Blood Will Tell Quotes

“Without a soul the fetus was not really a 'person' to the people of the Tudor time period. There was even doubt whether a fetus could be considered 'alive' prior to the quickening.”
― Kyra Cornelius Kramer, Blood Will Tell: A Medical Explanation of the Tyranny of Henry VIII

“Quickening was crucial, because most people believed that the fetus did not receive a soul until the time when it could be felt moving (Hull, 1996:105). This understanding of ensoulment didn't change until the nineteenth century, when Pope Pius IX decided that souls entered the embryo at conception (Simon, 1998:2).”
― Kyra Cornelius Kramer, Blood Will Tell: A Medical Explanation of the Tyranny of Henry VIII

“women are socially constructed as sexually disinterested and biologically driven to be chaste, any woman who does not conform to these ideologies is, by cultural definition, “abnormal”.  Even in modern times, these abnormal women are often punished for their deviant sexuality, usually with name calling and forms of social ostracization.”
― Kyra Cornelius Kramer, Blood Will Tell: A Medical Explanation of the Tyranny of Henry VIII

“There is a persistent myth that women, but not men, must be in an emotionally fulfilling relationship in order to enjoy sex. No matter how frequently it is scientifically disproved, this idea that women and men are inherently different in regards to sex and love, with its attendant belief that women are “naturally monogamous”, continually rises from its grave, like a zombie, and staggers across the landscape of the popular media (Daniluk, 2003:213-215; Bay-Cheng, 2006:209).”
― Kyra Cornelius Kramer, Blood Will Tell: A Medical Explanation of the Tyranny of Henry VIII

“There is a fixed social ideology about illnesses that are transmitted through sexual activity; there is an assumption that they are indicators of wanton lasciviousness on the part of the infected person, as opposed to being the unfortunate consequences of sex with a single infected partner.”
― Kyra Cornelius Kramer, Blood Will Tell: A Medical Explanation of the Tyranny of Henry VIII