When my young brother and I were kids (i.e. in elementary school), one of his favorite things to do to irritate me was to stick a cold piece of whatever (an ice cube, a chilled lego) down the back of my shirt. One time he asked me how I liked it, to which I replied “not in the least bit”.

Except I was eating something at the time, so my mouth was full (c.f. “heffalump” from the Winnie the Pooh stories) and the words came out “not in the Leisch pit”.

Even as an elementary school kid, my brother figured that I meant I didn’t like it particularly when something cold happened to fall into that pit between the shoulder blades (as if I would be ok with a piece of ice anywhere else) and that the pit was named after some anatomist named “Leisch”.

To this day, we still call that part of the body “the Leisch pit”.

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OTOH, (and back on topic) isn’t there a difference between “colonization” via naming things like “the G-spot” or “Kegel excercizes” or even “Braxton Hicks contractions”, which have been known to women for quite some time and names like “Fallopian tubes” for things not necessarily known to either women or men. Certainly in the latter case, sexism was involved, but more in the general matter that certain careers used to be relatively closed to women?

I don’t think so – at least, the books at the site you linked to bear no resemblance to the books I remember.

Yonmei

Are you thinking of Value Tales? Those were awesome. My sister and I both adored the one about Nellie Bly. I do remember one about a female doctor named Elizabeth, but all I can find is this one about Elizabeth Fry. I could be thinking of a different series from you, though. Plus, they aren’t all listed on that site. It looks like they are reprinting them, but only have some of them out so far.

I like the theme of this post, btw.

Elizabeth Garrett’s younger sister Millicent was involved in the establishment of Newnham College at Cambridge and became President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies – the “conservative” wing of the feminist campaign to get women the vote, as opposed to the direct action methods of the Women’s Social and Political Union.

Millicent married a Liberal MP, also a feminist, Henry Fawcett: it is ironic that the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, which still exists as an organisation (it now campaigns on “women’s representation in politics and public life; pay, pensions and poverty; valuing caring work; and the treatment of women in the justice system”) was renamed “the Fawcett Society” rather than the “Garrett Society”…

PS: The London School of Medicine for Women was founded in 1874 by a group of women involved in medicine, including Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Elizabeth Blackwell, and Sophia Jex-Blake. For many years Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was evidently regarded by the (male) British medical establishment as the big exception – she was allowed to join the British Medical Association, but they formally changed the rules as soon as they’d let her in to make sure no other woman could follow her.