Understanding the Medicalization of Gender Through A Socio-Cultural Lens

*Please note that I refer to both gender and sex under it’s dominant and oppressive social construction that ties both physical anatomy and sexual orientation to someone’s gender identity. Artistic representation of medicalization in globally has had direct correlations to socio-cultural understandings of gender specifically when it comes to reproductive justice for women, as well as trans and gender non-binary individuals. An infamous example of this is Judy Chicago’s exhibition of 1982-1983 entitled “Childbirth in America" that features textile work informed by the paradigmatic shift of birth to a medical model. I want to explore the ways in which specifically women artists have articulated impacts of medicalization of gender. I want to curate a collection of art, literature, and historical accounts that looms together an understanding of the power cultural production has on implementing justice in structures of gendered oppression. The aspects of gendered medicalization I will hone in on here are hysteria, pregnancy and childbirth. Want to add on? Consider this a digital think tank. Add any content you find relevant, emerging etc.