la grande fallace.

photo series,  iconographie photographique de la salpetiere, 1878

education plays a significant role in the development of [hysteria]. the prolonged contact of children with older persons will develop in them a precocious intelligence and a want of simplicity; the intellectual facilities of young girls are artificially simulated at the expense of their physical powers.

 -sigmund freud, a clinical treatise, 1879 

i don't talk about feminism much these days, lest it my comments be met with dispassionate shrugs or glazed eyes. for an issue that seemed so strongly to define women's intellectual thought and history over the past century, it would appear that our present day society has resoundingly rejected this notion as pertinent. this past year i devoted a considerable amount of time writing on and researching the "disease" of hysteria in nineteenth century north america. presently, the concept of hysteria brings to mind tearful and fainting women, but few are aware of the "disease's" controversial roots. finding its origins in the hippocratic corpus, hysteria literally translates in ancient greek to "wandering womb" and dubiously referred to an ailment that affected only barren or single women. long theorized by feminist historians and sociologists as a social tool through which male doctors could reinforce patriarchal standards, hysteria manifested itself in over a thousand symptoms and essentially acted as a umbrella diagnosis for women who did not fit the paradigm of traditional femininity.

more salpetiere archival photographs, late 19th century

although a slow evolution throughout modern history, the "disease's" distinctly gendered qualities as an ailment affecting only women were perfected by dr. jean-martin charcotte and sigmund freud at the end of the nineteenth century. innumerable women were institutionalized by primarily male relatives and co-opted into fitting the stereotype of hysteric patient. this was typically defined by erotic spasms of the body and babbling in languages not native to the patient. until the early twentieth century the "cure" was thought to be clinical orgasm with the help of (guess who?) the doctor himself. it couldn't be a more depraved and fascinating coming together of fallacious notions of female sexuality if i'd made it up myself.

salpetiere archival photographs, late 19th century

as some of my co-conspirators would know, hysteria is a very complex cultural phenomenon that is difficult to explain in a few short paragraphs. regardless, my point remains the same; if hysteria was a collective creation used to perform a socially regulatory function on women whose self identities remained schizophrenic in the face of paradigms of femininity; what is our contemporary manifestation of hysteria? once again, many feminist theorists, such as elaine showalter, argue that it comes in the contemporary package of plastic surgery and body dis-morphia. but does a society as (fairly) progressive as ours in canada even need such tools anymore? is feminism irrelevant? or is it simply besides the point in the burgeoning age of androgynous sexuality? if so, i will back up my words and be on my way.

elaine brown, far left. renowned feminist and
 former leader of the black panthers party,  1971

not to leave this on a dark note, i do firmly believe that the generation of women and men i have grown up with are posing a marked change in opinion on the preceding issues. young women are slowly re-appropriating their worth as mothers, sisters and daughters without protest and negative connotations of being slaves to biology. not to even begin to mention men who, arguably, are presently facing similarly devastating pressures of fitting themselves into contemporary constructs of masculinity. but alas, that is for another day.