Abstract: Modern biomedicine based on anatomy and the doctrine of body-mind dichotomy has put forward a universal concept of "body". However, biomedicine is a special culture, that is, a "culture with no culture", and its understanding of body is a product of this special culture. Such a universal concept of body deep in biomedicine is in fact based on a cultural presupposition which only regards white male's body as the norm and ignores the differences of other bodies, especially the woman's body in the patriarchal society. It excludes people's full understanding of gender difference. Such shallow understanding of the body has caused serious social consequences, endangering the health and life of women in modern medical practices. Since 1980s, under the influence of the feminist movement, many medical practitioners have started to remedy the system consciously when realizing the negative impact of ignoring gender difference in medical practice. The increasing gender awareness in the medical field leads to the occurrence of gender medicine. This paper reviews the contributions of gender theories to biomedical knowledge production and cast critical light on the occurrence, institutionalization and development of gender medicine.

Key words: gender difference, gender medicine, production of knowledge, medical practice