Why must there be such a medical concept as gynecology (“womanology”)? Is there such a thing as andrology? Is there an andrologist men must visit from the time they are 15 years old or so? Must they get constant penile exams and medical treatment in order to “prepare” them for sex? (Should the sole definition of “normal sex” even be “penis into vagina” anyway, and does this create more sexual problems for women than men)? Is there a special department in every doctor’s office dedicated to fixing that broken male body, telling it how messed up it is, how unpredictable and self-destructing it can be? No. So why must women be reminded they are merely weaker, sicker versions of males?
Girls and women in our society do not realize it isn’t necessary to have your reproductive organs inspected on a regular basis. We are not so weak our bodies cannot maintain themselves. Girls are taught earlier and earlier they are faulty versions of males and that their bodies are potentially self-destructive and malfunctional. Girls who read about their first gyno visit and what to expect dread it and wonder how they’ll ever go through it without pushing the doctor across the room in fear and pain. Would you want someone shoving their hand in your vagina and around your pelvis? (This practice actually exposes women to risk, including that of needing a hysterectomy, according to Dr. Carolyn Westhoff). Would you want someone shoving a metal speculum in your vagina? Inserting another finger, often without asking, because, no matter that the particular woman on the table says it hurts, women’s vaginas are meant to be penetrated? Women’s aversion to exams isn’t proof they are too “sensitive”; it is proof the exams are invasive and unnatural. These “early visits” are simply conditioning girls for a lifelong endurance of unnecessary and interventionist “check ups” and prescriptions that terrify and inconvenience women. In fact, cervical cancer screening procedures, studies have shown, have not had any hand in decreasing cancer at all.
“Going to the gynecologist is a must. It’s not so bad, and you’ll be sorry if you don’t,”……say all the gynecologists. (They want to make money, of course they are saying this!) Is it on gynecologists’ “to do” list to screen girls for sexual abuse? No. Instead, are “personal safety, binge drinking, and date rape” (how to blame the victim 101!), birth control for regulating periods (because those periods are so wacky, and women should be like robots and have them at exactly the same time every month), and the benefits and safety of the HPV vaccine (because having PIV- penis in vagina- sex with men is an automatic must). Apparently, in the minds of these gynecologists, it’s out of the question their patient might be a lesbian, uninterested in sex, or not want PIV. The vaccine Gardasil is given to girls and young women to prevent them from having sex (PIV) related health problems. It is given to girls as young as 10, which means our society is aware that girls as young as ten are sexually active. Merck, the maker of Gardasil, is testing its products on girls inIndiabecause it is cheaper, and they often die because the vaccine is dangerous.
The goal of gynecology isn’t to further women’s health; it’s to make money off female gullibility and to normalize the constant surveillance of female bodies by male society. If it were really about women’s health, doctors would be inquiring about why women have worse health than men, not setting up special needs health genres for females, and they certainly wouldn’t be pushing drugs or vaccines as the answer to everything. It’s all about damage control- it’s about “fixing” women who don’t like sex or penetration for their husbands or partners. It’s about telling young girls to wear tampons so they can “get used to” having a penis forced into their vagina. It’s about telling women who hate penetration they have made-up conditions, like “vaginismus”, and fixing her so her boyfriend can be less disappointed, but not about telling him to leave her alone! Because, apparently, male pleasure is more important than female safety.
Why must women- and girls- experience such psychological humiliation and physical pain, just so doctors can reassure them their bodies are faulty versions of males’ and prepare them for PIV? Why must women who refuse to undergo these degrading exams be denied birth control, migraine medicine, and sometimes any care at all- even non-gyno related (and, in the case ofPoland, denied a job with certain companies)? Why are doctors’ profits and patriarchy’s fear of women’s bodies more important than keeping people healthy and safe? They are trying to desensitize girls so they have more compliant women in the future. We need to ignore gynecologists and refuse to go to any more exams, and instead, practice natural medicine with trusted healers so we can finally be healthy and happy!
whitevalkyrie 
Nice blog, I’ve only just found it, and I love this post.
I wrote something similar for the Radical Hub a while back here:
http://radicalhub.com/2011/07/08/polish-government-proposal-submit-to-compulsory-gynecological-examinations-or-be-fired/
I know! I loved your post, and it made me angry.
Where do you live?
Amazing how so many women subject themselves to this each year. I haven’t gone to one in 12 years and so much happier that I won’t be raped by a doctor on a yearly basis
Good for you! I’ve NEVER gone to one, and I NEVER will!
There are many female gynecologists, so don’t bash on men just because you might have had a bad experience with a male gynecologist. And, “Girls are taught earlier and earlier they are faulty versions of males and that their bodies are potentially self-destructive and malfunctional.” I don’t know where you got this stupid idea. I’ve never been taught this, nor has my mom or any other female that I know. At a young age, boys and girls always use the term “cooties” and “Boys go to jupiter to get more stupider [not an actual word], girls go to college to get more knowledge,” and “Boys rule, girls drool [or the other way around].” If girls were taught that they were “faulty version of males and…potentially self-destructive,” they would probably not play around with guys but rather be afraid of them and themselves. I don’t like gynecologists either, in fact, I already know that I will never go to one when I’m an adult, but some of the things you said in here were false.
Many girls DON”T play around with guys. And they are usually smart to do so.
Maybe you were lucky not to have been taught that, but believe me, many women are being taught this about their bodies at least in code (not out loud. it is implied).
And trust me, hun, I’m not bashing on males because I had a male Gynecologist (like all smart women, inculding you, I’ve never been to one). There are MANY more reasons to bash on men, at least most men.
Also, men probably don’t have their equivalent of a gynecologist because it’s harder to get an infection there. Some girls need to go through yeast infections and other bad things because the girl privates are annoying like that. Some guys do get prostate exams because of prostate cancer, just like some (idiot) girls go to gynecologists for cervical cancer and other stupid things.
“It’s harder to get an infection there.” Is it? Why? Is it because of how women “are shaped” (are all women and men shaped the same?), or is it because of how we treat women’s bodies?
(Constant PIV- see my PIV article), wearing tighter underwear “because we have “”nothing”” down there”,
“annoying like that”? Who said this? A woman? A woman who was a feminist? Or male society.
You’d be surprised how many things are NOT dictated by nature, but are by culture instead.
I LOVE THIS POST. I am 17, and I REFUSE to go to a gynecologist. Even the thought of visiting makes me feel violated, and angry. I am not sexually active anyways, but I feel that if I was…it is still unnecessary to go to a gynecologist. I have always wondered why men don’t have a type of doctor like a gyno, that regulates and consistently checks their body? Of course. Because men are NOT to be controlled. Women are. Ridiculous. I feel such sympathy for the women who regularly visit the gynecologist, (especially the teenage girls), because they are not realizing they are being violated for no reason whatsoever.
Thanks for posting this. I am glad that I am not the only person sharing this perspective.
Of course men don’t have an andrologist! The male body is PERFECT! If there’s a problem with the sex, it’s not because the male has something wrong with his penis, or is doing it wrong, or selfishly! It’s the WOMAN that needs to be brought into the woman-shop (gyno) so we can fix her up so she can be “used” more easily!
Also, have you ever considered that these gyno visits, even for those women who don’t have sex yet, are just prepping visits….prepping you to become a sex puppet, usable by men?
Think about it- “It’s time to go to the gyno now! You’ll be having SEX soon!” They just want to corrall as many women as possible into these health centers so they can be cleaned for male pleasure. Like taking cows into health facilities to make sure the milk is safe “for consumption” (and aren’t cows female as well? Females are always used for others’ pleasure…)
Men don’t go to the gyno because only women need to be “made fit” for sexual consumption by men.
Don’t worry, us men have our fair share of invasive medical prodding at the hands of female doctors and nurses. My family doctor is female and it was she who diagnosed testicle cancer. When I had a testicle removed I only had female nurses checking sutures, etc. In fact, as it turns out, my second testicle also has cancer and it looks like the only.available urologist/surgeon is a woman. It’s possible that by the time you read this a female doctor would essentially have castrated me. I’m not obsessed with my doctor’s gender, though. Not everything has to be made a gender war.
Tell your friends not to go either and help them understand that they are being made to be like objects, and be violated, etc.
Also, if you think about it, things like tampons, vaginal “exams”, sex “readiness” procedures, worries from doctors that your vagina isn’t “right” or “ready” for sex yet…those are all “let’s groom females so there’s more meat for the males” nonsense.
It’s like you “have” to have sex. That’s nothing less than rape by society. It’s not a violent or physically coerced rape, but it’s a rape nonetheless.
Oh, I have already told my friends for sure. I’m so glad I have a mother who thinks the same way I do, so my sister and I will never have even the slightest thought to consider visiting a gynecologist. The whole concept of it pisses me off. It is COMPLETELY in existence just to control womens bodies. I mean look at the countries who practice FGM. They say it’s for “health purposes” or that the female body is “unclean”. Even though they are ruining a woman’s life, and the way she will experience sex and childbirth. But of course, it doesn’t matter because they believe women are just for breeding and satisfying men’s needs. The things that societies believe and think of women and their bodies is unbelievable. I know my body is made perfectly. I don’t need someone else’s (a chauvinistic male’s) opinion on it. And I refuse to treat it with disrespect by going to a gynecologist. If only all women thought this way. The whole “business” of gynecology would shut down.
Yes, that’s probably another reason why it doesn’t shut down that’s not related to misogyny- the fact that someone will lose business if they go out of existence.
I’m glad you have a sensible mother, I don’t know what the hell I would’ve done if my parents were different, lol! My parents never made me go to the doctor’s or gyno’s, not since I was little (and NEVER a gyno, they only made me get shots at the regular doctor). I don’t even go to the regular doctor’s unless there’s something wrong. I’m also glad you are under 18 or so, because those who are below the age of majority and are (I’m assuming) still required by law to attend school are often at a disadvantage because the schools aren’t always showing you open minded material. You often don’t see that stuff until college.
Sheesh. I love all the crap about women being unclean from sex and childbirth and sexual diseases. Um, it’s contact with a PENIS that caused all the uncleanliness, in case you misogynists haven’t noticed. Maybe it’s men who are unclean!
Of course, neither men nor women are bad or unclean. but it’s just something to think about.
A good way to tell if something is misogynist or not, is to substitute a different group of people. Take blacks, for instance. Replace every word “women” with “blacks” and see. “take your black to the Negrologist because blacks are more often dirty than whites!” Sounds awful, right?
But “Take your daughter or wife to the gynecologist because women often become dirtier during sex than men”…and you sell a ton of books? Something’s not right here…
Wow that is an interest perspective. If it were a certain ethnicity being made to go to the doctors because they are “unclean”, it would be extremely wrong. But when it is women…it is accepted. Very interesting. I like the way you think! lol 🙂
I like the way you think, too. You will love my blog, that’s for sure.
Let’s close up the “woman shop” and stop being toys for others to play with.
I will definitely read your blog. Have you read the blog http://womenagainststirrups.proboards.com/ ?
The woman who blogs on this site (along with others), warn about the dangerous effects of gynecological visits. There is even an article I found on there, where a gynecologist himself admits that these practices such as pap smears, and etc., are just to fill doctors pockets, and are unnecessary. If only women did their research, and weren’t fed lies…they would spare themselves the damaging of their reproductive organs. Sigh.
Thank you for not “keeping your mouth shut”, and for being so vocal about something that is SO important, but often not deemed as so. I have never been to a gyno, and never will. So here is to one person that will never be subjected to that disgusting practice, and hopefully there will be many more.
Namaste.
Awesome blog…I have never been but have a mother lecturing me to go for 20 years because “I could have cancer. ” Lol. I’m 42 an I refuse to go and I’m proud of taking control of my body and not allowing myself to be bullied into feeling stupid for not submitting to invasive unnecessary testing.
Exactly, it’s like, Frig, why don’t men get pushed to go to a doctor? We are the ones who are “broken”, etc.
Gardasil almost killed my cousin, and I had a huge fear of needles at the time I was supposed to get it and fought it tooth and nail, so I did not get it. These “doctors” are full of shit, and even if you tell them that you are a virgin, they will still try to squeeze as much money out of you as possible and insist that you need a cervical cancer screening, despite the fact that the most common forms of cervical cancer require having had sex in order to get. They won’t tell you this, however, and try to use scare tactics to talk you into doing it. Seriously, if you need birth control pills, just try one of the new apps they have out. That is what I will be doing, because I refuse to have any exams done. That is way too personal and there is absolutely no reason why I need them. Not to mention that it should be up to the patient to decide whether or not they want to be checked, not the doctors.
Wow. That is disgusting, isn’t it? Not only is it about money, but I wouldn’t be surprised if male perverts were trying to push this on their patients for sexual reasons. Exams, i mean.