Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness (Glass Mountain Pamphlet) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
Category: Book
List Price: $6.95
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 724147
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 96
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.3
ISBN: 0912670207
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.1981
EAN: 9780912670201
ASIN: 0912670207
Publication Date: January 1, 1993
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Product Description
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."
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| Customer Reviews:
 It's one of those books that is fascinating, factual and a real page turner April 20, 2007
Rosemary Thornton (Norfolk, VA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
 too short June 19, 2001
A. Djurisic (Hong Kong Hong Kong)
6 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book is way too short for such an interesting topic. Another problem is that it depicts women as main victims of weird medical practices in 19th and early 20th century, which is not entirely true. At those times (and may be true today in some cases also) one would be far better off if one stayed away from medical profession. Also, there are some really hillarious things about treating hysteria which authors didnot bother to mention. For the hystory of vibrators as legitimate medical treatment for hysteria, Rachel Maines has done very good job in dealing with this topic. What is also a pity is that authors didn't pursue various medical superstitions about females and different treatment of females which are present in modern times. For example, nobody questions the articles published in peer reviewed medical journal which state that patient's absolute refusal is "relative contraindication" for performing episiotomy. Is there any other surgical procedure which can be inflicted on a patient against patient's explicitly stated wishes? Or for example the fact that many health insurances cover Viagra but don't cover contraceptives. There are many topics well worth investigation which belog to the topic "Complaints and Disorders : The Sexual Politics of Sickness" which authors have chosen not to address in this pamphlet (can't even call it a book).
Good Bathroom Read November 28, 1999
Sebastian Good (Houston, TX)
9 out of 28 found this review helpful
An account of modern (post-Industrial Revolution) medicine's attempts to squish women under the juggernaut of progress by declaring them weak and/or unfit to achieve. While we here at History House are always suspicious of any work with an obvious political agenda (printed by The Feminist Press), the accounts of doctors and their loopy practices in the nineteenth century are a hoot. If push came to shove, we would suspect some of the wilder accounts given are probably minority views, but the prevailing notion of women as fragile bits of fluff subject to the whims of their productive systems was probably held by a majority of the docs during the period in question. Besides, it's only about ninety pages. A good bathroom read. [HistoryHouse.com]
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