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Allen E. Yeakel, MD
Tucson, Ariz

JAMA. 1995;273(16):1257.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—I read with interest and amazement the article by Ms Mendelsohn and colleagues¹ regarding sex and gender bias in medical textbooks. The authors did not pursue their premises to their logical conclusions, however.

According to the authors, the "underrepresentation of women in anatomy texts" (ie, more identifiably male pictures, illustrations, drawings, diagrams, and the like than identifiably female pictures, illustrations, drawings, diagrams, and the like) may "create the perception that the male body is 'normal' and the female body 'abnormal.'" Following that conclusion, it follows that all the neutral (not identifiable as male or female) pictures, illustrations, drawings, and diagrams should be banned from medical texts, since that would doubtless create the perception that a substantial number of humans are neither male nor female. This could create anxiety and confusion in the student, since they would never have encountered one of these beings. This could in . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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