Unless you're living under a rock, you've probably heard about how a panel was convened to look at the breast cancer screening recommendations, and taking new evidence into account, they suggested the screening should start for most women at 50 instead of 40, and that self-exams were ineffective. I knew this would be taken by some feminists as an outrage---believe me, there are some feminists who are prepared to believe the worst at all points in time---but I was surprised how much of the feminist blogosphere went into pure rage mode immediately. Why was I surprised? Because feminism has a long tradition of critiquing the over-medicalization of female bodies, producing excellent must-read texts like Our Bodies, Ourselves and For Her Own Good. Feminist critiques of over-medicalization of female bodies have produced much good: the introduction of midwifery, the willingness of therapists to take women's concerns seriously instead of just drugging them, the legalization of emergency contraception, the promotion of breast-feeding, the end of the use of twilight sleep for childbirth, the invention of safe abortion techniques that can be performed even without electricity. It's also produced some bad, from overreaction: paranoia about the birth control pill and the HPV vaccine and bullying women who aren't willing or able to tough out completely drug-free childbirth come to mind. But the fact that we even have to control for overdoing it shows how firmly committed feminists generally are to pushing back against over-medicalization. So why was there so much anger about recommendations that fit so neatly into feminist critiques of medicine?
