Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Ludmilla Jordanova s fascinating book joins a growing body of scholarship offering sophisticated analyses of the significance of gender in the history of science and medicine. . . . It shows how far we have progressed in our understanding of the significance of gender for the history of science and medicine. Jordanova rightly argues that we cannot just simply add gender to existing knowledge but that we must rethink that knowledge. Leslie J. Burlingame, "Isis"" Jordanova s book is suggestive and provocative, raising the kinds of questions that enrich our understanding of the culture of science. Equally valuable is her analysis of the metaphorical meaning of veiling and unveiling (especially surrounding the statue of Nature personified as a young woman unveiling before Science found in the vestibule of the Paris medical faculty), her account of a female robot in Fritz Lang s film "Metropolis," and her analysis of images of the female body in recent literature. . . . Her persistent questioning of the meaning of representation moves us into fertile territory for beginning to understand how knowledge of nature becomes gendered. Londa Schiebinger, "Journal of the History of Sexuality"" Whether it is the dance of the seven veils, revealing glimpses of the naked body beneath, or a splitting of flesh to reveal tissue, organ and bone, images of the female body function, according to Jordanova, as the most powerful symbols of scientific knowledge. Ultimately, she argues, the biological sex of the patient or cadaver under the surgeon s knife doesn t matter because the very process of entering and exploring the body s secrets has become charged with sexual metaphor. "Michigan Quarterly Review"" "Ludmilla Jordanova's fascinating book joins a growing body of scholarship offering sophisticated analyses of the significance of gender in the history of science and medicine. . . . It shows how far we have progressed in our understanding of the significance of gender for the history of science and medicine. Jordanova rightly argues that we cannot just simply add gender to existing knowledge but that we must rethink that knowledge."--Leslie J. Burlingame, "Isis" "Jordanova's book is suggestive and provocative, raising the kinds of questions that enrich our understanding of the culture of science. Equally valuable is her analysis of the metaphorical meaning of veiling and unveiling (especially surrounding the statue of Nature--personified as a young woman--unveiling before Science found in the vestibule of the Paris medical faculty), her account of a female robot in Fritz Lang's film "Metropolis", and her analysis of images of the female body in recent literature. . . . Her persistent questioning of the meaning of representation moves us into fertile territory for beginning to understand how knowledge of nature becomes gendered."--Londa Schiebinger, "Journal of the History of Sexuality" "Whether it is the dance of the seven veils, revealing glimpses of the naked body beneath, or a splitting of flesh to reveal tissue, organ and bone, images of the female body function, according to Jordanova, as the most powerful symbols of scientific knowledge. Ultimately, she argues, the biological sex of the patient or cadaver under the surgeon's knife doesn't matter because the very process of entering and exploring the body's secrets has become charged with sexual metaphor."--"Michigan Quarterly Review"

Ludmilla Jordanova is professor of history at the University of Essex. She is the editor of "Languages of Nature" and has coedited and contributed to many books, including "Women in Society" and "The Enlightenment and Its Shadows."