Regulation of pelvic exams is long overdue

Plus: Tradwives and Puerto Rican elections |

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By Made by History / Produced by Olivia B. Waxman This month, the Department of Health and Human Services reiterated the importance of having written patient consent in advance of doctors performing “sensitive and intimate examinations,” making compliance a condition of maintaining Medicare funding. As Wendy Kline explains in Made by History , this regulation of the pelvic exam, in particular, is long overdue. For the past 150 years, the development of gynecology as a profession, and the shifting of medical authority from female midwives to male doctors, has been intertwined with the administration of the pelvic exam without consent of patients. Even over the past 40 years, as more women have entered the profession, the practice has persisted. Kline explains how the lack of clarity around the procedure has opened up doors for “pelvic violence to happen under the façade of medical treatment,” something that became all too clear in several recent legal cases.

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FROM THE TIME VAULT This week in 1987: U2 “U2's songs speak equally to the Selma of two decades ago and the Nicaragua of tomorrow. They are about spiritual search, and conscience and commitment, and it follows that some of the band's most memorable performances — and, not incidentally, the ones that have helped U2 break through to an even wider audience — have been in the service of a good cause, at Live Aid or during last summer's tour for Amnesty International. This is not, then, just a band for partying down. ‘Partying is a disguise, isn't it’  Bono asks, and does not wait for an answer. This is a band that believes rock music has moral imperatives and social responsibilities.”  Read More » This week in 1999: Star Wars “Making the original Star Wars trilogy, Lucas was forever frustrated that existing technology could not translate all his notions into compelling, realistic imagery. Today the whole palette of digital technology is much more subtle and supple; if you can dream it, you can see it. And you can play with a scene--keep reshooting it on the computer, so to speak, until it's perfect. As Lucas puts it, ‘An artist working on fresco had to paint everything before the plaster dried. Then oils were invented. That's what digital is to movies. You can go out in the real world and paint, then come back the next day and finish it.’ To makers of fantasy films, this is a pipe dream come true. ‘People have been talking about a digital back lot for years,’ says Dennis Muren, the grand wizard of the ILM staff and a senior visual-effects supervisor on Episode 1. ‘But George has done it.’” Read More » This week in 2005: Ann Coulter “To be sure, Coulter is far from the most accomplished conservative presence in America today. Even post-OxyContin, Limbaugh has greater reach; Sean Hannity has his own TV show; old-guard guys like William Kristol and George Will have more power in Washington. Countless conservative scholars—Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, Richard Posner—write with greater intellectual heft. But no one on the right is so iconic, such a totem of this particular moment. Coulter epitomizes the way politics is now discussed on the airwaves, where opinions must come violently fast and cause as much friction as possible. No one, right or left, delivers the required apothegmatic commentary on the world with as much glee or effectiveness as Coulter. It is almost impossible to watch her and not be sluiced into rage or elation, depending on your views. As a congressional staff member 10 years ago, Coulter used to help write the nation's laws. Now she is far more powerful: she helps set the nation's tone.” Read More »

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