If Such Homophobic Textbooks Are Used In Medical Colleges, Then What Future Do We Have?

When homosexual marriages were legalized in the United States of America, the world rejoiced by appreciating the great decision of the US government and extended their support to the LGBTQ community. Even a picture of two guys kissing each other while holding the flags of India and Pakistan went viral on the internet.

While the open minded strata of the society appreciated the cause and shared the joy, the haters unleashed themselves like a hungry beast. Hate comments flew in and the colors of the rainbow were soon taken over by the colors of hatred with people quoting every excerpt from every archaic book they could find.

On the same lines, one such excerpt came into light from a medical book that is widely read by medical students. As per the excerpts, “Female homosexuality is known as tribadism or lesbianism. According to Greek mythology, women of Isle of Lesbos practised this perversion. The practice is usually indulged in by women who are mental degenerates or nymphomaniacs (excessive sexual desire).”

Image taken from Textbook of Forensic Medicine and Technology:

 

The book is titled ‘The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology’ and is written by Dr K. S. Narayan, Reddy and Dr O. P. Murthy, for the 32nd edition, 2013, accuses women who wear their sexuality however they want to, of being depraved and being guilty of ‘excessive sexual desire’ and, hence, nymphomaniacs.

I wonder if this is what is taught to medical students, then what can we even expect from the under-educated strata of the society. There are so many things wrong with just that excerpt of the book that I am genuinely scared of what else might be written in the book which can turn the readers into homophobic and rape culprits.

While the world ‘lesbian’ did actually originate from the Greek word lesbos, its meaning is conveniently altered in the text to women who ‘practiced this perversion.’ As per studies, this word was used by the poet ‘Sappho’ who used to live in the place ‘Lesbos.’ She used the word to express her love for other women in her love poems. Even though the word has been in existence since the early nineties, it really came into every day language in the later 70’s with the lesbian feminist era making a major appearance.

Moreover, the text also categorizes sodomy, anal coitus, lesbianism and bestiality under unnatural sexual offenses. To add on, natural offenses have been called as rape, adultery, and incest. A moment to venture on that, please? The nature of the offense is different in the mentioned cases and no said offense can be natural by nature.

Image taken from Forensic Medicine by P.V. Guharaj:

Another text, the 2012 edition of ‘Principles of forensic medicine including toxicology’ by Apurba Nandy claims that incest is still not an offence in India, while classifying sex offenses under the category of natural and unnatural. I would really like to understand what a ‘natural’ sex offense is – is it more ‘natural’ to want to rape someone, commit adultery or indulge in incest as opposed to being inclined towards bestiality?

Across the nation, students religiously study from these books. Professors teach these lessons in reputed colleges such as AIIMS, Delhi, BMC College, Bangalore, Kerala University of Health Sciences, BLDE University, Bijapur and many others.

As a result, the much naive and young students with the confused knowledge acquired through these books might form a homophobic opinion. Many of these texts go unnoticed among the bulk of books that the students are taught.  But the issues stand unlit. The opinion makers not only need to do their research properly but also need to understand the nature of consequences this inadequate information may lead to.

With texts like these being taught widely, we should be afraid for the future that we are looking at.