Effects of Castration, chapt. 3
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2001 5:37 pm
Effects of Castration on Men and Women: Accidental, Voluntary and Involuntary Castration; Eunuchism and History - Medical Treatment and Aspects
III. WOMEN AND CASTRATION: A Feminine Fad
Undeniably, castration of the female of the human species sometimes becomes necessary. It is likewise undeniable that many women, having little idea of the end results and desiring to be certain of avoiding pregnancy, seek to have themselves castrated.
Castration of woman consists in removing the ovaries. The ovaries in woman, like the testicles in man, are known as gonads. The gonads are known as the sex glands.
Woman rarely resists the surgeon who has no especial scruples against sacrificing her ovaries. It would be difficult to prove (or disprove for that matter), but numerous surgeons will more willingly castrate a woman than give her appropriate birth control information and provide birth control measures.
Having the ovaries removed has become a fad with women.
There are many reasons for this condition and these reasons are for the greater part psychological. In numerous instances they are grounded in fear. So-called frigidity accounts for willingness to have castration performed in no small number of cases. Prudish and often cruel religious training in early life adds its number to the account.
The ovaries are placed within the body and when removed woman is not constantly reminded of their loss as man is reminded of the loss of the testicles. Body changes in the castrated female are less readily recognizable than body changes which sometimes manifest in the castrated male.
The practice of surgically removing the ovaries was by no means extensive until comparatively recent years. It is necessary to open the abdomen in order to remove the ovaries. Opening the belly is always more dangerous than slitting the scrotum. This is true even with the vast advances that we now recognize in surgery and this includes antiseptic surgery as well as much greater skill than was general at the turn of the present century.
The more recent advent of ovariectomy (female castration) leaves the female in a position of freedom as against centuries of enslavement of male castrates.
As will be seen later, the effects of female castration leave much to be desire. Comparatively modern woman was disposed to follow fads. Modern woman is far too readily persuaded to keep in line with faddism. Polygamy among the Mormons was made possible partly because of the inclination of the female of the last century to follow the faddists.
These things are not spoken to the discredit of woman. Pronounced faddism, when it exists in individual cases, labels itself and "renders unto Caesar that which is Caesar's."
Greater feminine freedom and greater knowledge, both of which appear to be on the eve of realization, promise to bring a trend which will free woman from needless sacrificial surgery. This apparent eve has not come too soon.
[I find to be very interesting Dr. Cauldwell's comment that ovariectomy was much easier for a woman to obtain in the 1940s than was birth control information. We have come a long way. Also interesting is his comment that "female castration" was essentially available for the asking. Doctors were not reluctant to perform it. Something else I find very interesting about this pamphlet is that it is written at a junior high reading level. It was written for the general public, not for professionals. -JA]
III. WOMEN AND CASTRATION: A Feminine Fad
Undeniably, castration of the female of the human species sometimes becomes necessary. It is likewise undeniable that many women, having little idea of the end results and desiring to be certain of avoiding pregnancy, seek to have themselves castrated.
Castration of woman consists in removing the ovaries. The ovaries in woman, like the testicles in man, are known as gonads. The gonads are known as the sex glands.
Woman rarely resists the surgeon who has no especial scruples against sacrificing her ovaries. It would be difficult to prove (or disprove for that matter), but numerous surgeons will more willingly castrate a woman than give her appropriate birth control information and provide birth control measures.
Having the ovaries removed has become a fad with women.
There are many reasons for this condition and these reasons are for the greater part psychological. In numerous instances they are grounded in fear. So-called frigidity accounts for willingness to have castration performed in no small number of cases. Prudish and often cruel religious training in early life adds its number to the account.
The ovaries are placed within the body and when removed woman is not constantly reminded of their loss as man is reminded of the loss of the testicles. Body changes in the castrated female are less readily recognizable than body changes which sometimes manifest in the castrated male.
The practice of surgically removing the ovaries was by no means extensive until comparatively recent years. It is necessary to open the abdomen in order to remove the ovaries. Opening the belly is always more dangerous than slitting the scrotum. This is true even with the vast advances that we now recognize in surgery and this includes antiseptic surgery as well as much greater skill than was general at the turn of the present century.
The more recent advent of ovariectomy (female castration) leaves the female in a position of freedom as against centuries of enslavement of male castrates.
As will be seen later, the effects of female castration leave much to be desire. Comparatively modern woman was disposed to follow fads. Modern woman is far too readily persuaded to keep in line with faddism. Polygamy among the Mormons was made possible partly because of the inclination of the female of the last century to follow the faddists.
These things are not spoken to the discredit of woman. Pronounced faddism, when it exists in individual cases, labels itself and "renders unto Caesar that which is Caesar's."
Greater feminine freedom and greater knowledge, both of which appear to be on the eve of realization, promise to bring a trend which will free woman from needless sacrificial surgery. This apparent eve has not come too soon.
[I find to be very interesting Dr. Cauldwell's comment that ovariectomy was much easier for a woman to obtain in the 1940s than was birth control information. We have come a long way. Also interesting is his comment that "female castration" was essentially available for the asking. Doctors were not reluctant to perform it. Something else I find very interesting about this pamphlet is that it is written at a junior high reading level. It was written for the general public, not for professionals. -JA]