Using Men To Model Women

I write in disgust in response to the article about Dr. Ku. He and his colleagues are doing amazing, creative work. However, I was horrified to read, “To better understand that patient perspective, two male med students got on a table and assumed the position necessary for a pelvic exam.” Were there no female med students available? Did nobody bother to tell the researchers that men have very different bodies than women do? How does having two male students trying out the equipment in any way increase understanding the patient’s perspective, when the patients are, by definition, biologically female?  Who would have thought that this was even marginally acceptable? For decades, drug and other medical trials have been conducted among young white men, with the results generalized to women, people of color, and elders. We should be so far beyond this now that it would not occur to anyone to joke about getting a female patient’s perspective by having men try out GYN equipment.

I hope your inbox overfloweth with letters calling out this idiocy. It casts a shadow over what was otherwise a great article about a creative endeavor.