Abstract
AbstractThis article presents a case study about how norms relating to masculinity, sexuality and reproduction were produced in relation to the healthy, ailing, or aging prostate in early twentieth century medicine. It shows how the ailing prostate tied in with norms about healthy, abnormal or illicit sexual and reproductive practices. Engaging with insights from the history of medicine, feminist science studies, and men and masculinity studies, it highlights how the prostate became a diagnostic catch‐all for a wide range of physical and mental conditions, producing demarcations between femininity and masculinity, manliness and unmanliness, health and illness, and moral and vice.
Highlights
The prostate is a sexual organ, but one that is absolutely indispensable ... without it the race would end and without it the pleasure of sexual contact would be wanting.[1]
Based on the writings of Phillips and his peers, this article presents a case study about how norms relating to masculinity, sexuality and reproduction were produced in relation to the healthy, ailing or ageing prostate in early twentieth-century medicine
We argue that medical discourse on the prostate novel perspectives on the ways that norms and values about men and masculinity were shaped within North American medicine in the early twentieth century
Summary
The present article engages with and builds on insights from the overlapping fields of the history of medicine, feminist science and technology studies, and critical studies of men and masculinity. Women were recommended a strict domestic life, preferably in bed with limited intellectual work, to cure it, while men were encouraged to take part in outdoor activities to build physical strength and regain health.[28] In terms of race, black men of all social groups were believed to be biologically unable to reach such a state of civilisation as to be affected by neurasthenia at all.[29] The present article bridges historical studies that focus on the prostate and men’s bodies and studies that attend to the gendered and normative aspects of medical discourse and practice. We analyse how these conceptions about men and their prostates shaped and were shaped by broader sexual, reproductive and gendered norms
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
