history lesson time girls: Another time the US govt tried to control women's bodies

[fabulouslyghetto]

There are no words. When I read about stuff like his, my initial reaction is denial, "Nooo, not in America," until reality and history hit and I'm like, "Ohhh, yeah, in America, all over America."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/books/review/scott-stern-trials-of-nina-mccall.html

Stern’s is the first book-length account of the “American Plan,” a government-sponsored “social hygiene” campaign under which thousands of American women between the early years of the 20th century and the 1960s were forced to undergo gynecological exams, quarantine and detention, *all in the name of protecting the country’s citizens from sexually transmitted infections.

Stern was a Freshmen in a lecture course at Yale when his professor mentioned that government efforts to combat sexually transmitted disease had included confining prostitutes to concentration camps. As Stern recounts, he stopped taking notes and turned to Google: “I typed in ‘concentration camps for prostitutes.’ Nothing. I went to Wikipedia and entered the same search. Nothing. This was strange.”

...his book is a brilliant study of the way social anxieties have historically congealed in state control over women’s bodies and behavior — at times with the complicity of medical authorities. It should come as no surprise, but appalls nonetheless, to learn that more than one government enforcer of the American Plan also played a key role in the notorious Tuskegee syphilis study, in which infected black men were deliberately denied treatment and left to sicken and die. Unchecked power over those who have little, Stern warns, is a peril that should keep us on high alert today.

*is it just me or his "this is for the public good" become a cloak for exerting control over others, even if encroaching on civil rights violations. I'm staring to think Americans would drown their own baby if a politician told them it was "For the good of the country."

 

[Thad1527]

Wow. I have added this book to my "reading list." Yet another bit of history that got lost, stolen, or strayed.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Wow. I have added this book to my "reading list." Yet another bit of history that got lost, stolen, or strayed.

Yup. Yup, and yup.

 

[Cormac135]

I already knew about these horrific tests, who needs Josef Mengele when you have this lot.

 

[rareboy]

Some days I am reminded that I really can't even.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Some days I am reminded that I really can't even.

Strangely, if this happened today and was exposed people would dismiss it as a cockamamie gubment conspiracy.

 

[Thad1527]

Strangely, if this happened today and was exposed people would dismiss it as a cockamamie gubment conspiracy.

FOX News wouldn't even mention it.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

FOX News wouldn't even mention it.

Unless the policy was implemented by democrats, then they wouldn't shut up about it

 

[LilBit]

I'd be shocked if we weren't *still* living in a country that considers sex workers subhuman. I've seen a terrifying number of people defend the rape of prostitutes and porn stars based on the victims' profession.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

I'd be shocked if we weren't *still* living in a country that considers sex workers subhuman. I've seen a terrifying number of people defend the rape of prostitutes and porn stars based on the victims' profession.

It's really confusing, we're a "Christian family values conservative" nation... with a multi-billion dollar porn industry and sex scandals are a regular part of the news ticker from Hollywood to Capitol Hill. everybody's doing it, but only in darkness and ignorance. Cuz soon as we try to drag it all out into the light so people can have a healthy, balanced and most of all informed sex life, suddenly naw we're prudes again.

And I'm still laughing at Jasun's earlier assertion that there's no excuse for ignorance about STDs cuz we have smart phones. Right, cuz the internet isn't full of misinformation and outright lies. And Lord knows when most teenagers get their hands on the new iphone 94651 the first thing they're gonna do is look up how not to contract chlamydia.