I wanted to write a thread on sexism in medicine and how that culture is helping gender ideology proliferate among medics. I’ll use examples from a recent twitter conversation with a male colleague. I won’t be posting screen caps because I don’t want to name and shame anyone.

I’ve witnessed a couple of male docs supportive of gender ideology pu pu Lisa Littman’s study based on a survey, exploring the issue or Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, which is a well documented phenomenon in the UK with 4000% increase in girl referrals to gender clinics

Aside from seemingly not being aware of this increase, they also gleefuly reassured each other that all of us on twitter who are concerned about transing of children are “bots”. Naturally, the responses started flooding in, assuring them that we’re all real people, mostly women

Several replies came from accounts that post under their real names. One of the doctors said it was good that someone “finally” put their name to their cause and dismissed the woman by saying that he’ll contact her if he has any questions for her.

Other women pointed out to him the reasons why women are forced to post anonymously, namely due to another well documented phenomenon of women being targeted with violence online, and risking their livelihoods as they are also targeted by transactivists.

The doctor seemingly couldn’t care less, immediately making it all about him, and how he feels “less safe” recieving comments from anonymous accounts. A perfect metaphor for the old adage “men worry about women laughing at them, women worry about men killing them”.

Now, this doctor, who is an Obs&Gynae specialist, has demonstrated zero respect for women’s perspective, or women’s issues in this context. The other male doctor didn’t even deign to reply to dozens of comments by gender-critical women debunking his “bot” conspiracy theory.

They continued to gloat about not deigning to engage with “anonymous” accounts, having just demonstrated they are refusing to engage with non-anonymous accounts of gender critical women either. I immediately recognised the patriarchal wall most women in medicine know so very well

Furthermore, they showed contempt for the study, and through that, disinterest in the testimonies of parents who are going through their own personal hell, seeing their gender non-conforming children medicalised ruthlessly by establishment which is male dominated.

In other words, they have isolated themselves into their own little echo chamber, which would be their prerogative if we were talking about an issue that isn’t compromising fertility and development of mostly autistic girls, based on low quality evidence and dubious outcomes.

You know who else isolated themselves in their own echo chambers? Male doctors involved in perpetrating the lobotomy scandal. Despite vocal objection of many members of medical community, the lobotomists carried on doing their inhumane procedures, exaggerating the benefits

And minimising the harm. They courted the media, making themselves into “saviours”, escalating their maverick techniques from careful procedures done by neurosurgeons to touring asylums with an icepick in their pockets. It took 40 years to stop them.

Male doctors aren’t the only ones dismissing women in the gender debate, but male or female, I haven’t seen a single one engage with gender critical colleague. Most often, they patronise concerned members of the public, and mute or block colleagues who disagree with them.

Medical establishment is dominated by men. Most people wealthy enough to donate grants and money for research are males too. In the course of medical education, women faced with this monolith of medical power are removed, sabotaged, denied opportunities if they speak up

There are myriad ways in which a female medic can be silenced, from sexual assault and harrassement, to simply not being given a job or a position. In Australia, female surgeons are advising female registrars to give in to male colleagues sexual demands in order to have a career

Abuse of female patients by male drs continues to be a serious problem. It’s 2018, and while male medics are patting each other on the back about the amazing job they’re doing, we are only starting to realise that research in effect of medicines largely neglects testing on women.

Female health is neglected in many ways, from psychologising their symptoms and failing to diagnose in a timely fashion, leading to poorer outcomes, to refusal to take reports of pain seriously, under the expectation that women are either supposed to suffer, or exaggerating.

What about access to contraception? Abortion? Failing to recognise effects of trauma on women’s physical and mental health? These are all the topics medical establishment is vaguely aware of, but it’s always on the margins.

Spoken about briefly and quickly, as an afterthought, never resulting in more than a collective shrug of shoulders, and apprehension, lest the male drs get too uncomfortable discussing it or heaven forbid, take it personally.

Women in medicine are ambitious. After all, we have the same qualities, intelligence, wanting to do good, make a name for ourselves, pay our mortgage, bring up our kids, and hopefully retire somewhere nice. But the status of males and females in medicine isn’t the same.

And very early on in our education, we have to make a decision of whether we’ll play by the men’s rules, make our lives precarious and hellish or just not bother and give up, go do somethng else. So most of us who stick with it, internalise those rules and self-censor.

As in every field that wields societal power (politics, law) women are not standing up for other women, while men show brazen disinterest in women’s issues, opinions and concerns. Even male obstetricians and gynaecologists, who are being paid to take an interest in those things.

Gender ideology has been exposed as a misogynistic initiative to enforce gender boxes, the male/female power differential, in a world that’s finally starting to pay attention to women’s issues and rights.

Medicine remains one of the most patriarchal institutions in existance, and there’s very little self-awareness within it. So it’s unsurprising that male doctors are unashamed about forming uninformed opinions about issues that affect mostly women and gender non-conforming folk.

Should anyone object, they are under no obligation to listen to us.

https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/top-australian-surgeon-sparks-outrage-as-she-advises-female-doctors-to-allow-sexual-harassment-to-10096301.html …

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3256525/Royal-Australasian-College-Surgeons-informed-Dr-Gabrielle-McMullin-female-trainees-asked-sexual-services-senior-surgeons.html …

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/evqew7/obstetric-violence-doulas-abuse-giving-birth …

https://4thwavenow.com/2017/02/10/lobotomy-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-miracle-cure/ …

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/stop-funding-research-ignores-sex-and-gender-says-expert …

https://youtu.be/6mtQ1geeD_c

You can follow @lascapigliata8.

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