Miranda Kaufmann
Find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube...
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Blog
  • Talks
  • History
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • Art and Theatre Reviews
  • Features
  • Food & Travel
  • Rugby
  • Contact

Was Todd Akin talking to ancient doctors, such as Galen?

21/8/2012

3 Comments

 
PictureVenetian woodcut (1550)
When I heard Todd Akin assert that pregnancy as a result of rape is “really rare” and that "from what I understand from doctors":

"If it is a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down," I  wondered which doctors he'd been speaking to. 

The last time I’d heard such a theory was when reading early modern English social history books. I wasn’t the only one- Guardian blogger Vanessa Heggie traces the “legal position that pregnancy disproved a claim of rape” back to the 13th century. I remember being horrified when I first read that a 16th century rape victim had no case if she became pregnant.

In fact the medical theory on which this law was based is even older. As Corrine Saunders explains in her book Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England:

“One widely circulated medical theory, based on the ideas of Galen, held that women as well as men emitted seed, and therefore that only when an emission was made, through orgasm, could conception occur: Failure of either partner to achieve orgasm rendered intercourse nonprocreative... According to the Galenic theory of conception, for pregnancy to occur as a result of rape was impossible...”

As Galen lived from 129 –c. 200 AD, we can see that these ideas have been in circulation since ancient times.
  But even more disturbingly, Akin is not the only modern man to have espoused such ancient views regarding female biology, as Robert Mackey demonstrates in his latest blog for the New York Times.  

I thought it was fascinating that the works of Galen could continue to have currency as late as the Tudor and Stuart period that I’ve studied. It’s even more surprising to see men dangerously innocent of modern biology today. 

3 Comments
Kelechi link
22/8/2012 06:29:32 am

Hi Miranda

I could not figure out how to reply on my own site - it's a bit elementary lol (and free).

But I was going to ask if there is a super conservative sector of the political arena in the UK that would agree with Akin, or any of them?

Is abortion a big issue of contention overseas? And/or are men more or less confused about female anatomy?

Reply
Miranda Kaufmann link
22/8/2012 10:25:26 pm

Hi Kelechie,

The abortion debate certainly rages here too. Akin's remarks have been compared with those of UK MP George Galloway, commenting on the Assange case. These articles are interesting:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9490212/George-Galloway-Todd-Akin-and-other-male-politicians-still-getting-it-wrong-on-rape.html

http://www.penny-red.com/post/29989130545/its-trigger-warning-week

And there is a strong "pro-life" lobby: http://prolife.org.uk/

As for anatomical confusion, I found this:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/anti-abortion-group-supports-controversial-rape-comments-204918.html

Abortion is illegal in Ireland:http://www.abortioninireland.org/ - a matter brought before the European Court in 2009: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8403013.stm

- the Irish situation, where women travel abroad for abortions, is an interesting parallel to what might happen were it to become illegal in certain US states. One site has a "clinic browser": http://www.abortioninireland.org/abortion-abroad/clinic-browser

If the "sex education" episode of new BBC comedy Bad Education (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m38br), is anything to go by, there's a long way to go before all confusion is removed!

-Just a few thoughts! I'll post this on your site (http://www.kelechiezie.com/chronicles-of-a-blactress.html) too...

Reply
Medical Laboratory Technician Salary link
28/8/2013 06:24:20 pm

i really love to tell that the ancient doctors would be trained to become modern but i guess they are more effective than before.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dr. Miranda Kaufmann is a historian of Black British History living in North Wales. You can read a fuller bio here, and contact her here.

    Related Blogs/Sites

    Michael Ohajuru's Black Africans in Renaissance Europe blog

    Temi Odumosu's The Image of Black website

    The UCL Legacies of British Slave-ownership project Database and blog

    The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

    The Black Presence in Britain

    Jeffrey Green's website, on Africans in 19th and early 20th Century Britain
     
    Untold Theatre 

    Categories

    All
    Africans In British Art
    Africans In Early Modern London
    Africans In Eighteenth Century England
    Africans In Renaissance Scotland
    Africans In Stuart England
    Africans In Tudor England
    Archives
    Black History
    Black History Month
    Early Modern England
    Exhibitions
    Heritage
    History
    Inclusive Curriculum
    Journalism
    Legal History
    Medical History
    National Curriculum
    Podcasts
    Politics
    Public History
    Radio History
    Research
    School History
    Shakespeare
    Slavery & Abolition
    Talks
    Travel
    Tv History

    Archives

    October 2022
    August 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    July 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.