The Sex of Knowledge: Sexuated and Gendered Anatomy

Abstract

This contribution explores the question whether the human body, such as it is currently taught in anatomy in France, should be regarded as sexuated and gendered. The author works as an ophthalmologist and teaches general anatomy at the University Paris Diderot – Paris VII, and in that capacity her purview is the science of the body, from tip to toe, a constellation which in this form is not very common in France. The article’s point of departure is an US-American study by Lawrence and Bendixen (1992) ‘His and Hers: Male and Female Anatomy in Anatomy Texts for U.S. Medical Students, 1890-1989’. This study primarily serves to raise the question which body is seen as reference for anatomy as taught in France today. The current teaching situation is discussed in the second part of the contribution.2