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Alison M Downham Moore

Associate Professor of History and Medical Humanities, Western Sydney University, Australia

Alison M Downham Moore is associate professor of history and medical humanities at Western Sydney University in Australia and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Australian Feminist Studies. Her books include Sexing Political Culture in the History of France (2012); Sexual Myths of Modernity: Sadism, Masochism and Historical Teleology (2016); and The French Invention of Menopause and the Medicalisation of Women’s Ageing: A History (2022).

Written by Alison M Downham Moore

A portrait of a woman with powdered hair wearing a silk dress, lace collar, black choker, and a pink ribbon, seated against a dark background.

The body and physical health

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Menopause was a French invention at a time of revolution

French doctors of the 1800s had a vested interest in pathologising women’s ageing, as do many commercial entities today

by Alison M Downham Moore

Medieval drawing of a mandrake root with a human-like female form, labelled “Mandragola femina”, with leafy foliage on its head

Sex and sexuality

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A long history of aphrodisiacs, from health tonic to sexual aid

Long before Viagra, people around the world and throughout history used aphrodisiacs to boost health and improve fertility

by Alison M Downham Moore