In my piece entitled Gender Gap? Don’t Be Hysterical, I reflect on the research gap in medicine in regards to women’s health. Recently experiencing a science competition whereby this topic came to light, I was shocked by the disregard and disacknowledgement of this pertinent issue. In recent years I have explored the social aspects of sexism in our society in my artwork but never made the reach to one of my other passions; science and medicine. With this piece, I reflect on how medicine has been historically portrayed in works of art. 

This piece is for all those impacted by the pre and post clinical gender-biased research gap. Medical history has left a dark mark on female and gender rights and equality to the core of sexism. Female health has been put on the sidelines, considered inferior. It is shameful that women EVEN TODAY must come and prove/plead they are sick and need help. Medical studies on women/females/those different ignored and deemed unimportant as they weren't the subjects that mattered. Historical gender exclusion has resulted in contemporary ignorance and endangerment. These gaping holes include the projection of the “Hysterical Mentality.” Even artistically portrayed, society has enforced this idea that women's emotions and thoughts are hysterics. This harmful stereotype renders back to hysterectomy, removing a woman's hysterics. Today’s dangerous impact involves women being labelled and diminished for this stereotype. We are in a current climate where women’s opinions and valid illness would be overlooked due to this perception of inferiority and overreaction.

Time and time again doctors and our medical workers have been dealt an incomplete toolset leaving them unequipped to handle and properly diagnose much of women’s health. As initiatives and organizations in women's health aim to fill the gap, our coinciding steps in our socialization need to disarm prejudice and sexism for the wellbeing of all that have been oppressed.

The most common depictions of medicine historically are of anatomy classes where male student physicians watch the male professor perform a lesson on a vulnerably portrayed female subject. Works I am implementing in my piece include Thomas Eakins’ The Agnew Clinic of a public mastectomy or André Brouillet’s A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière studying a “hysterical woman.” Interestingly these two subject matters are still symbols and topics prominent today.

Taking these pieces as inspiration I hope to implement the subject matter of the glaring males, and glorified spectacles of women’s health, combining them with the imagery of Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and the Shroud of Turin. Combining these two powerful symbolic depictions I create the invisible and simultaneously nonexistent Vitruvian women behind four layers of thin plastic that have anatomical studies of overlooked female health subjects. These colour acrylic renderings stand out on the surface of the constant and present shroud of woman. These layers of health studies also are symbolic, mimicking the effects of an MRI scan. A system doctors use to discover the truth of the illness, in this case, the illness being the research field. Surrounding the Vitruvian shroud of woman inspired by A Clinical Lesson, the hysterical woman is sprawled across the power symbol emphasizing the knowledge, hysterics, and lack of action. Surrounding her are personal and gathered notation and commentary in medicine for gender as well as depictions of the spectators. I write a stream of conscious style on the board that explains all of the historical sexism and prejudices that shifted socialization and practices that would have developed proper equality for women. All are written by me but include quotations and reference to Hillary Clinton, Amy Westervelt’s article on “The medical research Gender Gap: How Excluding Women from Clinical Trials is Hurting our Health,” Gabrielle Jackson’s “The Female Problem: How Male Bias in Medical Trials Ruined Women’s Health,” Debra A. DeBruin’s “Justice and the Inclusion of Women in Clinical Studies: A Conceptual Framework”

With this powerfully packed symbolism piece, I aim to bring to light to the ignored topic affecting everyone and explore my personal passions.