Modesty Rules!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Engraving, 1822

The Victorian Age is widely heralded as an era obsessed with modesty and prudery, especially about sexuality.

This reputation is not ill-deserved.

As more and more men entered the practice of midwifery, there was, perforce, some interaction with the delivering woman’s, um, privates. The less interaction there was, however, the better. And the less the male practitioner SAW, even better still.

Gynecologic examinations, and deliveries, were performed by a method known as “the Touch.” This magical technique involved the doctor examining the woman blind, often under her skirts, or covered by sheets. She might even have her face covered, as well, just to avoid any suggestion of sexuality from eye contact.

The invention of the speculum by Recamier in 1801 (or re-invention, actually, since there are ancient references to a speculum-like instrument, and they were widely known in the Islamic world, but the French still claim the bragging rights) obviously caused a tad of consternation.

The purpose is still the same–to examine the cervix for potential disease. But the moral implications were far different.

First, to actually LOOK was simply indecent. Secondly, all that frequent penetration would make women inured to the idea, and then they would become wanton, lustful whores.

Lest you think this is just a British prudery, in 1851 he AMA condemned the speculum as embarrassing to women and hazardous for doctors’ status and reputation.

This, of course, was in an age when women weren’t supposed to be educated, because they only had so much nervous energy; if you used it up on education, they wouldn’t be able to fulfill their role as wives and mothers. So one can understand what speculum exams could do their delicate psyches.

[It didn't help that in 1810 Paris began regulating prostitutes, insisting that every one undergo an examination by speculum to confirm that they were free of venereal disease. The speculum became the instrument of the strumpet, not to be used on genteel clientele.]

Needless to say, in this atmosphere, the training of midwives and gynecologists was a bit, well, bad.

No man was admitted to a birthing room in which he was not the actual practitioner. Men were forced to practice deliveries on various mechanical devices, dolls, clay models–whatever was handy. What they didn’t get to practice on, or even SEE, was a real, laboring woman.

Most man-midwives delivered their first woman in actual practice, with no backup, no training, and no help.

Realizing that this was far from optimal, Dr. James White, an enterprising lecturer at the medical school in Buffalo, New York, attempted to do something about it. He demonstrated a real, live delivery in front of the medical students in 1850.

She was a fallen woman. An Irish immigrant delivering her second out-of-wedlock child, she had no real rights to modesty. Nonetheless, Dr. White covered her in sheets from head to toe, exposing only the birth canal for approximately 5 minutes.

Shocking.

Seventeen doctors sent an open letter to the local medical association, pointing out that this stunt was “offensive alike to morality and common decency.” One doctor noted that the medical students undoubtedly became sexually aroused. Which makes you wonder how they planned to handle their own practices, doesn’t it?

The Victorians would have been appalled by the way we were taught gynecology exams–on living, breathing, unfallen female medical student volunteers, who actually knew what was going on under their own hoods. I volunteered for years. It was fun. The embarrassed looks on the fresh faces were worth every minute. The embarrassed chagrin on the face of one young man, as he spread out the drape and noted, “I feel like I’m at a picnic”…priceless.

This is the latest installment in the Nefarious History of Motherhood. You can catch up on all the juicy tidbits here.

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