The hidden history and future of women physicians

by Janet Cooper

There are two types of people who experience discrimination: those who do perceive themselves discriminated against and those who do not. All too often minority people tend to blame themselves for other people's discomfort with, dislike of, or prejudice against them, instead of more realistically identifying with the minority with which other people associate them.

As a lesbian activist, I have been applying my scholarly energies to researching our lesbian ancestors in the international writings about women physicians. Using traditional methods of scholarship, I have found no evidence that any woman physician ever fantasized about much less had sexual relations with another woman. The way our librarians, archivists, writers, and publishers preserve and make accessible information about the past and present tends to exclude facts about lesbianism.

Women physicians themselves are not identifying themselves as lesbians. From the difficulty I have had in finding dyke MDs to patronize, I assume that for too many women, even now, "lesbian" is more a term of slander than one of identity and pride.

In medicine there have always been a great many assumptions about masculine and feminine roles. Since, the suppression of the "woman-healer" and the "witch," most of us tend to think of the medicine-men in our culture as male doctors. From the evidence in the literature about women physicians, male physicians, guidance counselors, and families tend to identify the field of medicine as a masculine profession requiring masculine character traits. When women consider entering it, male doctors perceive their rules, their livelihood, and their identity to be threatened.

Elizabeth Blackwell, who was awarded her degree in 1847 from Geneva (New York) Medical College, is considered to be the first

woman doctor in modern times. Her well-meaning mentor and supporter, Dr. Joseph Warrington, advised her that, "There was (sic) no obstacles, either in the brains or in the physique of women, to prevent them from studying medicine, but only in social customs." But he advised her to dress as a man, . since he imagined a woman would be more inconspicuous and therefore safer in trousers."

VIEWS & OPINIONS

Not only men have been responsible for the words used to jeer at and to insult women physicians. "Not a feminine profession," many women said in answer to various surveys about why they never considered entering medicine and dropped-out of premedical and science courses. There is the case of one mother who "... when she heard that her daughter intended to take up medicine, retired to her room and wept, bewailing the fact that she had given birth to an 'unnatural. daughter'." The "not feminine profession" and "unnatural" have often been used to raise possible lesbianism as a scare issue. When a renologist (kidney specialist) at the college where I work first expressed interest in becoming a doctor, she was told that there are three sins for a woman to fear: "You might never get married, You might never have children. You might become a lesbian."

terms

Regardless of those covert and overt forms of disuasion and discrimination, some women have become doctors; and despite what other people might think, some have lived together and supported each other throughout their lifetimes.

MANY PERSONS ARE CONFUSED ABOUT THE GAY LIFESTYLE, AND AMONG THE CONFUSED ARE MANY GAYS THEMSELVES TO HELP REMEDY THAT SITUATION. WE WILL PUBLISH A REGULAR FEATURE ON THIS PAGE BASED ON THE EXCELLENT "20 QUESTIONS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY" BY GAY ACTIVIST'S ALLIANCE OF NEW YORK. THE FOLLOWING IS AN INSTALLMENT IN THE SERIES:

Should Homosexuals Be Allowed To Work with Children in Schools and Camps? Are Homosexuals Child Molesters?

All researchers on the subject agree that child molestation is primarily the work of neither homosexuals nor heterosexuals but of a distinct category of men (child molestation by women, either of males or females, is either extremely rare or, for various reasons, unreported) who are known as "pedophiles." men are exclusively attracted to children, often without regard to their sex, and it is noted in all studies that the majority of

Kent

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In response to an inquiry about Saxe's justification of her own terrorism, Cooper referred to Poems of the Sisters, an anthology of Weath Underground poetry. The last poem by Diana Otton, Cooper said, closely reflects Saxe's views on terrorism. She added, "Who has the power and the gun? The Vietnam aviator bomber, the policeman who thinks every black is a criminal and shoots people in the

Janet Cooper

those apprehended for molesting young boys ais. history of molesting young girls.

Though some cases of child molestation are not committed by pedophiles, the myth that homosexuals are more likely to have such lapses of judgment and control is disproved by the statistics. These indicate that a greater proportion of heterosexuals is likely to attempt childmolestation, and that the percentage of males among children molested is considerably lower than the percentage of predominantly homosexual males in the propulation. It is also noted that the use of force, while fairly common among the molesters of female children, is statistically insignificant among the molesters of males.

Most molestation, incidentally, takes place away from a school or camp setting, and no greater percentage of males is molested in these sensitive settings. In fact, in the entire history of the New York City school system, there have been many reported cases of molestation of females, but only one case of molestation of a male. Homosexuals join heterosexuals in agreeing that youngpeople as well as adults must be protected from unwanted sexual advances, and the idea that a homosexual teacher or counselor is less trust-worthy is just another example of the society's refusal to see gay women and men as responsible human beings.

back? Are they not terrorists? And what of employers who harass gays? Violence done against any group is

terrorism."

After the Saturday lunch break, activists Pete Fisher and Marc. Rubin, of New York City, ad, dressed a joint session of the conference. Fisher, author of the muchpraised book, The Gay Mystique, and an as-yet unpublished novel, Numb Nuts, joined his co-speaker and lover a veteran gay activist and special education teacher who helped found the Gay Teacher's Association in delivering a multitude of personal observations to the gathering. Some of their random comments, as taped, follow: RUBIN: I'm a lambda chauvinist. People need symbols to unify them as a group.

FISHER: To be a political activist ís to stop talking about change and actually doing something about it. Anything you do is political if it challenges a norm wearing a button, hanging crepe paper for a dance, is just as important as more 'dangerous' acts. The purpose of activism is to find ways to channel your rage.

RUBIN: Gays won't have any effect on either political convention. FISHER: Those of us who work through the system should be careful which part of the system we choose. Attacking (the system's) vulnerable parts makes for progress. If you stop playing by their rules and make your own, they don't know how to handle it.

RUBIN: Tactics saturate the media fast. Zany and colorful zaps appeal to the media while the heavier. acts revolutionary less get coverage. Now there's a vacuum of tactics. We're unsure. We have to stop the hate-trips. It perverts our own movement. We need a re-birth. It's a constant challenge to gay activists to be imaginative and take action against all anti-gay propaganda wherever and however we can.

Other workshop topics, closing out the afternoon, included "Lesbian Feminism and Separatism," Gay Males and Lesbian Feminist Separatism," "Coming Out To Employers and Parents," "Lesbian Relationships." "Gay Male Minority Sexual Practices," "Lesbian Mothers," "Gay male Disunity," and "Transsexualism."

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OHIO EAST GAY NEWS

May 1976 Page A13