Tag: Uterus
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“Can you define the word ‘woman’?”
Jayant RadhakrishnanDarien, Illinois, United States “The more you know the more you realize you don’t know.”— Aristotle (384 BCE-322 BCE) On March 22, 2022, a US senator asked the nominee for Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court: “Can you define the word woman?” The nominee replied, “I can’t.” The senator followed up with,…
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The dream of the uterus
F. Gonzalez-Crussi Chicago, Illinois, United States More than one-half century ago, it was my duty to examine and describe, day in and day out, the bodily parts that surgeons removed at the hospital where I worked. Surely this peculiar daily routine must have incited the flights of fancy that I took then, and which I recount…
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A history of blood: hysteria, taboos, and evil
Danielle DalechekNorfolk, Virginia, United States “Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?”— Carl Jung Historically, the opposite of purity was often viewed and represented as evil. This was especially true if you happened to be a woman. Even the most chaste and abiding women…
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Did Salvador Dali follow the prolactin discovery in his painting of the fountain of milk?
Michael YafiHouston, Texas, United States The Fountain of Milk Spreading Itself Uselessly on Three Shoes by Salvador Dali remains one of his most enigmatic works. It shows a nude woman on a pedestal, milk flowing from her breasts, while an emaciated man is staring at her.1 As he was completing the painting, Dali may have…
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The curious tale of Leonardo Da Vinci and the spherical uterus
John MassieParkville, Victoria, Australia Leonardo Da Vinci had one of the greatest minds in history. Accomplished in so many fields of both the arts and science, he challenged contemporary thinking, and was one of the early Renaissance artists to use dissection of corpses in order to understand the human form. His anatomical drawings reveal a…
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Art and the myth of the “wandering womb”
Laurinda DixonNew York, United States Seventeenth-century Dutch paintings bearing modern titles such as “The Doctor’s Visit” or “The Lovesick Maiden” are common.1 They were once produced in great numbers and, with some variations, illustrate the same thing. The example by Jan Steen in the Taft Museum in Cincinnati (Fig. 1) is typical. Here a pretty young…