Alien of the Day
Alien of the Day
Out of context: Reply #338
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Some of the many uncanny diagrams to be found in Die Heilgymnastik in der Gynaekologie (1895), a text-book demonstrating the gynecological techniques invented by the Swedish obstetrician and gynecologist, Thure Brandt (1819-1895). Brandt began treating women in 1861, combining massage, stretching, and general exercise as a form of treating gynecological conditions. The images in this particular text are eye-catching today less for the gynecological technique they depict but more the bizarre similarity between the rakishly thin figures employed in demonstrating the exercises (no doubt an attempt to de-sexualise the images) and the figure of the so-called “Grey Alien” — thin body, huge head, large eyes — which wouldn’t hit popular consciousness for another 65 years.