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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1977)
Ehrenreich blasts male medicine Men steal women’s healing tradition By KATHRYN SLADE Of the Emerald "I really don’t want to talk about women in medicine; I want to talk about men in medicine, specifi cally, the rise of male medicine — which I believe is now collapsing.’’ So began Barbara Ehrenreich, noted feminist and author of books and pamphlets on women and health care. Her presentation Thursday night, innocuously titled “Women and the Health Care System," was actually a devastat ing critique on present medical theory and practice — what she terms ‘‘male medicine.” She explained that before the mid-19th century, most healing was done by women. Why women? According to Ehrenreich, women had the responsibility for the health of the children and their knowledge of herbal medicines and midwifery was passed on from mother to daughter. She spoke of her 81-year-old grandmother, whose five children were all delivered at home by a midwife. She also mentioned Harriet Tubman, whose healing skills earned her the title of doctor, though she had no formal training in medicine. Then, around the late 19th cen tury, says Ehrenreich, a change to male medicine took place; a change that involved discrediting lay healing done by women. “It wasn’t just a change of gen der. It involved a complete change in the nature of healing. Male medicine appeared on the scene as a commercial venture, a com modity to be bought and sold." In contrast, said Ehrenreich, “traditional healing by women was not a commodity, but a service to a network of family and neighbors. It involved a lot of caring.” She contrasted the practice of the midwife to the doctor of the same period. The midwife lived at the home of the pregnant woman, taking over her duties and even taking care of the children until the doctors of the period were doing such things as “bleeding” to cure people, a process that could take up to 16 pints of blood from a pa tient. Ehrenreich also said doctors were performing surgery far more than necessary, “especially for females. The female body has al ways been a fascinating frontier to male doctors.” Ehrenreich maintained that the majority of people at that time were aginst formal medicine s at tempts to change medicine, view ing it as immoral to make medicine a commodity. However, around 1870 medicine began to call itself a sci entific discipline. “In other words, doctors were saying they weren’t motivated by greed, but by certain rational, understandable pur poses.” Ehrenreich said it was science that dealt the final blow to lay heal ing, but she did not disparage medicine for becoming scientific. “Originally, science held a lot of promise for medicine,” she said, “it pointed toward a kind of medicine that could usher in a new way of life for everybody.” But Ehrenreich believes sci ence has been betrayed by medicine. “Medicine is still dominated by commercial interests, and the term ‘scientific’ has helped to cover this up.” Ehrenreich illustrated her con tention that commercial interests have priority in medicine with ex amples such as: • 50 per cent of all hysterec tomies are considered medically unnecessary. • The interest large drug firms have in marketing their drugs; seen in the early use of DES to induce abortion, later taken off the market when it was seen to cause cancer; also the present wide spread use of estrogens though they have also been linked to cancer. Ehrenreich believes doctors are not really to blame for dangerous drugs on the market. She said, Campus satire bvjockhatfield Job hunt tough? Try U. of Interview I (brochure format with picture on front of clean kid holding gunny sack, which is full of money) NORTHWEST INTERVIEW COLLEGE Our college was founded in 1977 to provide an education that would do students some good. We based it on the truth that the only thing prospective employers get out of a five-minute job inter view is how well the prospective employe performs a five-minute job interview. Most colleges today seem to be suffering under the de lusion that the skill students pick up in four to six years of economics, biology or political science classes will be instantly picked out, discerned and ap preciated the second they walk through the door. This is non sense. The less skill a student has in his prospective job area the bet ter. imagine Albert Einstein apply ing for the job of grocery checker. His unruly hair, the glazed look in his eyes and his tendency to watch his feet would guarantee starvation before he would be hired to punch people's groceries. On the other hand, a man who has absolutely no skill whatsoever will be given the perfect amount of time to show what he can do. He I will leave a very well-rounded im pression of himself and will be hired. For this reason our college has eliminated all classes dealing with skill and advises transfer stu f 1 dents to avoid as many classes in their prospective job area as pos sible. All of our courses are focused on the one thing that determines the students' job status — the in terview. Perhaps the most impor tant aspect of the job interview is Attitude. All employers are in a constant search for the right one. They stay awake nights dreaming about it; they draw it on notepads while talking on the phone. Unfortunately not one of them knows what this attitude is, they only know when they have the WRONG ONE. For this reason the first required course at our Uni versity is Attitude 201. This course will start out by explaining what the correct attitude is not. It will point out to students why it is un wise to sigh during an interview, expecially when the employer is giving the student a job descrip tion. This is something the non interview-educated student would not know. The first lectures of the course will explore the untied shoelace, and will allow the stu dents to discover for themselves its implications. As the course progresses, students will also exp lore the clashing coat and tie., The second required course in our University, Substitution 341, is with special guests the FRIDAY*APRIL ID*730 PM. LANE CY FAINOROVNDS AVMTMIVH $5 50 ADVANCE • $« M DAY DF SHOW SEND STAMPED SELF ADDRESSED ENVELOPE WITH CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO P.0. BOX 6346. EUGENE. OREGON 97406 required for all ugly students. “The basic understanding I want ugly students to get out of this class,’’ says the instructor of the course, “is that it does not help to wear a bag over their heads during an in terview. " This course offers as an alternative solution the Substitu tion Technique, in which a good looking friend is hired to do the ugly student's interview. Since (Continued on Page 20) “The doctor is becoming a front man, a retail outlet for these multi-national drug firms.” She noted that some of the largest drug manufacturers and medical hardware businesses were once involved in aerospace and de fense technology, and said, “I don’t think they’re any more in terested in human life now than when they were manufacturing weapons.” Happy Birthday, Peter Join With Us In Celebrating the 75th Birthdav of Peter Rabbit Our Children’,, Section is well-stocked with the best gift and story books about Peter and his descendents. Drop in this Saturday between 9 a. m. and 1 p.m. and pick up that last minute Easter gift for your favorite bunny-lover. In the Tradebook Dept. U of O Bookstore 13th at Kincaid Open: Mon-Fri 8 am to 5 pm, Sat 9 am to 1 pm
