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Nuova DWF. Donna Woman Femme
Quaderni di studi internazionali sulla donna
Roma, Coines Edizioni, then Editrice coop. UTOPIA, 1976-1985
Woman's Body: Ideology and Reality, 1978, n. 9
EDITORIAL, pp. 3-4
SMITH-ROSENBERG Carrol
From puberty to menopause: the cycle of femininity according
to American doctors of the 19th century, pp. 5-24
PANCINO Claudia
Pregnancy, birth and lactation in eighteenth century in
France, pp. 25-48
EDHOLM Felicity - HARRIS Olivia - YOUNG Kate
On the concept of production-reproduction, pp. 49-83
MONTEFOSCHI Silvia
Towards the disappearance of the Oedipus?, pp. 84-101
HOLLWAY Wendy
Medical ideology and medical appropriation of abortion,
pp. 102-122
MERINGOLO Patrizia
Consciousness-raising as research within the movement,
pp. 123-134
LODI Donata
Margaret Mead. A critical re-reading, pp. 135-157
From different perspectives, the articles in this issue deal with the interrelationship between 'real women', as they have existed and exist in a given socio-historical context, and the image of Woman which prevails in that same context.
SMITH-ROSENBERG Carrol, From puberty to menopause: the cycle of femininity
according to American doctors of the 19th century, pp. 5-24
By examining medical treaties and handbooks for household hygiene in use in the United States in the nineteenth century, the author analyses Victorian doctors' attitude towards women's puberty and menopause. Doctors' scientific or pseudoscientific opinions on these two fundamental phenomena of female physiology, and the resulting advice they gave women, "scientifically" reflected and confirmed society's definition of women's role and identity.
Medical treatises exactly echo the ambivalence of the female image, innocent and beastly, pure and sexually highly charged and thus contribute to the institution of new principles ready to support the traditional role of bride and mother just when the birth of the emancipation movement and the growing number of women who chose not to marry were questioning the definition of a "feminine sphere".
PANCINO Claudia, Pregnancy, birth and lactation in eighteenth century in
France, pp. 25-48
Though direct sources are few, the writer, with plentiful demographic and medical evidence, examines pregnancy, childbirth and lactation, and analyses the attitudes of eighteenth century in France to maternity.
The author emphasises the continuing advance, alongside the perpetuation of traditions closely tied to magical and religious rites, of masculine medical science in the field of obstetrics, which in the course of a century supplanted the midwife - not only in her social, but also in her medical role. Throughout the eighteenth century, in fact, doctors and surgeons strove to reduce the high mortality rate from childbirth, but with science still rudimentary, knowing nothing of sterilisation, with instruments, such as forceps, still crudely made, they ware unsuccessful; and meanwhile the empirical wisdom accumulated by village women over the centuries, got lost.
The author also examines the state's growing interest in children as an element in society's wealth; and the consequent state intervention both in laying down standards for wet nursing, and in subtly constructing a new ideology around maternity.
EDHOLM Felicity - HARRIS Olivia - YOUNG Kate, On the concept of production-reproduction,
pp. 49-83
Through C. Meillassoux's, Maidens, meal and money the authors examine several concepts used by Meillassoux (and others) when talking of the production-reproduction relationship, in order to specify their theoretical importance and define women's position in a given society. The authors refuse the generic use of these concepts and offer specific definitions instead.
The concept of reproduction is analysed as a) social reproduction, that is, analysis of those structures which must be reproduced in order for social reproduction on the whole to take place; b) reproduction of labour force, not as mere human or biological reproduction, but also as support for the labour force and distribution of subjects within the labour process, with the subsequent reconsideration of "housework"; c) human or biological reproduction, with a discussion of its social sense and its differing through history and in other societies.
Lastly the authors examine sexual division of labour proper, overcoming economic-oriented interpretations and identifying it as a costitutive element of gender identity.
MONTEFOSCHI Silvia, Towards the disappearance of the Oedipus?, pp. 84-101
The relationship between the individual's need for self-realisation and his insertion within the social process, is today more important than ever; this is why psychoanalysis must re-examine some of its theoretical assumptions hitherto considered timeless and universal.
The author analyses the "Oedipus structure" and checks its explanatory validity for today, when the family, the institution within which the Oedipus structure functions, is undergoing a transformation, in part because of the pressure exerted by the growth of consciousness-raising amongst women. The author considers the various interpretations of the incest taboo and of the Oedipus complex advanced by Freud, Jung and Lacan.
She also discusses the separation of the rational (masculine) from the irrational (feminine) which is inherent in the Oedipus structure of the nuclear family. This separation, accepted as a psychological phenomenon and a cultural datum, is in fact nourished by the present-day social structure, which makes use of it in order to maintain the present division of work between men and women.
HOLLWAY Wendy, Medical ideology and medical appropriation of abortion,
pp. 102-122
The author tells of her personal experience of abortion in an English sanitary structure, and underlines how ideological structures persist in limiting women's choice, even in the event of complete freedom of abortion.
An ideology which is most evident in the attitude of doctors, who incline to present the intervention as a "chirurgical operation", resorting to total anesthetics and staging such scenes as the obligation for the woman to wear a white coat and her transportation in a stretcher, precautions, advice, medicine prescriptions before the operation and an apparent preoccupation with her health afterwards.
All this contributes to the idea that a woman who wants an abortion is ill and confirms the sense of physical and psychological "trauma" that a woman must experience when deciding to undergo an abortion. The author suggests that the women's movement should face the treatment of abortion and fight so that an abortion method alternative to medical power might prevail.
MERINGOLO Patrizia, Consciousness-raising as research within the movement,
pp. 123-134
The writer analyses the significance consciousness-raising has had for the feminist movement both from a political and from a cultural angle. She maintains that it has emerged as a new research methodology: new because, unlike the traditional theoretical and conceptual tools, it was firmly based on "practice". The author analyses the fields most affected by this new methodology: psychoanalysis and linguistics.
LODI Donata, Margaret Mead. A critical re-reading, pp. 135-157
Examining the work of Margaret Mead, the author submits some points for appraising the American anthropologist, who, as both scholar and intellectual, engaged in the contemporary cultural debate, also helped, through the mass media, modify prevailing ideas about sexual roles. American feminism in the sixties developed in a cultural climate which was greatly influenced by the anthropological work of Margaret Mead.
Donata Lodi however is particularly interested
in making a critical appraisal both of Margaret Mead's research methodology
and of the theoretical assumptions on which this research was based. To this
end, she analyses the various trends in American anthropology, from Franz Boaz
up to the recent rebirth of interest in biology and evolutionism, which were
current whilst Margaret Mead was active. The picture that emerges is of a Margaret
Mead, though always courageous and consistent, as a researcher not without blemish.