Learn about ‘hysterical’ women and health gaslighting

It was while browsing her Instagram feed that Shawna Butts, the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum’s assistant curator and educational programmer, came up with the idea for her May 18 lecture, Historically Hysterical: A Look at Women’s Health and Health Care.

“I saw a lot of videos from women whose pain was being ignored by their doctors,” says Butts. “Things would be dismissed as anxiety or depression, and these women would keep pushing until they found out that they actually had cancer. And there were women undergoing IUD (intrauterine device) insertion who wouldn’t be given pain medication. Their level of pain tolerance wasn’t being taken seriously.”

Digging more deeply into the questions these social media posts brought up, Butts discovered that this gaslighting of women’s health has been occurring since the time of Hippocrates, over 2,000 years ago. 

“Women’s health has traditionally been defined by their uterus,” says Butts. “It’s the only thing that is causing them issues. Look at even the witch trials. This has been going on throughout history.”

Butts points out that for centuries when a woman presented to a male physician with any kind of abdominal condition, she would have been told it was caused by the ‘animal within an animal.’ Her uterus was a beast inside of her, and she was at the mercy of its whims.

And throughout modern history, doctors continued to blame women’s pain on errant behaviours, mental weakness, or even a ‘wandering womb.'

These misdiagnoses and dismissals of women’s health concerns didn’t just happen in ancient times. 

“It wasn’t until the 1980s that women were actually allowed to be included in health research studies,” she marvels. “That’s when they found out that women actually present with heart attack symptoms much differently than men. Women get symptoms that are more flu-like, not the chest pain that men experience.”

In her research for the lecture, Butts says she was continuously surprised and even angered by her discoveries. 

“Driving a lot of the issues home, too,” says Butts, “is the way women of different races are treated much more poorly than those that are white. Medical research was done on enslaved women and used to benefit white women. That didn’t stop when enslavement stopped, either. And as late as the 1970s, women in Puerto Rico were experimented on with birth control, suffering horrendous side effects.”

Butts also mentions the thalidomide tragedy that led to widespread birth defects in thousands of children in the 1950s and 1960s. And diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic version of estrogen that was prescribed to pregnant women between 1940 and 1971 to prevent miscarriage. A study showed that DES actually had no effect on preventing miscarriages, but it wasn’t taken off the market by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration until 1971. 

“DES was also used in poultry farming,” says an incredulous Butts. “They pulled it because men were developing breasts, and the chickens were getting sick. But for years it was still being pushed as safe for women to take it. Women’s health was deemed less important than that of chickens.”

These stories and many more will be highlighted during the lecture on Thursday May 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the NOTL Museum. Admission is free to members, and $10 for guests. Seats can be reserved by calling the museum. 

That same day the NOTL Museum is also participating in International Museum Day.  Each year, the International Council of Museums uses this day to highlight the role museums play in communities large and small.  

The museum council is encouraging people to realize the full transformative potential that museums have for sustainable development and well-
being, with particular emphasis on global health, climate action and protecting life on land.

The mission of the NOTL Museum, says a recent press release, is unique in its passion to protect and safeguard the cultural and natural heritage of Niagara-on-the-Lake, as well as promote research, inclusivity, education, cultural participation, and ultimately, community growth. All this is linked directly to the goals of sustainable development and positive change.

Long gone is the idea that museums are boring, dusty mausoleums, the press release continues. Today, museums like the NOTL Museum are vital cultural hubs, trusted institutions and key contributors to the well-being and sustainable development of their communities. 

The lecture next Thursday to be presented by Butts is certainly a shining example of that statement. 

All visitors to the NOTL Museum can enjoy free admission from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on May 18.