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RantI saw a dalkon shield in a museum and felt ill
It was in a display along with other IUDs and it was just so big compared with the other others on display.
Only a man could come up with something so evil.
I started telling my male friend I was with about it. How it destroyed the health and reproductive systems of so many women. The defective nature of the damned thing. He’s a nurse and was horrified by all of this.
The plaque barely mentioned anything of this.
I’ve never even heard of that! Do I dare google it?
Edit: Ahhhhhh wtf is that?????? The barbaric shit women have put up with so that men won’t have their precious pleasure dulled or delayed a teeny bit by wearing a condom.
You may also be interested in the story of Dr. Amy Reed and her husband Dr. Hooman Noorchashm. What happened to her is a recent example of a gynecology medical scandal on a similar scale. After her passing her husband would not let anyone forget how badly she had been wronged. He has since been dogged in defense of female patients in other issues, like injurious IUDs. They may possibly have been mentioned on Ovarit before.
One of my most vivid memories from college is of a harrowing night in 1974 when my roommate woke in the wee hours screaming in agony and running a high fever because, it turned out, she had a perforated uterus and sepsis caused by a Dalkon shield. Of course, her experience of that night and her memories of it are/were far more harrowing than mine.
Oh my god, you’re the first person I’ve met who’s been impacted. You’re poor roommate. Was she ok afterwards???
You both must have been so scared. Absolutely chilling to read about.
Men see women as green lights (sex ok) and red lights (bad, no).
The feelings of the woman, how much pain she is in, her thoughts, her dreams or fantasies, her emotions, her visceral state, whether implanted with foreign bodies, or having had her organs removed … is entirely irrelevant.
Ever notice that even in the worst relationships, men think that things are “getting better” if the women has stopped crying 24/7? Not that things have been fixed, or her needs have been addressed, whatever they are… they (men) only see women as traffic lights to sex. That’s it, that’s all.
Any man that thinks different can act in order to prove me wrong. Because their words can’t switch my light from red to green.
I’ll also add that they THEN see women as problems to be solved : not to help for the sake of being empathetic, but to get us to switch from red to green. “What ticky-boxes do I need to tick to get her to give me a green light? How many coins do I need to put in before the sex comes out?
So whether we are in pain or suffering or out cold or too drunk to consent… no matter, a green light is a green light
Oof. What a horrible thing. I think it's a good reminder to be very careful about trying new(ish) contraceptives, better choose ones whose risks are at least known. I feel for all the women who've been made to suffer by this horrible device.
I don't even know what that is, I'll have to do some googling.
I hadn't heard of it either and just did a Wikipedia dive. Awful stuff. Thanks OP for bringing awareness to another piece of women's history ♀️
I didn’t know what it looked like either and …I’m speechless. It looks like something out of the James Cameron Alien movies, and should have been nowhere near a woman’s uterus
After seeing it for the first time, Alien is the first thing I thought of too
This is an example of why I love this site. I never would have learned about this horrific torture device had you not posted this. I learn so much from you all. How infuriating to go down this historical rabbit hole.
I learned about this little instrument of torture several years ago, and refuse to shut up about its existence. Also im glad to expand your horizons.