SOC 445 Chapter reading #5 pt 1/1: Kate Taylor - How Did Colin Powell Insult the French Foreign Minister?
17 Oct 2018
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Secretary of state, colin powell referred to french foreign minister, Hubert vedrine, as getting the vapours over president bush"s state of union address. Beginning of the 15th century, doctors thought gases from your stomach - vapors - could waft up to your brain, causing headaches and ill health. Getting the vapors meant just having a brief headache or a fainting spell to be cured with smelling salts. The vapors were seen as an ailment. Thought of as a female ailment, similar to the use of diagnosing of hysteria from the 19th century. The root of these terms are different, getting the vapors were just more associated with a female ailment whereas hysteria always meant women. Women who were denied careers or opportunities for self-fulfillment could become more depressed and be diagnosed as hysterics.
