Medical Men, Women of Letters, and Treatments for Eighteenth-Century Hysteria

Meek, Heather

doi:10.1007/s10912-012-9194-4

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 10 publications

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“…The second etymological problem concerns the historical origins of the term hysteria. Gender researchers are well aware that hysteria has been widely critiqued as an example of pseudoscientific misogyny that dates back as far as the early 1600s (see Meek, 2013;Tasca, Rapetti, Carta & Fadda, 2012;Trumble, 2007). In the case of homohysteria, the deployment of the term seems to have reversed the target, in that, like homophobia, the term pathologizes specific forms of social reaction against homosexuality rather than labeling homosexual men and women as hysterical themselves.…”

Section: Where Does Homohysteria Fit and What Does It Tell Us?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ebb and Flow of Homophobia: a Gender Taboo Theory

Plummer

2014

Sex Roles

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A key challenge for gender theory and practice is to explain the circumstances in which homophobia either intensifies or declines. In addition to the important theoretical implications of such an explanation, being able to clearly delineate the mechanisms that drive the ebb and flow of homophobia raises the prospect that one day it might be possible to eradicate this important antisocial problem. But understanding the underlying drivers entails the development of a satisfactory body of theory to explain the existence of homophobiaa body of theory that may well be called on to explain different homophobias in different cultural settings that span the gender spectrum. As discussed, various proposals have been made for alternative terminologies and associated candidate theories that are intended to explain homophobia better. However, none seems to have articulated a sufficiently compelling case to be considered definitive, while others simply fail to accord with everyday homophobic experiences. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, to propose a set of criteria that need to be satisfied if a theory is going to provide a robust explanation for the ebb and flow of homophobia(s). Second, to explore whether gender taboos offer a coherent theoretical basis for explaining the existence of, and the power behind homophobia. Finally, the analysis looks to shifting gender relations as a possible explanation for the ebb and flow of homophobia. Keywords masculinity; masculinities; inclusive masculinities; masculine taboos; gender roles; gender taboos; homophobia; homophobia-phobia; homophobiaphobia; homohysteria; gender taboo theory; homophobia theory Introduction: The ebb and flow of homophobia Homophobia is an important social problem that exacts a heavy toll on the wellbeing of men and women around the world (Berrill, 1992; Tin, 2008). The prospect of being able to better understand what drives homophobic prejudices and what causes them to fluctuate, raises the possibility that it might be possible to intervene and ultimately to be free of these harmful antisocial phenomena. In their important work, McCormack and Anderson (2014) have found evidence for declining levels of homophobia in circumstances where homophobia was previously well established, especially in all male institutions, schools, colleges and sporting teams in the US and UK. At around the same time, McCann reported evidence from Australian men that suggests that homophobia can be unlearned (McCann, Minichiello & Plummer, 2009). Moreover, there is also evidence that reductions in homophobia can be circumstantial and highly circumscribed. For example, in Anglophone cultures, homophobia typically interdicts intimate male-male contact in public spaces, but this interdiction can be readily suspended in the case of members of a winning football team, who are momentarily free to embrace, cry and kiss each other on the playing field in front of spectators to celebrate a hard fought victory (for more, see Plummer, 1999, pp. 257-266).

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Section: Where Does Homohysteria Fit and What Does It Tell Us?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ebb and Flow of Homophobia: a Gender Taboo Theory

Plummer

2014

Sex Roles

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The Head, the Heart, and Hysteria in Jeanne Flore's Tales and Trials of Love (c. 1542)

Peebles

2017

J Med Humanit

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This essay examines a challenge to common literary representations of female mental illness in the Early Modern period-the hysterical woman-in a collection of French short stories contemporary to Vesalius's De Fabrica: Jeanne Flore's Tales and Trials of Love (1542). Jeanne Flore's tales depict several mentally disturbed female protagonists, young women prone to paroxysms of madness and self-mutilation. This study maintains that while Tales and Trials of Love superficially participates in the literary tradition that grew out of those accepted social and medical beliefs, it also questions the long-accepted paradigm of female hysteria and points to a shift in the socio-medical climate. Jeanne Flore's fictional narratives suggest that mental illness no longer consists in the realignment of a uterine imbalance, but rather in the telling of personal stories, a precursor to psychoanalysis and narrative medicine.

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Mary Wollstonecraft and the Right to Air

Boyson¹

2021

Romanticism

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Air flows through all Mary Wollstonecraft's writings, from her first novel Mary, through her treatises and letters, and to her last novel Maria. She was attuned to the medical importance of a change of air, but also developed a more philosophical notion of a right to air. Her attention to everyday air and smell unavoidably reaffirmed her key intellectual questions of commonality, individuality, equality and freedom. For Wollstonecraft, air was both a metaphor for freedom and also a literal condition for its development. This article situates her numerous remarks on air alongside medical sources, racialized climatological theory, slavery cases, and the pneumatic chemistry of the 1790s. Such a reading of Wollstonecraft's aerial philosophy, and comparisons with Burke, Rousseau, Godwin and Kant, contributes to an ecological reading of her work and to a forgotten history of air rights, with relevance to current debates on air quality and inequality.

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Medical Men, Women of Letters, and Treatments for Eighteenth-Century Hysteria

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

The Ebb and Flow of Homophobia: a Gender Taboo Theory

The Ebb and Flow of Homophobia: a Gender Taboo Theory

The Head, the Heart, and Hysteria in Jeanne Flore's Tales and Trials of Love (c. 1542)

Mary Wollstonecraft and the Right to Air

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