Two scientific illustrations have swept the internet by storm over the past few days: first, an anatomical depiction of a black fetus in the belly of a pregnant black woman. The picture was drawn by a Nigerian medical student named Chidiebere Ibe, who wants to publish a medical textbook that only contains illustrations of black people.
On the other hand, the “world’s most advanced” 3-D model of the female body of a large scientific publisher, which means more precisely: the first anatomical 3-D model of a woman, in which not only certain areas of a standard male body were replaced by female features, as is usually the case, but the body as a whole is depicted according to a female norm would.
Only now does it become apparent how accustomed one was to the anatomical norm of the white man
So two accurate images of women walking the earth billions of times every day have what it takes to make a sensation in 2022? The surprise in this case lies in the surprise itself. It is only when you look at the new illustrations that you realize how accustomed you have been to the anatomical norms of the white man in scientific drawings.
But why should that matter? There are also anatomical differences between men and women beyond the sex organs, which, if systematically neglected in research, means that heart attacks in women are detected later than in men, for example. The discipline of gender-sensitive medicine is working on this gender data gap. Equally clear is evidence that blacks and people of color are not given the same consideration in medical research as whites. This has many consequences, in relation to anatomy textbooks, for example, it affects the poorer diagnosis of certain skin diseases, which look different on black skin than on white ones.
Illustration of a black pregnant woman by Nigerian medical student Chidiebere Ibe.
(Photo: Chidiebere Ibe)
In addition, there is the distortion of perception that arises when the male, white body imprints itself in the mind of the viewer as the anatomical normal case, instead of the much more diverse reality.
Last but not least, it is a matter of respect for the value of representation to show not only the people in anatomy books who have ruled the long history of medicine, riddled with sexism and racism, but also everyone else who has come from those books will learn in the future. And those who treat these learners later.