heart though, to see that very little has changed from the 1800 to 2020.

Eye Opening & Heart Breaking

Systemic racism discussed in terms of gender and medicine. Amazing book for discussion on race.

Important Knowledge

This book was excellent. Dr. Cooper Owens provides history on this important topic, provides context and relevance for today, and also weaves in narratives to remind readers of the humanity.

An Important Read

American Gynecology was built from the blood, sweat, and tears of enslaved black women. This books takes you on a historical journey through black women's pain. It is real. It is raw, and it is detailed. Hearing about the medical subjugation these women had to endure is eye opening. Hearing about the "educated guesses" male doctors made at the expense of enslaved black women, paired with the lack of recognition that many women didn't receive for their contributions is enraging.

Peculiar story

This title presents more as a race/gender study than medical study. The medical information within is overshadowed by the evaluation of race/gender environment of years past. Contains a marked unnecessary repetition of information, making for a longer title than necessary. Interesting story, definitely worth a listen/read

Very informative and makes me furious

The origins of gynecology are based on slavery, rape and obstetrical violence towards black, Irish and other unfortunate women. I’m glad to be headed towards becoming a female gynecologist to help stop these atrocities!

Are you a birth worker, if so, this is a MUST read!

Excellent. Mind blowing. This is a historically accurate account of how American gynecology was built. If you work in women’s health, this is a must read.

A must read for birthworkers

I'm a doula and childbirth educator, and about half of my clients are Black. The author's work provides a historical context for the injustices that I see daily with my clients. It helped me educate others in the medical field about the roots of racialized obstetric violence, and I used it as a source for many professional workshops that I offer on obstetric violence. This book is a must read for anyone in birthwork or the medical field.

Good info, soooooo repetitive

So I feel weird giving this a bad review, because the subject matter is both fascinating and horrifying, and it’s something that should absolutely be written about…

But. This reads like a college student was writing for a minimum word count and didn’t have enough material to work with so they padded the dickens out of it. This isn’t a terribly long audiobook but I swear the actual content could be comfortably fit into one hour instead of five.

awesome

there's so much in this book. the mothers of healing, life and love. we are because they were so much more!

needed

the book is quite short and it felt a bit repetitive but the subject is very interesting and worth looking into in more detail

Content itself was good, but terrible narration

The content of the audiobook was interesting, thought-provoking, and sobering, although not always written in the most concise or easy to follow/understand way.
I'm not normally one to be overly critical. However, the narration of the audiobook was bad. I can understand the mispronounciation of some medical terms, but what I really found uncomfortable to listen to was the accents that were put on by the narrator when reading quotes. I found them to be borderline offensive and really negatively impacted my overall enjoyment of this audiobook.

Great overview of Medical Bondage - awful narration

This was such an interesting and sobering read, though it backed up a lot of what I already knew of how enslaved and poor women were treated medically, this was a hard hitting look at the facts.

The narration however was awful. The accents were bordering on insulting and some medical jargon was mispronounced.