Kline, Wendy. Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women's Health in the Second Wave.

Abstract

Kline, Wendy. Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women's Health in Second Wave. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2010. 1 + 200 pp. $22.50 (paperback). ISBN-13: 978-0-226-44308-9. Wendy Kline argues in her book Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women's Health in Second Wave that only way women are able to achieve knowledge and power is by thinking through body, rather than around it (2). Kline, an associate professor of history at University of Cincinnati and author of Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from Turn of Century to Baby Boom (2001), argues that women's bodies were central to women's liberation movement. Kline's argument and discussion of female body is theoretically grounded in feminist pedagogy, which places emphasis on experiential, embodied knowledge over theoretical, rational knowledge. Kline posits that second-wave feminists gained information, unity, and knowledge through their bodies. She argues significance of women's bodies by drawing on mantra of radical and social feminists of 1970s and 1980s: The personal is political. Kline describes how women's bodies became politicized by explaining various methodologies and strategies of second wave. These methodologies and strategies, used to structure her book and support her central argument, allow her to juxtapose different facets of women's liberation movement with correlating aspects of female body. More specifically, Kline focuses primarily on consciousness raising, activism, medical implementations and investigations, and formation of women activist groups. Bodies of Knowledge takes readers on a historical journey through second-wave feminist thought by detailing ways women gained knowledge through groundbreaking literature, medical advancements, and legal battles. Across each of these categories, Kline illustrates how struggles were rooted in women's bodies. For example, Kline introduces consciousness-raising personal narratives found in Our Bodies, Ourselves to set up a foundational framework that highlights importance of self-awareness and reproductive health. She also uses these narratives to correspond with rest of cases she examines in her book. Kline posits that, from problematic dichotomy of midwives and certified nurse-midwives to legal battles such as Roe v. Wade, women's bodies are central to activism of second-wave feminism. Kline makes clear that problems women faced in medical field were not limited to midwives negotiating their place in medicine. Because health feminists had to fight to have their voices heard in a field heavily dominated by men, Kline inspects history and problems associated with Pelvic Teaching Program created by health feminists from Boston Women's Community Health Center in 1976 and implemented in Harvard Medical School. Kline's careful analysis of medical field reveals disrespect women's bodies received in doctors' offices and instructional classrooms, as well as lack of knowledge medical doctors had regarding female body. She demonstrates the personal is political by articulating how women used their bodies to shape medical field's knowledge and practices. Kline makes clear connection between medical advancements and legal battles when she explains that restructuring medical field was met with opposition from male physicians and led health feminists to fight for their rights in courtroom. …