Dr James Barry, the first doctor to perform a successful C section wherein both mother and child survived, was a huge champion of handwashing at a time when most doctors didn’t wash their hands. For this reason, many of the chilldbirths he delivered resulted in healthier babies and mothers. He was also a gay trans man, who specifically wrote that upon his death he wished for his body to be taken in its nightshirt, wrapped in his sheets as a shroud, and placed into the coffin so that nobody would see his body. His wishes were not respected, and as a result he was outed at his death.
i’ve also been informed he had a poodle. He named his poodle Psyche. I’d just like to congratulate him on being an excellent human being, who not only pioneered modern medicine but also had good taste in dogs. that is all.
types of responses to this post
i thought this was fake but it’s not
here’s the sawbones episode about him
cis people
He was also reportedly quite the ladies’ man, and he’d apparently carried a child to term and gave birth.
he’s one of my favorite historical figures and ive read a lot on him including the biography Scanty Particulars by Rachel Holmes. a lot of the details of his life are difficult to figure out, partly cause he was very private and partly cause he had so many rumors surrounding him. here are some of my fave facts about him:
-he was very concerned with protecting poor people, women and people of color, aka all the people most of upper class british society at the time cared the least about. he worked to reform prisons and hospitals in south africa at risk to his own career, and also improved the conditions under which poor enlisted british soldiers and their families lived
-he was kind of a known hothead. he was rumored to have fought at least one duel (probably not true though). florence nightingale hated him even though they had similar ideas about medicine because they had such a clash of personalities in the brief time they worked together
-he was a vegetarian and took a goat with him on sea voyages so he could always have fresh milk
-even though he had an abrasive personality and made a lot of enemies, his patients, especially the women, really loved him because they felt like he knew what he was doing and actually cared about their health
-he died poor because the british army ripped him off >:/
edit i almost forgot the best thing. he didn’t just have one poodle named psyche. he had a bunch. when one died he would get a new poodle and name that one psyche too
I was trying to explain to my grandma what being bisexual meant and saying that I looked at ladies butts and she was all “You’re not GAY everyone checks out ladies rear ends” and my sister was like “I have never wanted to look at a ladies butt” Later my grandma called me and was like “I THINK I MIGHT BE A LITTLE GAY”
Me: I was right to give myself time before watching Nanette on Netflix. I knew it was going to be great but A Lot™
Also me: HANNAH GADSBY’S NANETTE IS ONE OF THE BEST WRITTEN THINGS I’VE SEEN ALL YEAR. IT IS BRUTAL AND BRINGS THE HARSH TRUTH ABOUT COMEDY AND WELLNESS AND HATE AND ANGER THAT EVEN COMEDIANS SUGARCOAT. SHE IS RIDICULOUSLY GOOD AT COMEDY BUT ALSO THE LAST PORTION OF HER SHOW EVOLVES INTO THE MOST HONEST AND CONCISE PIECE ABOUT THE VIOLENCE OF MEN, AND THE CULT OF PERSONALITY THAT ENABLES IT. IT IS NOT THE SAME POINT OF VIEW YOU’VE HEARD. IT’S SO GOOD. I AM PISSED THAT I’VE NEVER HEARD OF HER BEFORE THIS. SHE LITERALLY SET HERSELF FREE ONSTAGE. SHE DESERVES ALL THE AWARDS.
I am giving myself time before I watch it. I have seen Hannah before and I know she’s amazing, and back in 2004ish when I saw her, I was just so excited to see a lesbian comic onstage who wasn’t Ellen, but even then she was performing about being a lesbian in Australian society, and she was doing the material that is the jokey flipside of the hate crime she breaks down in Nanette, and I don’t think I’m ready to see her talk about it live yet, when even the stills with captions I see daily on my feed are upsetting me. I never really took the jokey routine at face value the way that a lot of people might have. I’m a queer woman the same age as Hannah who grew up in the same society, and though I personally have not been beaten for being queer, one of my butch friends was, by a man who thought she was disgusting for holding hands with her girlfriend. So he beat her, in public, on a high street, in front of his children and other people, who as in Hannah’s assault, did absolutely nothing. I felt the edge of darkness in the way she joked about it, even then. Comedy, at its best, is about horrific truth told nakedly, and Hannah’s comedy was always about the danger inherent in difference, for those who knew to look for it.
knitting in the dark 