Although Sims is known as the first gynecologist in modern terms, it was already known to physicians in ancient times that women can have specific diseases.
But these conditions received little attention until Sims focused on women in the 19th century.
His pioneering work brought Sims wealth and fame in the medical field, but his reputation was soon tarnished. Rightly so.
Slave owners provided women
Sims had gained his knowledge by performing painful and bloody operations on black female slaves – without consent or anesthesia.
The women were supplied by slave owners who wanted to keep their female slaves fertile. Sims believed that black people were inferior and did not shy away from trying techniques on the women, also forcing them to work for him while he experimented on them.
When he moved his practice to New York after the American Civil War, he could no longer get female slaves, because slavery had been abolished.
That is why he was looking for a new population group to ‘help’: Irish immigrants. He didn’t like them much either, and they received the same harsh treatment as the female slaves.
Sims was already criticized in his own time, but the first major blow came in 1976, when historian GJ Barker-Benfield published a book criticizing Sims’s “extremely active and adventurous approach to female genital surgery.”
Since then, more and more has come to light and several statues of Sims have been removed from American cities, including New York’s Central Park.
2023-07-02 14:52:34
#Father #gynecology #mutilated #slaves #immigrants
