We talked about what the 'big idea' means and came up with some ideas as to what could be ours.

Meeting 1: 07/10/2024

●      Make sure all artefacts are public domain accessible

●      What is being a student?

○      Learning/ education

○      Community/ societies

○      Social development

○      Local culture of a new city/ connections to Leeds

○      Career progression

○      Mental health/ wellbeing

○      Sexual Health

●      Assessed only on the reflection after the exhibition

○      Keeping a digital archive of our working process (screenshots, drafts, conversations, etc.)

Serrell, B., Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach (AltaMira Press, California, 1996)

'Introduction to Interpretation', Museums Galleries Scotland <https://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/advice-article/introduction-to-interpretation/#:~:text=Museum%20interpretation%20is%20how%20we,will%20have%20with%20your%20collection> [accessed 08 October 2024].

-  What do we want the visitor to take away from the objects?

-  Why does the information we’re giving matter?

- Labels

- Graphic panels

- Audio Visual (AV)

- Digital interpretation

The 20^th century was a period of great change throughout Britain with changes happening in politics, rights, and medicine to name a few. Post-World War Two, new beliefs, inventions, and practices were introduced into the medical world, and had far-reaching impacts. One group of people who were particularly impacted by this were women. 

Changes to women’s health were made in how it was understood, diagnostic methods and practices, and how women were treated. One of the biggest changes during this time was the introduction of various types of contraception, with the pill becoming a popular method of contraception. 

However, access to these were extremely hard to come by. Few women met the criteria to be given contraception, i.e. having already had children, being married, or it being medically necessary. 

Here we are going to explore the experiences of British women throughout the mid-twentieth century, and the impact these changes had on themselves and their families, physically and emotionally. 

Access to contraception post-WW2 was still incredibly hard for women to come by. By 1964, it was only easily available for women who already had children, or women who would experience serious health issues if they were to become pregnant. The chances of an unmarried or childless woman being given contraception was very slim. 

 Learning about the consequences of using Thalidomide during pregnancies was one of the biggest medical scandals of the 1960’s. During the 1950’s and 60’s, the drug Thalidomide was prescribed to pregnant mothers as a treatment for morning sickness, not knowing it caused birth defects. This had a lasting impact on the physical and mental health of these children, and on their mothers who felt that they were to blame. 

While great steps had been made throughout the 20^th century in understanding and improving women’s health, they still got some things wrong. Here they suggest that some of the causes for cervical cancer in women were sex before marriage and extra marital affairs, which have no scientific justification.

Sex:
Prostitution in Victorian Britain was both a survival strategy for many and a moral panic for society. Women involved in sex work were portrayed as a public health threat, blamed for the spread of sexually transmitted infections, and deemed morally corrupt. Public campaigns, such as the Contagious Diseases Acts, mandated invasive medical inspections for suspected sex workers, while men who engaged in their services were rarely held accountable.

Asylum:
Similarly, mental health institutions became a means to marginalize women who deviated from Victorian ideals. Diagnoses like “hysteria” pathologized behaviours that threatened societal order, including grief, anger, or sexual expression. Women who challenged male authority or failed to conform to expectations of docility could be committed to asylums, often against their will.

Within these institutions, treatments were punitive rather than therapeutic, reflecting the stigma surrounding mental illness. Women endured isolation, physical restraints, and experimental procedures, often with little hope of release. Institutional records and portraits reduced these women to “cases,” erasing their individuality and humanity.

Struggle:

Though sex workers and institutionalized women faced different circumstances, their stories reveal shared patterns of societal control. Both groups were stripped of their personhood, their voices drowned out by a system that defined them through stereotypes and sought to suppress their autonomy.

Reflect:

As you move through this section, consider the broader implications of these practices. How did societal norms and gender biases shape the way women's health was understood and treated? How do the echoes of these injustices resonate today in the stigma surrounding mental health and gender?

During the contemporary period, women’s health has undergone transformative changes due to medical advancements, social progress, and advocacy. From reproductive health rights to mental health awareness, modern women face unique health challenges influenced by lifestyle, environment, and evolving gender roles.

The key areas of focus include reproductive autonomy, cancer screenings, mental health, and awareness of conditions like endometriosis and PCOS. Public health campaigns and access to reliable health information empower women to take charge of their well-being. Technology, from telemedicine to health-tracking apps, plays a significant role in shaping women’s health in modern times.

Across these exhibits, having formed to advocate for change, share knowledge, and support each other. These stories underline the need for inclusive, empathetic healthcare systems that prioritize women’s voices and diverse health experiences.

"Youth, to prevent or take care of illnesses."

Nowadays, with the popularization of the concept of hygiene, people are becoming more and more concerned about their own health problems. From youth, it is essential to focus on the prevention, or taking care of illnesses in advance.

The old library story in High Royds Hospital:

Before the final closure of High Royds Hospital, there was a week of events ensuring that the end of over 100 years of hospital care on this site did not go unmarked. Events included guided tours of the hospital, an artist working on the walls of the old library and an art therapy workshop. These buildings accommodated huge changes in treatment and attitudes in mental health.

Among the most vilified figures in society were sex workers, whose lives were catalogued not with understanding or empathy but with suspicion and scorn. Public and institutional attitudes reduced these women to a singular archetype: the "fallen woman," doomed by moral failings and deserving of punishment or pity but never respect.

Illustrations of convicted women arrested for prostitution—like those shown here—highlight this reduction. These images, intended for police and public identification, doubled as tools of societal control. The artists imposed contemporary beauty standards on their subjects, creating near-identical depictions that stripped these women of individuality. Each portrait sends a clear message: these women are unworthy of personhood, their defining feature being their perceived moral corruption.

Victorian moralists often conflated sex work with mental illness and poor health, reinforcing harmful stereotypes about women in general. "Hysteria," a diagnosis disproportionately applied to women, was frequently linked to perceived sexual impropriety. Meanwhile, sex workers were seen as vectors of disease—both physical, in the form of sexually transmitted infections, and societal, as corruptors of morality. This reinforced the belief that any woman associated with sexuality, even involuntarily, was ruined.

The moral panic surrounding sex work and the erasure of individuality in these images contributed to broader stigmas around women’s health and mental health. Women who sought medical care for conditions like depression or sexually transmitted infections were frequently dismissed or moralised against, seen as tainted by their own perceived improprieties.

In the Victorian era, mental health asylums were as much tools of social control as they were institutions of care. Women were disproportionately confined for behaviors or conditions that challenged societal expectations, ranging from post-partum depression and grief to defiance of male authority. These portraits of incarcerated women illustrate a dark chapter in the history of mental health—one where societal norms dictated diagnosis and confinement.

Among the most infamous diagnoses of the time was “female hysteria,” a catch-all term applied to an array of behaviours and conditions in women, including anxiety, irritability, sexual desire, or even excessive laughter or weeping. Hysteria was not a medical condition as we understand it today but a reflection of the era’s deep-seated gender biases.

Victorian society’s obsession with “hysterical” women reinforced broader cultural fears about women’s independence and emotional expression. Incarcerating women in asylums became a way to silence voices that threatened the rigid boundaries of acceptable femininity. Many of these women would never leave, their lives consumed by the stigma and inhumanity of institutionalization.

“Emma suffered from delusions. She believed that all her food was poisoned, and that persons, including her brother, would enter her locked house and steal her documents and valuable property. The Queen of England and the Emperor of France were going to ensure that she took possession of large properties which she had in India and America. This photograph of Emma was taken in 1873.”

Women in asylums were frequently subjected to harsh treatments designed more to enforce compliance than to foster recovery. These included forced isolation, physical restraints, and treatments like cold baths or electroconvulsive therapy. Others endured surgical interventions, including the removal of ovaries, under the misguided belief that female biology was the root of their distress.

The portraits on display were created to document patients but often served to dehumanize them. Each woman was reduced to a face in a record book, stripped of her individuality and reduced to a living archetype of madness. These images reflect how women’s mental health issues were not only misunderstood but weaponized against them.

Difference:

In early modern Britain, accusations of witchcraft were often directed at women who existed on the margins of society: widows, healers, or those who were outspoken or defiant. Poverty, infertility, or merely a bad reputation could make a woman vulnerable. The archetype of the “witch” emerged as a tool of oppression, embodying society’s anxieties about women who stepped outside prescribed roles of obedience and submission.

Punishment:
Between the mid-1500s and the early 1700s, thousands of people—overwhelmingly women—were accused of witchcraft in the UK. The trials were characterized by coerced confessions, public shaming, and brutal punishments, including execution. Torture was frequently employed to extract admissions of guilt, and the accused were often denied legal representation. The infamous 1645 East Anglia Witch Trials, led by self-styled “Witchfinder General” Matthew Hopkins, saw over 100 women executed in just two years.

Legacy:
Although the Witchcraft Act of 1736 officially ended the trials, the legacy of these persecutions remains. The archetype of the witch continues to influence societal perceptions of powerful or nonconforming women. The witch trials also reveal how fear and superstition can be weaponized to enforce conformity and suppress dissent.

Reflect:
As you engage with this exhibit, consider the conditions that led to these injustices. How did fear of the “other” shape societal behaviour, and what parallels can we draw with today? By reflecting on these histories, we can better understand how narratives of fear and control continue to impact marginalized groups—and challenge those narratives in pursuit of justice.

During the height of the witch trials in the UK (16th–17th centuries), witches were frequently depicted in artwork as both naked and grotesquely ugly. These visual tropes were not arbitrary; they served to reinforce societal fears and justify the persecution of alleged witches.

Nakedness in witchcraft imagery symbolized moral corruption, vulnerability to evil, and sexual deviance. In a deeply religious society, where modesty was equated with virtue, portraying witches as unclothed emphasized their perceived rejection of Christian values and alignment with the devil. This trope also fed into accusations of witches engaging in illicit sexual acts at sabbaths or with demons.

These artistic choices weren’t merely aesthetic; they were propaganda tools. They made witches visually abhorrent to instill fear and justify their trials and executions. By crafting witches as monstrous and unnatural, artists amplified the public’s anxiety about witchcraft, contributing to the hysteria that fueled the trials.

The witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, written in the early 17th century, align closely with the period's propaganda about witches and reflect societal fears that contributed to the witch trials in the UK. While Shakespeare's witches are not depicted visually, their portrayal in text and performance shares many traits with the stereotypes spread through art and literature at the time.

“What are these, So withered and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on't? Live you? Or are you aught That man may question?” Banquo (Act 1, Scene 3)

Grotesque and Otherworldly:
The Macbeth witches are described as unnatural and strange in appearance: "withered and wild in their attire," neither entirely female nor male, with "choppy fingers" and "skinny lips." This aligns with the imagery of witches as grotesque and physically warped, designed to evoke fear and emphasize their separation from normal, human society.

Agents of Chaos and Evil:
Just as witches in propaganda were shown as servants of the devil, Shakespeare's witches manipulate Macbeth toward regicide and chaos. They embody malevolent, supernatural forces, which echoes the era's belief that witches sought to undermine the natural and moral order through their connection to Satan.

Deceptive Femininity:
The witches in Macbeth play into anxieties about women’s perceived susceptibility to evil. Their prophecies are enticing but ultimately destructive, highlighting fears about women wielding power or influence in ways seen as dangerous or illegitimate. This aligns with propaganda depicting witches as both temptresses and threats to patriarchal control.

Treatises on witchcraft played a pivotal role in cementing the link between perceptions of women, mental health, and accusations of witchcraft. These texts, written by theologians, scholars, and judges during the height of the witch trials, provided a pseudo-intellectual framework for identifying and prosecuting witches. Works like Malleus Maleficarum(1487) by Heinrich Kramer and Daemonologie (1597) by King James I explicitly tied women’s alleged susceptibility to witchcraft to their perceived emotional instability, moral weakness, and sexual deviance.

By codifying these ideas, witchcraft treatises perpetuated a culture where women’s mental health struggles were conflated with evil or malevolence, fostering a legacy of fear, stigma, and persecution that extended well beyond the witch trials. These texts institutionalized the mistrust of women’s emotional and psychological states, contributing to centuries of marginalization and mistreatment.