Ideas the World Used to Believe about Women's Bodies

Ideas the World Used to Believe about Women's Bodies.

Scientists have made serious progress in understanding the female reproductive system since the days when ancient Greek physicians believed the womb could get antsy and wander around the body at will, causing all sorts of trouble. But women's reproductive tracts still hold an aura of mystery. 

Some of the strangest beliefs, however, revolved around some truly outlandish things about women and their bodies. Many of these beliefs stemmed from superstition and the patriarchal concept of women being naturally inferior to men. While science still hasn't proven all the mysteries of the universe, it has definitely debunked all of these old-fashioned theories.

The physician Hippocrates, deserves the credit for identifying the "disorder" of hysteria. The term "hysteria" was a catch-all phrase that described pretty much anything that went awry with a woman's mental or physical health. The cause? A "wandering uterus."

For centuries, people believed that a woman's womb roamed all over her body like a living parasite. Aristotle used the diagnosis of hysteria to further discredit women. Yet another ancient Greek, Aretaeus of Cappadocia said that the womb is "closely resembling an animal" and "moves itself hither and thither." Even after people understood more about the human body and its functions, hysteria continued to be used as a diagnosis.

Back in the Victorian era, people thought that stimulating oneself was not only immoral but could lead to developmental delays, such as girls being flat-chested. John Cowan wrote in The Science of a New Life that "girls who have followed masturbating habits…show usually strong indications of it in the failure of their glandular development. Such persons are apt to be flat-breasted, or, as we term it, flat-chested."

Myths about the harms of solo-sex were so pervasive that people went to great lengths to prevent their children from touching their private parts. Devices were marketed to prevent masturbation, and doctors even performed clitoridectomies on young girls to prevent the practice.

In contrast to modern women who tend to outnumber men in universities in much of the world, it was once thought that women who read too much would be rendered infertile. This theory was widely spread by a Harvard professor named Edward H. Clarke who wrote in Sex in Education, or A Fair Chance For The Girls that, while women are capable of learning, too much book learning could lead to infertility and irritability. Clarke recommended that girls receive limited schooling so as not to damage their health or baby-making abilities.

In the 18th century, many people thought that the things a woman thought could affect what her baby looked like. In The Pregnant Imagination, Fetal Rights, and Women's Bodies: A Historical Inquiry, Julia Epstein writes that there was a debate over whether or not "imaginative activity in the minds of pregnant women could explain birthmarks and birth malformations."

Many people thought that a woman could directly influence the appearance of her child and that looking at unattractive things could cause the child to be born, well, unattractive. 

It was widely recommended that women avoid unwholesome things, lest they deform their developing child.

Women in ancient Egypt were generally viewed as equal to men, but that doesn't mean that their society understood how women's bodies worked. Ancient Egyptians were particularly perplexed by what made a woman fertile and assumed that a couple's ability to conceive rested solely on the woman. It was thought that women with wide hips and large breasts were more fertile than those with narrow hips and flatter chests.

In order to test a woman's fertility, a clove of garlic or an onion would be placed inside a woman's vagina. That belief was that if the woman was, fertile her uterus would be linked to her alimentary canal and her breath would smell like garlic or onion the next day. If the smell of garlic or onion didn't travel to her mouth, then the woman was blocked and would not be able to conceive. This particular fertility test was also utilized by the ancient Greeks.

It is scary to think about living in a time when the female body was so misunderstood. While women today have it much better than they did in the past, things are still far from perfect.

A recent global study showed that three out of four women believe their country has unequal rights. Nearly half of the women in the world say that they do not personally feel they have equal status to men. One in five people still believe that women are inferior to men.

We might live in a more enlightened time, but there is still work to be done.