Deirdre Cooper Owen's Lecture

Deirdre Copper Owens’ lecture “Defining Blackness: Examining Slavery, Race, and Immigration in the Antebellum Era” explores the relationship between female slaves and the advancements made in the field of gynecology during the 20^th century. Owens discusses two particular case studies in which race and status were used to justify the abuse and exploitation of women, for the cause of medicine. The first case involves Dr. James Marion Sims. He was a doctor who began his research by studying and operating on half a dozen female slaves and then later went on to establish his own hospital. At this hospital, Sims met and conducted over thirty procedures on Mary Smith, a poor Irish immigrant, before botching one and rendering her useless.  The second case Owens explores involves the stereotypes that surrounded female slaves as a result of gynecological studies. Doctor’s began to think that a female slave’s body was physically stronger and could endure more than a white woman’s body. Doctors then turned this stereotype into a racist justification for experimenting on and over-using female slaves’ bodies. Ultimately it was the female slaves’ bodies that contributed to the advancement of gynecology not the slaves themselves—for they had no control over their bodies or what was happening to them.

Exploring the less commonly known facets of slavery is essential to understanding the institution as a whole.  By Owens’ focusing her research on female slaves and their role in gynecological study, she is providing insight into their horrifyingly unique experience. The notion that female slaves contributed to the advancement of gynecology is, in my opinion, tainted. The women experimented and operated on were not willing participants nor did they have any say in what was happening to their bodies. Ultimately it was the physical and sexual abuse endured by the women’s bodies that resulted in such a fast progression of the science. The female slaves were not viewed as people or women, they were simply seen specimens necessary to figuring out what would and would not save a white woman’s life. In Owens’ lecture, she displayed a painting of one black women sitting on an examining table surrounded by three men and Dr. Sims. This painting depicts the racially unbalanced dynamic between female slaves and doctors for the other men were only there to prohibit the woman from thrashing around, due to extreme pain. Through this depiction, it becomes evident that the female slaves had no control over what was happening to them. Ultimately no type of medical discovery or advancement is great enough to justify the abuse and sexual exploitation of women.