This article examines a sensational public libel trial that took place in 1892 between the Brooklyn, New York, Eagle newspaper and a well-known female gynecological surgeon, Dr. Mary Amanda Dixon Jones. I suggest that the event both affirmed and helped authorized changing understandings of women's bodies and gynecological disease for female patients, trial spectators, and the larger public. It suggests that the development of gynecological surgery altered doctor-patient relationships which enabled middle class and even some poor women to speak in the courtroom about the burdensome experience of illness. The trial provided an unusual public venue for airing disappointments and complaints about the female condition, as well as the discussion about medical practices.
Gynecology; Female Body; Sickness; Gender; Agency