HipPocrates

Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld speaking at Community Arts Auditorium, May 28, 1969 at a benefit for Open City. Photo: Alan Gotkin.

Dear Dr. Schoenfeld:

About restaurants that prohibit nude feet. Am assuming hygienic rationale: Are shoes more hygienic per foot?”

ANSWER: Shoes are more likely to track in disease from the street than bare feet. Some restaurant owners cite health codes but the truth is they just don’t like barefooted customers.

I checked this out with the California State Department of Public Health and several local municipalities. No ordinance prohibits people from entering restaurants without shoes.

Dear Dr. Hip Pocrates:

I’m putting down “the pill.” Now my body can return to its natural cycle and suddenly I’m free.

Sure this means I can’t ball everyone—nor contract so many bloody diseases. If I get pregnant maybe that is what’s supposed to happen. What were women made for?

Plus no more hang-ups! It’s really a drag not to be able to make love because you don’t have your pill with you situation comedies. Or having to go clear across town to get it or where am I going to get them this month.

Look at it this way. If you have to carry your pills around, then you have to carry a purse—so you fill it up with cigarettes, cosmetics, money, all life’s hangups. And you have to tote it around with you wherever you go. That’s no freedom, that’s a burden.

I’d much rather just let my body do what it wants to do.”

ANSWER: Birth control pills are the most reliable means of contraception but they’re not advisable for every female. Your gynecologist or nearest Planned Parenthood office could discuss a means of contraception best suited for you, perhaps an intrauterine device (I.U.D., “loop”).

Dear Dr. Schoenfeld:

While watching some Michael McClure plays a question occurred to me: Why the standard shaved-beaver procedure for women having babies in hospitals?

Must one do this and suffer the five o’clock shadow effects, especially if there’s no really good reason—or can the expectant mother refuse?”

ANSWER: One reason pubic hair is shaved before delivery is to allow proper cleansing of the area with surgical soap.

But more important, from the obstetrician’s point of view (so to speak), is the necessity for clear vision. The vaginal opening is commonly widened surgically just before delivery in order to prevent irregular tears. Repairing these incisions (episiotomies) or tears would be much more difficult in the presence of hairs resembling suture materials.

Good news for acne sufferers (and chocolate manufacturers): A study reported in the December 15, 1969 Journal of the A.M.A. has shown that chocolate does not affect acne one way or the other. It was just another fable, unsubstantiated by any facts.

DEAR DR. HIP POCRATES is a collection of letters and answers published by Grove Press. $.95 paper bound.

Dr. Schoenfeld welcomes your letters. Write to him c/o P.O. Box 680, Tiburon, California 94920.