Here’s a quick history lesson. The word Hysterical comes from the Greek Hysterikos, which literally means “of the womb.” Plato and his contemporaries actually believed that when the uterus remained empty for too long, it would start wandering angrily through the body and smack into women’s brains, making them act irrational — or as Golub would say, “shrill and angry.” Hysteria was a catch-all medical diagnosis used until the late nineteenth century as a way to discredit and isolate women who tended to show strong emotions or “cause trouble,” and the “treatment” of these women is a black mark on the history of the entire psychological profession. Doctors would “manually stimulate” (read: sexually assault) women’s genitals to tame their wild uteruses, and if that didn’t work, women would be institutionalized. Of course, this horrifying practice was still a massive improvement to the lively stake-burning that was used to cure the fictional disorder during the Inquisition.

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My response to the Washington Times blogger who called Sandra Fluke and Elizabeth warren “shrill, angry, and hysterical” (via stfusexists)

Nothing reeks more then attributing malice when there is none, and changing context to suit one’s purpose. The belief that 19th century (and earlier) doctors were all these women hating men going around “Well, I hate women and I can use my status to make others hate them too and discredit them and etc etc” instead of “Oh this poor woman, I think there is something genuinely wrong with her for x, y and z reason, let me draw upon hundreds of years of medical science in trying to treat her”. It was by no means the correct course of action, but it wasn’t so misogynistic trade of dress. It was thoughts of human error, in the same way that abiogenesis was correct (Aristotle, Plato’s student, a fucking genius, thought that flies were born from dead flesh and shit, literally), bloodletting cured all sorts of high fevers and colds and infections, how general LOBOTOMIES and Electroshock were legitimate medical practices, and how Morphine, heroine, Amphetamine, cocaine were all considered valid general drugs like aspirin and ibuprofien. It helps noone to attribute malice were there is none.
Oh, and for your information, hysteria was also the valid medical diagnosis of what today we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in soldiers, and millions of soldiers were diagnosed with it.

(via c-d-e)

Are you REALLY defending hysteria as a valid medical diagnosis?

If you think that the reason doctors thought that there was something wrong with these women for any reason other than sexism, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn I’d love to sell you. If you think that “treatment” for this wasn’t a gross abuse of power, if you think that the women diagnosed with “hysteria” deserved to spend their lives locked away, poked, prodded, and molested, and that I’m the one “attributing malice where there is none” you are fooling yourself. 

(via stfusexists)