I read a great number of articles on the history of hysteria and the drugs women were often prescribed to help them cope with being the "perfect housewife". I learned that hysteria really goes back to ancient greece, where many believed that many female pains and illnesses were caused by a "wandering womb". This, of course, was discovered to be inaccurate but to this day the uterus is often used as a scapegoat for every ailment of women- even today.
Hysteria was "discovered" and placed into medical texts as a mental disorder in France in 1880 and lasted in such texts to 1980. Hysteria as a diagnosis was created by Jean-Martin Charcot and was further detailed and reasoned by his student Sigmund Freud. Yes, that Sigmund Freud. Freud reasoned the reason many women were often hysterical was because of their "penis envy" aka women's natural envy of the fact they don't have penises to the point of distraughtness and well... hysteria. There were many treatments for hysteria, including taking barbiturates and phosphates, getting married and having sex asap (a common cure for women unmarried and diagnosed with hysteria) , vibrators, horseback riding, placing them in an asylum, or- perhaps the most infamous of all- the rest cure. The rest cure is featured in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper. What the rest cure entails is best described in the short story (of which I highly recommend) but I'll summarize anyway. Basically, one would be locked away in some house far away from "cluttered society" to get some "sunlight" and "fresh air". The woman would also be stripped of all stimulating activities- reading, writing, art, even stimulating conversation and people were forbidden. Women would also take a great number of medicines, often by the hour. What medicines in particular is hard to nail down, but most sources say barbiturates were quite common. The rest cure was eventually seen as cruel and ineffective as it often worsened women's health (mental and otherwise) especially with the help of The Yellow Wallpaper. However, that was only around 1920, and that didn't make men magically start believing women's issues. After all, neurosis and hysteria as a diagnosis was still alive. However, with the advents of WWI and WWII doctors found themselves too busy and in the need of working women to fret over controlling them. When WWII ended though, men sought a way to take all of the women who had taken over their jobs in their absence back into the kitchen. Drugs such as Miltown, Librium and Valium swept across the nation to treat women's "nervous tendencies" or to help fight what they called "battered parent syndrome". Valium itself was marketed as "mother's little helper". These drugs had nasty side effects, were highly addictive, and had even worse withdrawal symptoms. Eventually, after 20 years or so, Doctors finally decided to stop prescribing them so freely and most are off the market completely (minus librium, which is used to treat alcohol withdrawal). The lessening of diagnosing women to highly addictive drugs to keep them in line was a giant step forward, but even today the effects of female hysteria is still felt in the medical field. Studies have shown that it can take women twice as many trips to the doctor before they get a diagnosis from men, and that ratio is nearly doubled if one is a woman of color. Many doctors today brush off women's issues as menstrual problems or misdiagnosing them with anxiety or depression instead of dealing with the actual problem. A simple google can show many stories of women having their appendix nearly rupture because their doctor didn't believe there was a real problem. And this isn't even diving into the weight factor. Basically, ever since Ancient Greece men and doctors have ignored women's issues chalking it up to just being "side effects of being women" and it remains true today. EnglishAs mentioned before, for the english part of the project, I decided to read The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and take many, many notes on things I observed and really any thoughts that popped into my head.
After that, I decided to rewrite the short story but from the husband's perspective instead. The purpose of that was to see and explore how men would justify their cruel actions and abuse their power over women without really knowing. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, I must say. I enjoyed describing the wallpaper and showing the truly twisted and misogynistic mindset of a man who doesn't know it. It's quite a bit shorter than the short story but a fair length in it's own right. ArtIn my art portion I sought to visualize just how miserable and/or tortured many women felt during the reign of hysteria. My mind went quickly to the art of Shawn Coss and his years worth of Inktober drawings (seen right). Shawn Coss visualizes mental illness in such a horrific artstyle that it truly captures how one feels when in such states.
After looking through his stuff I quickly knew I'd use him as my inspiration. I then did some research on the fashion and trends of the 1880s-1950s and decided I would draw these monsters but dolled up like the "perfect women" of their times to represent how women in "high society" or those who were rich and respected were often drugged up, tortured, or had serious mental illnesses being ignored or mistreated. My first drawing (top left) was based on late 40s early 50s fashion, and I based it on Coss' Schizophrenia and Delirium Disorder pieces. My second (top right) was of a 50s housewife, shown to be pumped full of a dark liquid in the veins to symbolize how many of them were full of drugs like Miltown or Valium to cope with their stressful lives and need to be a "perfect housewife". My third (bottom left) was based on 1880s fashion and was inspired by Coss' Social Anxiety piece and a little bit of his Agoraphobia piece. . In my research many researchers concluded that perhaps many of the women diagnosed with hysteria had social anxiety. She has her hair done like a "Gibson Girl" as many proper women did back then. My final drawing (bottom right) is inspired by his Depression piece. It was common for the women of the era to suffer from postpartum depression but to be diagnosed with hysteria instead and forced to perform and be a perfect wife anyway. This portion also ended up being a lot more fun than I expected too. It was nice to go traditional for a chance and my lack of knowledge of anatomy didn't matter because of the creepy art style. |
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