Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness (Glass Mountain Pamphlet) [Paperback]

Barbara Ehrenreich (Author), Deirdre English (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0912670207 | ISBN-13: 978-0912670201 | Publication Date: January 1, 1993 | Edition: 1st

   In this exciting sequel to their underground bestseller, Witches, Midwives, and Nurses, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English document the tradition of American sexism in medicine before and after the turn of the century. Citing vivid examples, including numerous "treatments" and "rest cures" perpetrated on women through the decades, the authors analyze the biomedical rationale used to justify the wholesale sex discrimination throughout our culture-in education, in jobs, and in public life. Ever since Hippocrates, male medics have treated women as the "weaker" sex. By the late 19th century, when the authority of religious documents had waned, the ultimate rationale for sex discrimination became solely biomedical. In this intriguing pamphlet, the authors raise the diffuclt question: "How sick-or well-are women today?" They assert that feminists today want more than "more": "We want a new style, and we want a new substance of medical practice as it relates to women."

Editorial Reviews

Review

In this follow-up to Witches, Midwives, and Nurses, Barbara Ehrenrich and Deidre English look at the evolution of the medical view of the female sex and how it has been used to reinforce the social view of women. Beginning in the late 19th century, the fact of women's inferiority was "proven" through medical science. Today, the medical establishment still serves to give "scientific" justifications for the sexist values of our society. The point here is that medicine is not an objective, unbiased science; rather, it reflects and supports the prevailing social attitudes. In their quest for better healthcare, women need to address not only access to care, but also the prejudices which affect that care. -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by FGP

About the Author

Barbara Ehrenreich is author of the 2002 New York Times bestseller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. She has written nearly twenty books, and has been a columnist for Time magazine and the New York Times. She has contributed to The Progressive, Harpers, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms., The New Republic, Z Magazine, In These Times, and Salon.com. Deirdre English is the former editor of Mother Jones magazine. She has written for the Nation, New York Times Book Review, San Francisco Magazine, S.F. Chronicle Sunday Magazine, Vogue, and public radio and television. Currently, English is a professor at University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY; 1st edition (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912670207
• ISBN-13: 978-0912670201
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #423,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Medicine > Medical Ethics
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Medicine > Administration & Policy > Health Care Delivery
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Administration & Medicine Economics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's one of those books that is fascinating, factual and a real page turner, April 20, 2007

By 

Rosemary Thornton "Niece of Addie Hoyt Fargo ... (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness (Glass Mountain Pamphlet) (Paperback)

I'm fairly stunned at the two two-star reviews here. This book was co-authored by Barbara Ehrenreich who went on to write several other WONDERFUL books, such as "Nickel and Dimed" and "For Her Own Good."

"Complaints and Disorders; The Sexual Politics of Sickness" is a short book (95 pages) but that's part of what made it such a good read. Once you start reading it, you won't want to stop until you're to the last page. And there's a lot of info packed into those pages.

On page 37, the authors write, "The entire mystique of female sickness - the house calls, the tonics and medicines, the heatlh spas - served, above all, to keep a great many women busy at the task of doing nothing."

That's what was done to women in the Victorian era. In modern times, we use beauty and weight as the lure to "keep women busy as the task of doing nothing."

There's also some background info on how women healers (or witches, as the men liked to call them) were removed from power so male doctors could enjoy their ascension to power and wealth.

It's one of a handful of books I've pressed into the hands of my daughter and said, "you have GOT to read this book." And *that's* the highest recommendation.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Primary Source Material, March 19, 2010

By 

D. Rubel (Brighton, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness (Glass Mountain Pamphlet) (Paperback)

If you're interested in the subject the bibliography alone is worth the purchase. Great illustrations and a nice discussion with good primary source quotes on both upper/middle class women and working class women and their relationship with medicine from the turn of the last century.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic feminist text on women and medicine, October 26, 2009

By 

J. Schwarz "Informed Woman" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
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Classic feminist text on women and medicine. Provides important overview on women's health in the 19th and 20th centuries. Discusses class issues as the impact on health (especially working women), public health, the medical profession, immigrants, prostitution, reformers like Margaret Sanger, etc. Still stands as essential reading for history of medicine.