The medical illustration field is on a quest to switch out an old default ideology for something new — more inclusivity.
One 2018 study looked at the major U.S. medical textbooks and inspected over 4,000 images in them. They found that less than 5% of images showed dark skin. "The textbooks and publications that were being used then — and still used now — derived from the Greek and Roman aesthetic historically. And that that kind of aesthetic always favored like cis, white male," Ford continued.Many people in different African nations say they too learn from Euro-centric medical textbooks.
"Of course, by default, I made a white woman. And as I was doing it, I realized, 'This isn't quite right,'" he said."So I ended up making three versions of the external anatomy. In other words, just the skin layer. And I made a Black woman, an Asian woman and a white woman." In December, what looked like a simple social media post made many with darker skin sit up and lean in.