An Italian Endometriosis Study Rated Participants on Attractiveness
Why did it take 7 years before it was retracted?
A study titled “Attractiveness of women with rectovaginal endometriosis: a case-control study,” was recently retracted due to backlash from both the public and the medical community.
If you’re like me, you may wonder how such a superficial and misogynistic study was funded and approved in the first place.
The lead researcher, Dr. Paolo Vercellini, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Università Degli Studi di Milano believed the correlation between rectovaginal endometriosis and attractiveness was a topic worthy of scientific exploration and was given the go-ahead.
The study was published in the January 2013 issue of “Fertility & Sterility” — not as one might assume from the 1950s.
Instead of focusing on any number of essential areas of study, these scientists thought to reinforce the sexist idea that a woman’s only value is her attractiveness. For the study, beauty was identified as Caucasian, lean, and having large breasts judging from the participants chosen.
