19
Just wanted to let everyone know that the introduction for this book has already disappointed me. The author speaks of medical disinformation and then seamlessly moves on to transwomen are women propaganda within a few paragraphs. There may be some great information in here, but my enthusiasm for finding out has waned. I have not purchased this book, only read a small sample from the Amazon preview, so this post is just a fyi for anyone that is debating about whether they want to invest time or money into this read.
This is a piece that was critical of her, and it was taken down.
This is someone covering Gunter's response to that critism:
This is representative of the way Gunter talks to anyone she disagrees with:
"The only answer I have is that Jennifer Block suffers from deep internalized misogyny, isn't capable of understanding basic science, or hates me so much she could look past science and feminism. A bad look for someone supposedly at the intersection of medicine and feminism."
That critical piece was a good read. So frustrating it got taken down. It's not like I'm a fan of Paltrow's "Goop" consumerist junk either, but I liked the author's point, especially here:
And don’t even think about trying a jade egg, commands The Vagina Bible—the stone is porous and might harbor bad bacteria. That sounds logical, though, here it doesn’t seem to matter that there’s no evidence of polished gemstones causing harm. If you’re at all hesitant about glyphosate in tampons, however, Gunter says don’t be. No need for precaution, because there's not enough research.
This is exactly how industry weaponizes science to shirk accountability.
"Doctors are not gods" indeed. Having been personally exposed to this kind of mentality from psychiatrists, I am now extremely skeptical of doctors. Whenever I felt like side effects were being caused by the psychiatric drugs they wanted me to take, it was dismissed as "unlikely." When the side effect actually happened, the concerns were minimized. When I thought a drug was causing a bad reaction I was told "I was on too small a dose to be having any side effects," and yet when I switched medications to one that had "insomnia" as the number one side effect and reached out after a week of absolute hell to mention that I was getting absolutely no sleep and felt like I was being tortured by the new drug forcing me to stay awake, suddenly it was the old medication causing this insomnia. So wait, the same low dose of medication that couldn't have possibly been giving me any side effects is now responsible for the worst insomnia I've ever experienced in my life that I wouldn't wish on anyone? Are you giving kidding me? Psychiatrists are like "doctors are not gods" plus narcissistic tendencies. Pure DARVO and manipulation.
These were really great articles. Jen Gunter is an obnoxious blowhard know-it-all. She's exactly the kind of doctor I fucking hate
I think of her as an OB/GYN that thinks women giving birth need to shut up and do what ever their doctors say, and dismisses any criticism of standard OB/GYN practices that are leading to poor outcomes as being "woo" regardless of the source.
That was my impression before she became well known for obsessing about "Goop". She got her start criticizing the home birth movement, duolas, birth plans - she claims she is just against "woo" but she ended up being critical of any woman studying and learning about medicine to try to make an informed choices about giving birth.
She was even critical of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" - a book written about women's bodies by women, as a source of "Alternative Medicine" and "Misinformation".
She's also left medicine, she now makes a living on being an "influencer" and is a TRA.
My biggest problem with her is she always assumes she's right about everything, and despite claiming "she just wants women to be informed" - if a woman disagrees with her, or if the research isn't certain, she is certain, and any disagreement with her is a sign a woman is "uninformed".
She comes across as: "If you question anything I say, it means you're uninformed."
Thank you for sharing all this. I had this new work saved in my history in case it turned out to be a good health resource, but seeing all the ego and misinformation surrounding the author, I doubt it can be all that useful. It's a special kind of cognitive dissonance to try to read a book about the menstrual cycle, while on my period, and getting woke-scolded about transwomen being women at the same time. One more for the TRA burn pile...
I can't stand doctors who are that arrogant. And, at least in my experience, that level of arrogance is highly correlated with being a TRA.