Beyond Constructivism?: Gender, Medicine and the Early History of Sperm Analysis, Germany 1870–1900

Benninghaus, Christina

doi:10.1002/9781118508206.ch5

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…From the history of medicine, we are inspired by research focusing on how men and men's bodies have been gendered and pathologised in relation to health and sexuality. 11 Studies in feminist science and technology studies show how science, technology and medical practices contribute to the material as well as the discursive shaping of identities, bodies and societal power relations. 12 Critical studies of men and masculinities provide a framework for analysing masculinity as a social, historical and cultural construct that is entangled with norms connected to embodiment, sexuality and reproductive capacities.…”

Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's in a Gland? Sexuality, Reproduction and the Prostate in Early Twentieth‐Century Medicine

Björkman

Persson

2020

Gender & History

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This article presents a case study about how norms relating to masculinity, sexuality and reproduction were produced in relation to the healthy, ailing, or aging prostate in early twentieth century medicine. It shows how the ailing prostate tied in with norms about healthy, abnormal or illicit sexual and reproductive practices. Engaging with insights from the history of medicine, feminist science studies, and men and masculinity studies, it highlights how the prostate became a diagnostic catch-all for a wide range of physical and mental conditions, producing demarcations between femininity and masculinity, manliness and unmanliness, health and illness, and moral and vice. … the prostate is not only a sexual organ, but one that is absolutely indispensable … without it the race would end and without it the pleasure of sexual contact would be wanting. 1 George M. Phillips, 1903 What is a prostate? In the early twentieth century, medical practitioners provided a variety of answers to this question. The gland's connection to men's reproductive systems was widely agreed upon at the time. Medical professionals, such as the professor of genitourinary surgery quoted above, considered it to be vital for conception and thus the future of the human race. Others saw important connections between the prostate and a man's general health and wellbeing, both physical and mental. In scholarly articles and clinical reports about men and their prostates, professionals explored and debated physiological qualities and problems related to the gland. At times, such accounts included material that outlined norms around masculinity and sexuality; the prostate spoke to what it meant to be a man, a husband and a productive citizen. This observation aligns with the more general pattern shown by scholars studying the prostate and related aspects of men´s 'intimate health' during the early twentieth century, that such accounts could be 'heavily moral in tone'. 2 The introductory quotation above comes from Professor George M. Phillips, one of the medical practitioners who, in the early 1900s, argued that the prostate gland played a crucial role in men's health and wellbeing far beyond its reproductive

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Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's in a Gland? Sexuality, Reproduction and the Prostate in Early Twentieth‐Century Medicine

Björkman

Persson

2020

Gender & History

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“…According to Benninghaus, gender provided 'a contemporary set of ideas about masculinity, femininity and sex difference' that was 'used as a resource, explanation and argument by those negotiating infertility'. 10 For all of their differences, both authors problematise in provocative ways the relationship between scientific knowers constructing knowledge about sex and gender and their objects of study; the articles' purview includes scientific instruments and microscopic entities along with the human actors who more commonly populate historical narratives.…”

Section: Introduction: Gender History Across Epistemologies Donna R mentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Gender History Across Epistemologies

Gabaccia¹,

Maynes²

2012

Gender & History

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Beyond Constructivism?: Gender, Medicine and the Early History of Sperm Analysis, Germany 1870–1900

Cited by 2 publications

References 14 publications

What's in a Gland? Sexuality, Reproduction and the Prostate in Early Twentieth‐Century Medicine

What's in a Gland? Sexuality, Reproduction and the Prostate in Early Twentieth‐Century Medicine

Introduction: Gender History Across Epistemologies

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