Schiebinger’s Theories of Gender and Race explores the complex interplay between society and science, namely, the interaction between enlightenment era science and political values and 18th century bigotry. In the 1700s, the dominant political force (European men) found themselves up against a society of changing social attitudes that threatened to usurp their power and superiority. “If social inequalities were to be justified within the framework of Enlightenment thought,” Schiebinger writes, “scientific evidence would have to show that human nature is not uniform, but differs according to age, race and sex.” (pg. 144) Thus, she explains, a concerted effort began to differentiate the anatomy of women versus men, caucasians versus “coloreds,” laying a racist and sexist foundation in …show more content…
Because of racist hierarchical view points stemming from the popular “great chain of being,” it was believed by the European establishment that whiteness was the prototype from which all other forms deviated, and maleness was a standard from which women were, like Eve from Adam, derived. As a result, the scientific establishment spent the enlightenment era obsessed with two groups in particular: the inferior group of the superior race, or white women, and the superior group of the inferior race: black men. White men and black men were compared at length and at every measure, from hip size, to the angle their faces protruded, to the size and shape of their skulls. However, there was little comparison of white women and black women, except when it came to intrinsically female anatomy. Anatomists were obsessed with the difference between the primary and secondary sex characteristics of white and black women. Myths circulated about the “aprons” of Hottentot women’s reproductive anatomy, insanely exaggerated labial