{"id":418,"date":"2010-08-05T15:06:17","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T20:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/?p=418"},"modified":"2011-11-07T15:08:28","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T20:08:28","slug":"gynecologists-strumpets-and-womens-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/2010\/08\/05\/gynecologists-strumpets-and-womens-bodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Birth Control, Strumpets, and Women\u2019s Bodies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PlanB\"<\/a>
\nHere is an activity that was given to us by Amy Alsup, a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota. \u00a0The activity revolves around a clip from Season 1 of Mad Men located on Youtube<\/a> and entitled “Peggy and the Gynecologist.”<\/p>\n

Scene Description<\/span>:<\/p>\n

It is the early 1960s and Peggy Olson begins work at Sterling Cooper advertising agency as a secretary.\u00a0 Her co-worker Joan recommends that Peggy embrace the attention from men and \u201cshow a little leg.\u201d\u00a0 In this scene, Peggy visits the gynecologist to get a prescription for contraceptives.\u00a0 The gynecologist warns Peggy not to \u201cbe a strumpet\u201d and sleep around just because she is not likely to get pregnant on the pill.<\/p>\n

This clip demonstrates stereotypical attitudes about women and sexuality.\u00a0 While women are expected to give men sexual attention, they are at risk of being considered \u201ctramps\u201d if they are rumored to be involved in high amounts of sexual activity.\u00a0 The gynecologist in this scene warns Peggy, \u201cEven in these modern times, easy women don\u2019t<\/em> find husbands.\u201d\u00a0 The assumption here is twofold: women are expected to give men sexual attention under the radar but still expected to \u201cbe proper\u201d and get married.\u00a0 Although it is not Peggy\u2019s intention to immediately \u201cfind a husband,\u201d it is expected that this is her goal.<\/p>\n

This clip could be used to introduce a lecture, discussion or active learning exercise on the medicalization of women\u2019s sexuality.\u00a0 It could also be used to introduce a broad discussion on gender roles and sexuality in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Active Learning Exercise Idea<\/span>:<\/p>\n

Have students read a book or article about women\u2019s sexuality and social control.\u00a0 Show this video clip in class, and have students write a written reflection addressing the following questions, then discuss with a partner:<\/p>\n

(1) How are women\u2019s bodies subject to control today?\u00a0 Is this different or similar than in the past?<\/p>\n

(2)\u00a0 Birth control for many women was empowering when it was first prescribed in the 1960s.\u00a0 However, prescriptions were also regulated and controlled in large part by men.\u00a0 How is women\u2019s health regulated today?\u00a0 Are there improvements or new setbacks?\u00a0 What are they?<\/p>\n

(3)\u00a0 What is medicalization?\u00a0 How can this concept be used to understand the power dichotomies between doctors and patients?\u00a0 Men and women?<\/p>\n

Ideas for texts include:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conrad, Peter. 1992.\u00a0 \u201cMedicalization and Social Control.\u201d\u00a0 Annual\u00a0Review of <\/em>Sociology<\/em>, 18: 209-32.<\/p>\n

Gordon, Linda (2002). The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America. <\/em>Urbana: University of Illinois Press.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is an activity that was given to us by Amy Alsup, a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota. \u00a0The activity revolves around a clip from Season 1 of Mad Men located on Youtube and entitled “Peggy and the Gynecologist.” Scene Description: It is the early 1960s and Peggy Olson begins work at Sterling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[55,837,176],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-gender","tag-materials","tag-sexuality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}