SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND FEMALE BODIES

When ignorance becomes epistemology

Abstract

Since the beginning of modern science, scholars at a given moment looked at a particular object of study: the female body. How were these bodies understood and analysed along these path? Articulating the analytical tools from the epistemology of ignorance to the feminist epistemology, under a racialized and decolonial look, this article aims to discuss the intricacies of scientific knowledge that has been shown to be systematically imperfect. The examples used date back to the emergence of gynecology and the discovery of the female reproductive system. We will see how white and black women were understood in different ways, and more than that: with violent consequences. Crossing time and space, reflections can be felt today in Brazil.