As a survivor of forced, medicalized female genital mutilation (FGM), I’m keenly aware of the structures and systems that protect powerful men at the top of the domination hierarchy. These allow predators, including those in white coats, to harm others with impunity.
Power Structures in Medicine
The hospital knew the gynecologist was a problem, but they let him cut on me anyway, neglecting to implement basic safety measures. The licensing board and Deputy Attorney General sided with the predatory surgeon. His protections are multilayered, backed by corporate money, lawyers, and corruption.
Systemic Silencing of Survivors
Like other survivors of medical abuse, I constantly encounter gaslighting and dismissal by institutions that supposedly protect us from the most evil among us. We also face enormous obstacles in seeking justice or even accountability. A two-year statute of limitations guarantees that most survivors won’t be able to file a claim in time. It seems almost designed for this purpose, as it often takes two years just to feel like you can stand again.
FGM survivors face even more stigma because the topic is considered taboo. Men can rape us, but we can’t talk about it. People don’t want to hear it.
Control of Women’s Bodies
Anyone who knows a little about the history of gynecology understands that it was built on control and intentional harm, without regard for the woman’s needs. The “father of gynecology” is still glorified, despite his horrifying, cruel experiments on enslaved Black women.
The patriarchal system downplays and ignores women’s complaints about harm from men, especially when it involves attacks on our sex organs.
The Role of Privilege
The predatory gynecologist, by his station, garners positive assumptions about his competence and intentions. People don’t want to believe that a gynecologist could also be a predator. That a doctor could also be a predator. Despite what we see in the news.
The hospital sees the doctor as a fiduciary benefit. The non-consensual surgeries were additional, so they brought in more money to the institution.
Why He Gets Away With It
Only in a domination hierarchy could a predator find such immense protections that shield him from accountability and liability, ensuring that injustice can continue.
The system serves to isolate survivors so they cannot connect, heal, or fight back. This is intentional. The licensing boards do nothing. Neither do the Deputy Attorneys General, aside from telling the harmed person that they should pretend that the evil deed didn’t happen.
Paucity of Support
Survivors of sexual assault and medical abuse often find they cannot obtain the care and support they need to recover. This only makes everything worse. For instance, here in Delaware, the two rape crisis centers I’ve encountered both promoted the standard mental illness industry protocol, which is highly insufficient and too often causes more harm.
And, our friends and family often don’t want to hear about medical or sexual abuse, especially when it’s both. They don’t like being reminded that the system doesn’t protect us from abusers. They also don’t understand that healing from such egregious betrayal trauma requires a great deal of appropriate psychosocial support. But this is exactly what the culture deprives us of.
This system is built to protect the powerful, letting predators in medicine and beyond get away with their abuses without consequence. Survivors are left to fight the very institutions that are supposed to protect us. We’re denied the care and support we need to heal while the system keeps protecting those who harm us. The combination of privilege, corruption, and cultural apathy ensures the injustice continues. Until we face this truth and start dismantling the structures that shield these predators, justice will remain out of reach. The system is highly corrupt, and few are willing to call it what it is and demand change.
