-60-90 percent of all human cancers and high percentages of other lung, heart, nerve and kidney disease as well as reproductive problems, birth defects and even behavioral disorders are now thought to be environmentally caused. ("Environment" here includes our diet and living habits.)
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, NY, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 105.

- Today environmental hazards are so widespread that nobody can totally avoid them.

- We are involuntarily exposed to some environmental health hazards no matter who or where we are. Toxics don't discriminate - they cross regional, sex, class and racial lines. In these cases economic power determines how much we can protect ourselves.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, NY, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 107.

- We can absorbe toxic substances in three ways: through the skin, through the digestive system (eating or drinking) or through the lungs.

- Reproductive health hazards are probably the most controversial issues in environmental health.

- Because women bear children, reproductive hazards are too often considered "a woman's problem" involving pregnancy alone. This view ignores 2 important facts: that men are also affected by reproductive hazards, and that reproductive health means more than having healthy babies.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, NY, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 109.

- Environmental mutagens also pose dangers for the entire human species. Damaged genetic material, whether it causes visible damage or not, contributes its permanent changes to the total human gene pool.

- A mutation rate increased by the effects of chemical and radioactive toxins could not only produce a general decline in human genetic health, it could threaten human existence.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, NY, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 111.

 

- Everywhere you turn, medical professionals are claiming expertise in matters never before considered medical: in criminality, adolescence, overactivity in children, sex, diet, child abuse, exercise and aging. In this takeover called medicalization, medical people become the "experts" on normal experiences or social problems.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, NY, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 656.

The medical world defines women as inherently defective throughout life, in that we
"require" a physicians care for all our normal female functions.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, NY, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 657.

- An important component of what Michel Foucalt refers to as "the fantasy link between knowledge and pain" is the association, within patriarchal configurations, of femininity with the pathological. Disease and the woman have something in common - they are both socially devalued or undesirable, marginalized elements which constantly threaten to infiltrate and contaminate that which is more central, health or masculinity.

- There is even a sense in which the female body could be said to harbor disease within physical configurations that are enigmatic to the male. As is frequently noted, the word "hysteria" is derived from the Greek word for "uterus" and the 19th century defined this disease quite specifically as a disturbance of the womb - the woman's betrayal by her own reproductive organs.
- Edited by Susan Rubin Suleiman, "The Female Body in Western Culture. Contemporary Perspectives" (Cambridge, USA: Harvard University Press, 1986, 1985) p. 152.

- Hysteria was given its present meaning by Reneissance doctors who explained women's diseases with a theory that the womb sometimes became detached from its place and wandered about inside the body, causing uncontrolled behavior.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 421.

- The ease with which the woman slips in to the role of patient is certainly linked to the fact that the doctor exercises an automatic power and mastery in the relation, which is only a hyperbolization of the socially acceptable "norm" of the heterosexual alliance.

- The doctor-patient relation is quite specific one, however, which unrelentingly draws together power, knowledge, the body and the psyche in the context of an institution. Therein lies its force in convincing the woman that her way of looking is ill.
- Edited by Susan Rubin Suleiman, "The Female Body in Western Culture. Contemporary Perspectives" (Cambridge, USA: Harvard University Press, 1986, 1985) p. 173.

 

-From the earliest human cultures, the mysterious magic of creation was thought to reside in the blood women gave forth in apparent harmony with the moon...

- The Bible's story of Adam was lifted from an older female-oriented creation myth recounting the creation of man from clay and moon-blood.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 635.

- In ancient societies both east and west, menstrual blood carried the spirit of sovereign authority because it was the medium of transmission of the life of clan or tribe.

- In India, when a girl first menstruates, she is said to have "borne the Flower".

- The Bible also calls menstrual blood the flower (Leviticus 15:24)

- As any flower mysteriously contained its future fruit, so uterine blood was the moon-flower supposed to contain the soul of future generations. this was a central idea in the matrilineal concept of the clan.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 638.

- Taoist China considered red a sacred color associated with women, blood, sexual potency, and creative power. white sas the color of men, semen, negative influences, passivity, and death.

- This was the basic Tantric idea of male and female essences: the male principle was seen as "passive" and "quiescent"; the female principle as "active" and "creative," the reverse of later patriarchal views.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row,1983) p. 639.

- Because menstrual blood occupied a central position in matriarchal theologies, and was already sacer -holy-dreadful - patriarchal-ascetic thinkers showed almost hysterical fear of it.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 641.

-Persian patriarchs followed the Brahman lead in maintaining that menstruous women must be avoided like poison. They belonged to the devil; they were forbidden to look at the sun, to sit in water, to speak to a man, or to behold an altar fire.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row,1983) p. 642.

- Christians inherited all the ancient patriarchs' superstitious horrors. St. Jerome wrote: "Nothing is so unclean as a woman in her periods; what she touches she causes to become unclean."
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row,1983) p. 643.

- 19th century doctors still continued to believe in their predecessors' notions of witchcraft and evil, andmaintained that menstruating women are not healthy.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row,1983) p. 644.

- The superstition came down to the 20th century, when a Scottish medical text quoted an old rhyme to the effect that menstrual blood could destroy the entire world.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 643.

- A doctor wrote even in this century: "We cannot too emphatically urge the importance of regarding these monthly returns as periods of ill health, as days when the ordinary occupations are to be suspended or modified."

- The holy "blood of life" used to be feminine and real; now it is masculine and symbolic.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row,1983) p. 644.

- The menstrual cycle is yet another aspect of female experience which patriarchal thinking has turned inside out, rendering it sinister or disadvantageous. Internalizing this attitude, we actually perceive ourselves as polluted. Our tendency to flesh-loathing is underscored; religious taboos are laid on us even in "advanced" societies.
- Adrienne Rich, "Of Woman Born. Motherhood as Experience and Institution" (New York, USA: W.W.Norton & Company, 1986) p. 106.

 

-The leading killer of women in their fertile years? Half a million women die in developing countries each year from preventable pregnancy-related causes. More than half of these pregnancies are unwanted. Where abortion is illegal, underground procedures can be the single biggest killer. AIDS, however, is gaining fast worldwide, in part because men refuse to wear condoms.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 714.
- Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C. N.Y.TIMES April 4th, 1994

-In many cases it is not the lack of birth control methods or poverty but male-dominated cultural, legal, and religious pressures that force women into unwanted pregnancies.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 726.

- When we say women must have reproductive freedom, we mean the possibility of controlling for ourselves, in a real and practical way - that is, free from economic, social or legal coercion -whether and under what conditions we will have children.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 714.

 

- In a medical setting, your most important right is the right to control what happens to your body.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 682.

-studies have shown that physicians and other medical personnel in medical settings do

*not listen to women or believe what they said

* withhold knowledge

* lie to women

* treat women without their consent

* not warn of risks and negative effects of treatments

* overcharge women

* experiment on women or use them as "teaching material"

* treat women poorly beacause of their race, sexual preference, age or disability

* offer women tranquilizers or moral advice instead of medical care

* administer treatments which are unnecessarily mutilating and too extreme for their problem, or treatments which result in permanent disability or even death

* prescribe drugs which hook women, sicken them, change their entire lives

* perform operations women later find unnecessary and remove organs that are

* abuse women sexually
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 652.

- While ailing men do report many of the same problems with the medical care system as women, men use the system less. Men do not, like women, have to consult physicians for normal events in the reproductive cycle, such as pregnancy. Men tend to come into the system only during crises. Medical care providers treat male patients with more respect than women and offer fewer tranquilizers and less moral advice.

- Also, since only 17 % of doctors are women, most women see male physicians, a situation which severely exaggerates male-female power imbalances.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 652.

- c. 3000 B.C. in nearly all areas of the world, goddesses were extoled as healers, dispensers of curative herbs, roots, plants and other medical aids, casting the priestesses who attented the shrines into the role of physicians of those who worshipped there.
- Mary Chamberlain, "Old Wives´ Tales: Their History, Remedies and Spells" (London, UK: Virago Press, Ltd., 1981) p. 11.

- c. 129-201 A.D. the conversion of the Roman empire to Christianity chrystalised attitudes towards
women and women healers. The Roman gods were replaced by one all-powerful God whose duties included healing, and delegated the role of healing to His chosen successors. Thus men were confirmed in their role as official healer...
- Mary Chamberlain, "Old Wives´ Tales: Their History, Remedies and Spells" (London, UK: Virago Press, Ltd., 1981) p. 29.

-...healing had traditionally been the prerogative of women. In the14th-16th century Europe all but the most privileged women were expected to be at least literate in the language of herbs and healing techniques, the most learned women traveled widely to share their skills.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 690.

...in the fourteenth century the Church decreed that any woman who healed others without
having studied, was duly a witch and should suffer death.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 690.

- Female witches were more severely punished than male witches. A law of 1683 said that for the crime of causing death by witchcraft, man may be hanged but a woman must be burnt at the stake.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 924.

- 85 % of the many millions executed as witches were women. They were charged with an imaginative variety of crimes, from causing a man's genitals to disappear to bringing about the death of a neigbor's cow; but wisewomen, healers, and midwifes were especially singled out by the witch-hunters.
- Adrienne Rich, "Of Woman Born. Motherhood as Experience and Institution" (New York, USA: W.W.Norton & Company, 1986) p. 135.

- In 15th-16th century Europe the witch trials established the male physician on a moral and intellectual plane vastly above the female healer. It placed him on the side of God and the Law, a professional on a par with lawyers and theologians, while it placed her on the side of darkness, evil, and magic.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 691.

- During the 20th century with the elimination of midwifery, all women - not just those of the upper class - fell under the biological hegemony of the medical profession. In the same stroke, women lost their last autonomous role as healers. The only roles left for women in the medical system were as employees, customers, or "material" ...The male takeover of healing had weakened the communal bonds among women and had created a model for professional authority in all areas of domestic activity.
- The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves". A Book By and For Women (New York, USA: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992, 1984) p. 693.

 

- Joseph Campbell asserts that "there can be no doubt that in the very earliest ages of human history the magical force and wonder of the female was no less a marvel than the universe itself; and this gave to woman a prodigious power, which has been one of the chief concerns of masculine part of the population to break, control and employ to its own ends."

- Female figurines were "the first objects of worship by the species Homo sapiens. But there is a shift in the magic, ritual and imagery of Homo sapiens from the vagina to the phallus, and from an essentially plant-oriented to a purely animal-oriented mythology." - Adrienne Rich, "Of Woman Born. Motherhood as Experience and Institution" (New York, USA: W.W.Norton & Company, 1986) p. 115.

- Sexuality was reverenced in cultures where the female principle was accorded freedom and honor, as in Egypt, where women chose and wooed their lovers at will.

- But in Christian view, woman brought death into to world and sex perpetuated it.

- It was claimed that Adam was made to be immortal, but he lost both his innocence and his immortality when Eve taught him about sex. All women were copies of Eve, said Tertullian.

- Women were dangerous even when dead. An early church edict ordered that male corpse must not be buried next to a female corpse until the latter was safely decomposed.

- Not only was Europe crucified by Christian antisexuality but also much of Oceania, Africa, and the Far East.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 912.

- Throughout history we find clergymen advocating abuse of women, to express their horror of female sexuality and their conviction that all women deserve punishment for the primordial crime that brought death and damnation to man. Adam, representing all men, was less quilty than Eve, representing all women.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. viii.

- For many centuries the church insisted that marital sex should be as barren of sensual pleasure as possible, and that orgasms in women were unseemly or even devilish. The "missionary position" was the only permitted sexual position, because it afforded the least pleasure, especially to the wife.

- In consequence of such socialization, "good" women were frequently sex-haters.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 913.

- In the Victorian period the female body became more taboo, more mysterious, more suspected of "complaints and disorders", and the focus of more ignorant speculation, than ever before. The male gynecological establisment viewed female sexual responsiveness of any kind as pathological, and the "myth of female frailty" haunted the existence of middle- and upper-class women. If education was supposed to atrophy the female reproductive organs, women's sufrage was seen creating "insane asylums in every country, and... a divorce court in every town"clitoridectomies and ovariotomies were performed on women as a form of behavior modification for "troublesomeness;" "attempted suicide," and "erotic tendencies."
- Adrienne Rich, "Of Woman Born. Motherhood as Experience and Institution" (New York, USA: W.W.Norton & Company, 1986) pp. 169-170.

Stall's mariage manual, the ultimate authority at the turn of the century, blamed women themselves of the sexual ignorance society imposed on them. If a wife failed to understand her husband's sexual needs, she was to blame "for her lack of knowledge and consideration." but men's lack of knowledge and consideration was part of the culture.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 915.

- Judith Antonelli says, "Patriarchy is based on the 'phallacy' that the male is the creator. Man's original awe and envy of woman becomes, under patriarchy, resentment and hostility. The only way man can possess female power is through woman, and so he colonizes her, supressing her sexuality so that it serves him rather than being the source of her power...Patriarchy is indeed a male neurosis."
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 927.

- Modern thinkers regret the loss of cultural emphasis on the feminine morality that can integrate sex with affection, tenderness, and sensitivity toward others' emotional needs. It has been often said that male-dominated societies tend to burden the sexual impulses of both women and men with basically unrelated guilts, fears, angers, and their resulting aggressions.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 917.

-Paradoxically, the more sexuality is banned and ignored, the more fear it seems to engender in men.
- Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" (San Francisco, USA: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 918.

 

 

 

© KirsiMarja Metsähuone, 1998