Medical Textbooks Use White, Heterosexual Men As A 'Universal Model'

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Medical Textbooks Use White, Heterosexual Men As A 'Universal Model'

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Images of white men predominate in western anatomy textbooks, which

present them as a " universal model " of the human being. This is the

main conclusion of a study that has analysed 16,329 images from 12

manuals currently recommended by 20 of the most prestigious

universities in Europe, the United States and Canada.

Where features are the same for both sexes, three times as many male

bodies as female ones were illustrated in the six anatomical

textbooks and six texts studied (14% compared to 4%, while in the

remaining images it was not possible to deduce the gender of the

body), according to the study that will be presented by its author,

María José Barral, a medicine professor at the University of

Zaragoza, at the Women, Health and Gender Forum, being held today and

tomorrow.

" Each body has individual features, and the more you see the more

points of reference you have – this is an advantage in clinical

practice, " the researcher told SINC. " We're not dealing only with

diseases, but people with diseases. "

The six North American manuals studied used male bodies in 17% of

cases and female ones in 5% to illustrate " neutral body parts " , while

the six European ones used male images 12% of the time and female

ones only 2%.

People of Caucasian ethnicity were the only ones represented in nine

of the 12 manuals (all the European ones and half the North American

ones), and were in the majority in the other three. Only one of the

textbooks studied showed " parity in male and female images " and

represented other ethnicities, although Caucasians still predominated.

False associations

The central nervous system was presented exclusively using male

bodies in the six European manuals and in one of the North American

ones. There was not one female image of the lower limbs in four of

the manuals (three European and one North American), nor of the upper

ones in eight of them (five European and three North American).

In some books, the circulatory system was mainly illustrated in

female bodies while the nervous system was presented in males, with

the locomotive system equally divided. The researcher raises the

question of whether this is due to thought being considered a male

attribute and nutrition a female one.

" Sociocultural contamination is evident in some of the images, " she

said, such as the fluctuating size of women's bodies in line with

changing fashions, or the representation of social stereotypes.

Most of the hands illustrated are male. Barral asks whether this is

intended to show that " manipulation, a sign of our species'

evolution " is a male feature.

" Medical research in terms of the diagnosis, treatment and prevention

of diseases has been focused on this model of white, heterosexual

men, who are a minority on this planet, and this does not reflect

true diversity, " the researcher said.

The scientist says many of the doses for pharmaceutical drugs have

been calculated using this body model as a basis, without taking

differences into account, and that this is only now being

corrected. " You are prescribed a dose for another body, " she

stressed. " Using only one body type as a model and treating the rest

as variations is dangerous for health, " she told SINC.

Dismantling male/ female dichotomies

The researcher also points out that using female bodies to illustrate

body parts that are identical in both sexes is a recent

development. " Up until virtually the 1990s, male Caucasians were used

exclusively to represent anatomical bodies, with female bodies

appearing only in fragments to represent their sexual organs. "

Barral points out that these biased views persist, with an image

appearing in the popular science magazine Mente y Cerebro as late as

2003 that made the female brain appear to come between that of a

child and an adult male in the evolutionary process.

Biological dichotomies and stereotypical male and female sexual

behaviour are omnipresent in scientific texts, even though the

scientific evidence does not support this, since diversity is the

norm in nature, says the researcher.

Barral explains that when these dichotomies arise, the

hierarchisation of " more and less evolved " also tend to appear, and

that such biases become increasingly radicalised between the original

research to the point where it appears in the manuals.

The scientist concludes that the model of white, heterosexual males

is described as the apex of evolution in some scientific texts.