The control over women’s bodies has manifested itself in a new form: medical control through the use of anti-depressants and other psycho-pharmaceuticals. From the birth and regulation of psycho-pharmaceuticals in the middle of the 20thcentury on, women in the United States have been diagnosed with depression at statistically higher rates than men. Specifically, this essay examines how women are targeted by pharmaceutical companies through direct-to-consumer advertising. Such advertisements commonly depict a white woman as needing antidepressants to cope with her feelings and her family life, then being prescribed this medication by a male doctor. Understanding the effect of these direct-to-consumer advertisements and the role they play in women’s health is crucial to understanding modern-day feminist issues, because ultimately these advertisements do more than prescribe anti-depressants: they describe rigid binary gender roles.

Emily Lutenski has fostered her students in immense ways, guiding their senior thesis, their growth as students, and has truly invested in who her students are as people.