(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL dossier spécial sur
l'éducation populaire - Feminism: a health "by women and for women"
(fr, it, pt) [machine translation]
Know your body, practice self-examination help each women all means to preserve a healthy
margin vis-à-vis the independence of health professionals. For fifty years, feminists are
trying, in writing and in practice, to bring down the white coats from their pedestal.
----------- By the 1960s, feminists were critical of power that the medical profession has
on women, especially in regard to contraception, pregnancy, sexuality ... ---- In 1971,
the United States, the Collective Boston Women's Health publishes a book, in a short time,
will emerge as a "classic" of feminism: Our bodies, ourselves, "written by women for women
". ---- There are a host of testimonials, photos, diagrams and clear explanations on the
functioning of the female genital and reproductive system, contraceptive methods at the
time ...
The texts on sexuality highlight the relations of domination that structure and ways to
overcome them - know your body, consent or not, talk about desires and pleasures ...
The self-help movement
On this side of the Atlantic, some very practical books have also been very successful.
One can think of those particular Rina Nissim, a gynecologist and Swiss naturopath
initiated the self-help movement, which invites women to practice self-examination. In
1984 she published a gynecological naturopathic Manual for use by women, reprinted several
times since, that informs about the abortive plants, those that soothe menstrual cramps ...
In addition to these historical books, there are countless brochures published by feminist
groups to transmit medical knowledge on sexual health.
Some feminists do not hesitate to take action without waiting for the doctors nor the
legislature to take responsibility for their sexual health. France in the 1960s, where
abortion was prohibited, the activists Family Planning and the Freedom Movement of
abortion and contraception (MLAC) practiced safe abortions up to eight weeks of pregnancy,
thanks to the Karman method of using a cannula to empty the contents of the uterus.
This method does not require anesthesia was practiced by activists who were not all
doctors and all but practical knowledge is passed on and were to benefit other women. The
Veil law has put an end to this illegal practice continued, not without debate in the
MLAC, who feared the loss of an independent expertise. Indeed, if we won serenity and tied
with the legalization of abortion, we have lost in knowledge of our own body and power our
methods of contraception.
Today, we tend to rely on doctors for women who decide, without them necessarily being
aware of all the possibilities that exist, nor concrete effects of different contraceptive
methods on their bodies.
Moreover, these practices were based on a true solidarity among women, and a willingness
to support collectively the issues that today seem to face only the individual (or
couple). If for those who are well informed, this individualization is not problematic is
again precarious women, illiterate, isolated, to be left in the lurch and struggling with
medical power.
Auréline (antipatriarcat Committee)
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Feminisme-une-sante-par-les-femmes
