Yes,the Oxford statue of Rhodes should fall but why not novelist HG Wells, a eugenics enthusiast, and J Marion Sim,the ‘father of gynaecology’ who experimented on slaves, tooScience’s most elite magazine, and Nature,published an editorial recently arguing that calling for monuments to figures such as J Marion Sims often called the father of gynaecology” – to be removed amounts to “whitewashing” history. Sims is widely praised for developing techniques in gynaecological surgery and founding a women’s hospital in recent York in the mid-1800s. But Sims experimented on enslaved black women and infants, operating up to 30 times on one woman to perfect his method. final month, and women wearing bloodied hospital gowns staged a protest by Sims’s statue external the recent York Academy of Medicine. Related: A battle with prejudice: why we overlook the warrior women of ancient times | Natalie Haynes Related: Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker by AN Wilson review Racist and sexist ideologies can and do make their way into scientific theoriesContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com