Lessons in Oppression

In Lessons in Taxidermy, Bee Lavender recounts a tale of a modern woman that was innately ill due to a series of cancers, diseases, infections, and injuries that cause her recurring pain and required countless surgeries, manifesting the old idea of the hysteric woman requiring constant medical attention and treatment. Doctors and nurses subject the main character in the novel to this tyranny due to her position as a patient and as a woman. She fights continuous oppression within the medical society on many levels, leaving her physically and emotionally scarred for life.