scientific institutions aren’t “corrupted” by racism or sexism, they developed specifically in the context of white and male supremacy. modern medicine developed, in part, to provide a biological basis for oppression and to pathologize the vast majority of the world’s population, all women and all “nonwhite” people. not only that, but many of the major developments in medicine have directly been at the expense of marginalized people. oppressive regimes also often rely on scientific institutions to further subjugate the population.
some sources to further read if anyone’s interested!
medicine and imperialism:
colonizing the body, chapter 5, david arnold
curing their ills, chapter 5, meghan vaughan
toward an anthropology of immunology: the body as a nation-state, emily martin
ethical variability: drug development and globalizing clinical trials, adriana petryna
science and authoritarianism/imperialism:
japanese doctors’ experimentation in wartime china, jing bao nie
administering colonial science: nutrition research and human biomedical experimentation in aboriginal communities and residential schools, 1942-1952
the humanitarian impact and implications of nuclear test explosions in the pacific region
medicine, misogyny, and racism:
interrogating bodies: medico-racial knowledge, politics, and the study of a disease, melbourne tapper
the woman in the body, chapter 7: premenstrual syndrome, work discipline, and anger, emily martin
the growth of medical authority: technology and morals in turn-of-the-century obstetrics, judith walzer leavitt
“scenes of an indelicate character”: the medical “treatment” of victorian women, mary poovey
Other ones I would add, though I only have good links for some, and others are partial:
Rana Hogarth’s Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840 (discusses the formation of “slave medicine” and the invention of African-specific diseases as a form of control)
Dorothy Roberts, Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century (discusses modern genetics, pharmaceuticals, and biotech and their role in perpetuating racism and sexism)
Melissa Stein, Measuring Manhood: Race and the Science of Masculinity, 1830–1934 (discusses sexology and scientific racism and their roles in constructing modern masculinity and racism, along with the resistance to such efforts)
Diane Paul, Controlling Human Heredity, 1865 to the Present (Also see “What Was Wrong with Eugenics?” and From Eugenics to Medical Genetics (unfortunately an inaccessible pdf)) (discussion of the history, proliferation, and continued staying power of eugenics)
Alexandra M. Stern, Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America (history of the California eugenics program, and the intertwined roles of law and medicine in perpetuating racism and genocide)
Cynthia Eagle Russet, Sexual Science: The Victorian Construction of Womanhood (discusses the 19th century scientific and medical construction of womanhood)
