Welcome to our new subscribers! Settle yourselves down for our patented mix of science, snark, and feminist ranting. This week, we’re learning about consumptive chic, celebrating the professor uncovering the anatomy of the clitoris, and raging about all the usual discriminatory bullshit. But which of our deserving targets got krakened? Grab your devil’s teat and join us below to find out... MF
Woman of the Week: Helen O’Connell
Although we (dearly) love to discuss the bad science impacting women and the barriers facing them in STEM careers, it’s not all doom and gloom. We want to talk about the amazing women making a positive impact on science, too.
This week, we’d like to raise a suspiciously bubbling glass to Professor Helen O’Connell, Australia’s first female urologist and a pioneer who worked to completely change our understanding of the clitoris.
O’Connell led the first comprehensive anatomical study of the clitoris (in 1998!!) – inspired (or angered) in part by anatomy textbooks that described female genitals as a "failure" of male genital formation, and spread the idea that the clitoris was just a sad little nubbin of failed penis. She followed up with a study examining the anatomy of the clitoris using MRI, revealing the true size and shape of the organ in all its glory and calling out the neglect the clitoris has faced from medical researchers, writing:
“Historical, social and scientific factors appear to be responsible for the poor presentation of clitoral anatomy even in current textbooks. Active deletion of the clitoris as a labeled structure from an early version of Gray’s Anatomy compared with subsequent versions indicates the influence of social factors over science.”
Studies of the clitoris remain scarce to this day – and O’Connell states in a recent article that the notion of the clitoris as “at best unimportant and at worst shameful” still persists.
More recently, she’s also taken on the G-spot – and, er, failed to find any evidence of it actually existing, in an unfortunate blow to men everywhere insisting vaginal orgasms are Totally A Thing.
Read a fascinating interview with O’Connell here.
Finally, did you know that a 15th century witch-hunting guide refers to the clitoris as a “devil’s teat” only to be found on witches? There must be more of us about than we thought... JS
“I will not be a living coffin”
We’re sending solidarity to the hundreds of thousands of Polish women (and men) marching in protest at the Polish government’s recent near-total ban on abortions, including in cases of serious or irreversible birth defects. Thanks to their actions, the government has now delayed the ban. UK charity Abortion Support Network helps people living in countries with limited reproductive rights to access safe abortions – you can donate here. RF + MF
TIT BITS
Keeping abreast of the latest news, views, and research
Ill dressed
Long before heroin chic became a thing, good old tuberculosis was getting the drop on women all over town. This nicely nerdy article about the "aestheticization of tuberculosis" and its impact on Victorian fashion says that women of the time used to emulate certain symptoms (resulting from lack of appetite caused by the disease) – thinness, pale skin, and dilated pupils – in order to be considered more attractive. If only they'd had access to Kylie Jenner's detox teas, eh? RT
Still climbin’ equality mountain
In a surprise to absolutely nobody, it turns out women in academia are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic – while men may be afforded more time for leisure or work pursuits, women are often left “holding the baby” both literally and figuratively. With female first-author papers in worrying decline during COVID-19, a recent BMJ editorial says there remains a “mountain to climb” before women get a fair shot at leadership positions, not helped by the premature end of funding for the gender equity initiative Athena SWAN. RF
Warrior women
New anthropological evidence suggests that up to half of prehistoric big game hunters in the Andes were women, challenging the stereotype of prehistoric men out hunting while women did the less glamorous “gathering.” Previous studies have shown that women were also warriors in some early societies. Hear us roar indeed. MF
C-sections go local
More caesareans were done under local vs general anaesthetic in the UK during the first wave of COVID-19. That’s good news – local anaesthetic is generally recommended for non-emergency C-sections as it’s better for both mother and baby. Why the change? The authors believe it’s due to the extra risk (to patients and healthcare workers) of general anaesthetic during the pandemic, plus the greater availability of consultant anaesthesiologists (due to pandemic-related staffing changes). Shame it took a pandemic to achieve this… MF
To the Kraken 🦑
Hope Ms K is hungry this week...
We’ve decided that news reporters who don’t mention murdered women by name can get in the f***ing sea with immediate effect. Omitting the names of female victims happens all the time, sadly, but recent coverage of men who’ve killed women – including the former professional sprinter who shot Reeva Steenkamp and the copper who ‘accidentally’ strangled his lover Claire Parry – has tipped us over the edge. Get HACKED, hacks. RT
HEX Education
Goths beware!
With all of us more worried about the state of our lungs than usual, this is a PSA for any gothically inclined readers. If you happen to pick up one of those nifty little pulse oximeters down your local Boots, be sure to remove your nail polish to obtain a more accurate reading – especially if you’ve gone for black. JS
Feminists Ruin Everything
The coven discuss what we’re reading, watching, loving, and loathing
Twas’ the night before Witchmas, when this HEXer thought.
Might as well make use of this Disney Plus I bought.
The gin was placed on the table with care.
The remote was cradled and Hocus Pocus was soon there…
That’s right… in a fit of nostalgia and aglow with the spookiness of a pre-Halloween eve, I took a notion to re-watch Hocus Pocus. My verdict is here. 🧹RF
More things revving up our broomsticks this week: Angel Olsen's knockout All Mirrors album | Non-Fiction November | Susie Dent’s cheekily timed words of the day 💅 | The clitoris necklaces that help raise money for anti-FGM charities | And finally… “We all feel the hand of history on our p*ssies”– Marina Hyde shows us (and Trump) how snark is really done 💃
The HEX Science team
🧬Jean Splicer | ☢ Marie Fury | 🧠 Rorschach Tess | 🔬 Rosalind Frankly