If you are not familiar with this story, then it may come as a shock that these physicians are in fact the same person: J. Marion Sims. By any objective account J. Marion Sims was a butcher. He performed the most horrific, acts of barbarism on African people. He built a makeshift 16-bed “hospital” to house the slaves that he used as experimental subjects. He operated on one enslaved African woman, named Anarcha, over 30 times. Although Sims never used anesthesia prior to cutting on these women, he often gave them opium following the procedures. After being drugged on opium, they moved very little, which aided their recovery. Sims often made a public spectacle of cutting on these women and did so as demonstrations for other physicians. The other physicians would frequently be called upon to hold the women down as they writhed in pain. On one occasion the physicians observing left the procedure as the cries from the woman being cut upon were so dreadful. The Makeover. So, if Sims treatment of Anarcha and other enslaved Africans is so barbaric, why is he so highly honored? Enter Robert Thom an illustrator born in 1915 in Grand Rapids, MI. Mr. Thom was commissioned by Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals to create a series of paintings depicting “Great Moments in Medicine” and “Great Moments in Pharmaceuticals.” He created these works between 1948 and 1964. One of those paintings was J. Marion Sims: Gynecologic Surgeon. It depicted a very stately Sims, a very demure African patient, and a set of willing assistants. Absent were the torture instruments that Sims admits to creating. Absent was any indication that the facilities were makeshift. The painting gives no indication that the waiting victim was apprehensive, that the other physicians were reluctant or that Sims was incompetent. Thom through his painting provides a patently false misrepresentation of history. But Thom’s misrepresentation is not confined to this one portrait. Thom prepared 85 portraits for Parke-Davis. Among his other misrepresentations is Hippocrates as the father of medicine (with no reference to the African Imhotep that preceded him). In another he presents Joseph Lister as the founder of antisepsis (with no mention of the African medical texts that describe the use of antisepsis over 2,000 years before Lister). Whether we look at Thom’s depiction of Galen, Lavoisier, Jenner, or The Temples and Cult of Asclepius, we will see artistic misrepresentations of history that are rife with inaccuracy. I am compelled to share here one final cautionary note. Thom did not act alone in making J. Marion the Butcher into a highly respected figure. Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals conceptualized and funded his artwork. The members of the American Medical Association, the International Medical Congress and the American Gynecological Society elected him president to their respective organizations. The legislature of the State of South Carolina (and ultimately its citizens) support the monument erected in his honor. Every member of every organization who in any way honors Sims is complicit in the makeover. The Fix. There is a Kenyan proverb which states that, “Until lions start writing down their own stories, the hunters will always be heroes.” Friends, you are lions! Write our story. Draw our story. Paint our story. Sculpt our story. Do so without reservation, without qualification, and without hesitation. Give our people the tools that we need to tell our story!
Posted on: Sat, 21 Jun 2014 18:58:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015