Friday, May 3#blacklivesmatter

Give Black Women Their Credit! : Their Influence in Gynecology

The Bougie Aunt | Published 10:00 a.m. E.T. August 07, 2020

10 minute read

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Black Women are the Mothers of Gynecology

*For this article, I will be referring to Africans, African Americans, Blacks, etc. all under the collective term of ‘Black’. Otherwise, it will be confusing trying to explain all the nuances in each. And, this is not the article for that discussion.*

HOW THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT IS NEGLECTING BLACK WOMEN

The Black Lives Matter Movement (BLMM) has contributed to an increased awareness of how Black lives are being negatively affected by their needs being not catered to or met. The movement was able to gain great traction within these past months because of the pandemic allowing more people to recognize issues, like police brutality. And while the little kumbaya moment was fine, a problem was burgeoning. 

Without an investigative eye, the BLMM appears as an inclusive activity that uplifts all voices. However, that is not necessarily the case. Because, the topics being refrained from reaching conversations generally revolve around women. For example, the main figures that have represented the BLMM today and in the past have been men, with Breonna Taylor being the primary exception. 

And, we can test my point through you. Without researching, how many people can you name who are prominent characters of the BLMM? I suspect some of the names are the following: Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Colin Kapernick, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. Where was Sandra Bland’s name in that list? Where are the Black women? It is not like their lives are not being taken by racism, police brutality, and other actions of violence. Simply put, Black women being neglected from BLMM, which is supposed to include them, is a societal construction formed from a mix of sexism, racism, and colorism. There are other factors, of course, but those are my top three.

Sexism and racism are the obvious factors, but colorism being associated with it too may be confusing to some of y’all. But it should not be. Colorism affects each race, and it has the same principle throughout. The darker someone is, the more presumptive roles of dirtiness and unattractiveness are placed on them. Black women have been one of the most marginalized groups because of all three factors; their role in gynecology emphasizes it. 

THE TRUE HISTORY OF GYNECOLOGY 

One of the most disturbing aspects of American history that is brushed over is Black women’s’ incredible influence on gynecology. Instead, the person who receives all the credit for it is James Marion Sims. Sims even is designated the title of “father of modern gynecology”; a title that is not rightly his. 

Sims developed surgical tools for women’s reproductive health. However, Sims’s test victims were enslaved Black women. The Black women who were his test victims received no anesthesia for these extremely invasive surgeries. Why? Well, the myth that Black women cannot feel pain was highly diffused throughout the United States. There is no recorded evidence to suggest the test victims even consented to the trials; but it is extremely likely they did not. Because, they were deemed as slaves, so why would their voice matter and why would their health matter?

I do not view the women as only slaves. So, I will be providing the names of the known fistula victims: Betsey, Anarcha, and Lucy. Lucy was Sims’s first victim; she was eighteen, had recently delivered a baby, and consequently, was enduring a vesicovaginal fistula. Lucy’s surgery at the hands of Sims was extremely traumatic, and she got blood poisoning from it. This is a direct quote from Sims on Lucy’s surgery,

“I thought she was going to die…it took Lucy two or three months to recover entirely from the effects of the operation,”.

For seventeen year old Anarcha, she unfortunately had to survive THIRTY surgeries because of Sims.

It is important to add that Sims was also a slaveholder and participated in the slave trade business. So, a lot of his test victims had unauthorized surgery without anesthesia performed on them so they would be profitable again for the slave trade. Additionally, after Sims developed a sound technique after four years of utilizing Black women as if they were disposable, he transferred the surgeries to white women —- using anesthesia. 

Furthermore, Sims is even more disgusting. Because, other than his diabolical actions of performing invasive surgeries without anesthesia on young Black women, he also used Black children as test victims for neonatal tetanus. He would use a shoemaker’s instrument to probe into their bones and weaken their skulls. And how were the Black women and children celebrated for their extraordinary efforts in persevering through such an awful experience? By the New York Academy of Medicine and Sim’s medical school in South Carolina constructing a statue to commemorate Sims.

Yep. There is nothing more tone deaf than those actions. Thankfully, Sims statue was taken down in New York, but it should have never been lifted in the first place. The argument surrounding taking down statues of figures who embody the United States’s history of racism should not even be an argument. It is not erasing history. Why can’t we replace those same statues with a figure of the group who was undermined by that person? It would be offering an accurate description of history rather than uplifting someone who did not hesitate to degrade others. 

Sculptor Vinnie Bagwell received the “Victory Behind Sims” public arts commission $1 million award to replace Sims’s statue. Her award should be used as an opportunity for what good people who have historically been marginalized narrating their stories can do. 

GYNECOLOGY IN RELATION TO BLACK WOMEN TODAY

Although Black women’s existence contributed to the known information we know about women’s reproductive health, their reproductive health is still neglected today. 

The maternal mortality rate (MMR) is a rate that evaluates the numbers of deaths per 100,000 live births. Just in 2018, the MMR for Black women was 37.1 per 100,000 compared to the national MMR of 17.4 per 100,000. Even though science does not have a definitive answer for this unjust disparity, any one with common sense can recognize it boils down to racism in health care. 

GIVE BLACK WOMEN THEIR CREDIT!

Black women being recognized for their contributions in fields like gynecology, and more attention being placed on the uneven MMR will help empower them. By stripping them of achievements they have rightfully earned and not making any advancements to reverse the MMR for Black women is disenfranchising them. Acknowledge Black women are humans and should be treated as such. Give Black women their credit, they are the mothers of gynecology!

ORGANIZATIONS YOU CAN SUPPORT THAT ARE FEATURED IN THIS ARTICLE

A great organization to donate to that helps fight racial bias in healthcare is Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA). They have a conference next from June 11-13 in 2021. So, if you register, let them know The Bougie Aunt sent you! Let me know what you think of the featured organizations, products, or Black women’s vital influence in gynecology in the comments, through my Instagram and Twitter pages, or both! #CommissionsEarned

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