From "Bodies" to "Persons": Female Patient Agency as Revealed in the 1892 Trial of Dr. Mary Dixon Jones

• Published in: Cadernos PAGU no. 24; pp. 15 - 40
• Main Author: Morantz-Sanchez, Regina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: 01.01.2005
• Subjects: Females; Gynecology; Legal Cases; New York City, New York; Nineteenth Century; Physicians; Surgery
• ISSN: 0104-8333

This article examines a sensational public libel trial that took place in 1892 between the Brooklyn, New York, Eagle newspaper & a well-known female gynecological surgeon, Dr. Mary Amanda Dixon Jones. I suggest that the event both affirmed & helped authorize changing understandings of women's bodies & gynecological disease for female patients, trial spectators, & the larger public. It suggests that the development of gynecological surgery altered doctor-patient relationships which enabled middle class & even some poor women to speak in the courtroom about the burdensome experience of illness. The trial provided an unusual public venue for airing disappointments & complaints about the female condition, as well as the discussion about medical practices. Adapted from the source document.