Abstract

In the perspective of cultural history, "health" is a late 18th century construct. It appears as a term that legitimates the organized concern for the well-being of others. Under the banner of health, institutionalized intervention related to the redefinition and management of women's bodies multiply during the 19th century. Recent women's studies have amply documented the sexist use to which the new health-related concepts have been put. But the semantic reconstruction of the female body as an implicit result of the new scientific concepts has unfortunately attracted less attention. Because it is precisely in the mirror of gynecology that the insidious new dependence of the citizen's well-being from professional management can be best studied. The historical study of body images and related scientific themes is fundamental to the critique of the now prevalent ideology of "health."