From the Examiner:
Hysteria deals with a rather dark period in women's history, and especially that of the medical profession. Set in 1880 Victorian London, where doctors still rely on blood sucking leeches as a regular form of treatment, medical science was even more clueless when it came to the care of women. It didn't help that health care was basically an all boy's club, and that guys knew even less about females than we do now, which is still extraordinarily little. Women were thought to be joyless, sexless creatures. It was either that or they were promiscuous lunatics needing to be institutionalized. There was no middle ground. So when it came to women dealing with common issues like depression, anxiety, or discontentment, guys just conjured up a catch-all by labeling it "female hysteria".
See also: Female Hysteria from wikipedia and The Victorian Era website.
2 comments:
The first time I heard of this I was absolutely amazed!
Absolutely shocking.....so glad the "good old days" are over.....life without my eroscillator just wouldn't be the same :)
Post a Comment