19 thoughts on “Week Two Readings: Respond with your comments here!”

1. All four of these readings connect in many different ways. The first reading: Defining Women’s Health: A Dozen Messages, really broke down Women’s health care all over the world. I really enjoyed how the author had personal experiences as well as studies that people did. I agree in most of the aspects of this article. I do think that health care establishments set boundaries for women’s health and medicalization. For example, reproduction is viewed as one of the most essential things women do in this world, which, I do agree with. If a woman cannot reproduce it is viewed as a failure in life. I do not think it should be looked at as the only thing women can do. Most women now-a-days have babies in operating rooms versus at their own discretion. In the third article Discourses of the Female Body, they discuss labor as women being laborers in order to produce a healthy child. I believe this is a great way to explain the way our world is. However, I do believe this is the safest way to give birth, but do I believe that because of social norms? A lot of women’s other health concerns are going unnoticed because the focus is on reproduction. This clearly shows how medical control is taking over women’s lives.
   Also, In the second article Gender, Body, Biomedicine: How some feminists Concerns Dragged Reproduction to the Center of Social Theory, it is discussed how feminists fought for reproductive rights for females. I believe this is very important, if females are not fighting for their own rights than no one will. Expensive medical treatment for sick babies usually effects poorer families who cannot afford the medicine. Therefore, the poor babies die more frequently than wealthier babies. No one should not receive medical treatment because of their social status. How can we help everyone afford this medicine? We need to give everyone the right to the medicines they need.
   The next issued I thought was important in these articles was gender dominance. In the first article, Defining Women’s Health: A Dozen Messages it also talks about how women are very good at healing. As stereotypical as it sounds, I believe this to be true because they are more nurturing and caring. Of course this parallels the fact that men believe they can have power over women because of women’s sensitive ways. Living in a male dominated world is very hard for women and young girls to live as well as men, especially in third world countries. In these countries having a son is viewed as a lot better than having a girl, since, sons will carry on the family name. This is also talked about in the last article The Politics of Women’s Health. In this article it discusses how women sometimes have their clitoris removed for traditional reasons. Even though it hurts them in many ways, men that run these countries demand women do this. This shows how men are in full control of women in poorer countries. These countries need more consequences and stipulations for treating women this way. They need to learn how important women are in this world, and I believe we as the wealthiest nation need to help them.
   Another important topic discussed in all four of these articles was race, class, and ethnicity and how it effects women’s health. Poorer women face much more hardship and drama when dealing with the medical world. A lot of poorer women do not have health insurance, and therefore do not receive proper medical attention. This is the same for people of different ethnicities, who do not have proper insurance either. We do need to work on our health care system, however we do have to realize how wonderful it is regardless of all the flaws.
   I believe that women do have more hardship than men because of the way they are viewed. Also, women have to deal with being the less dominant gender and anything else they have to deal with. I do think that the best way to fix all of women’s hardships are listen to them, and find what is bothering them the most and attack it head on.

2. How is our health care system wonderful, despite its flaws? Could you explain why you think this or what evidence you have for thinking so?

3. I enjoyed these readings much more than I thought I would. The article I would like to focus on is “The Politics of Women’s Health” because it was my favorite article. I feel that it covers alot of very intense material, that hit home with me. My head is spinning because there is so much information presented in this article and all of it deserves to be discussed. I learned the importance of preventative health care and planning ahead, versus only dealing with a health condition when it has become problematic. The text provides an example of this with the vignette about the older woman who had osteoporosis and had already lost 50% of her bone mass. She reflected on the situation and realized that her PCP should have educated her about this issue, when they knew she was going through menopause.
   I am a strong advocate of preventative steps in all aspects of life, especially in the realm of health care. Women’s Health Care issues can often be severely reduced from education and creating healthy lifestyle patterns, which should be encouraged by whoever is providing health care. This is an example of a health disparity, specific to women. It is really frustrating that every woman does not have the opportunity to be treated in a health care setting, and does not have the guarentee that she is receiving equal health care to woman next to her. The statistic that ” Poor women were hospitalized twice as often as the non-poor…” is s prime example of the severity of the relationship between money-making and providing quality health care.

   I was also interested by the anecdote from a German woman comparing recommended treatment for back injury in both Germany and the United States. Acupuncture is a valid form of treatment, which seemed to improve the woman’s condition. It is a more natural and less invasive choice. On the other hand, the treatment form in the United States was drugs…lots and lots of drugs.

   Though back injuy can be very painful, to be sent home with such a massive amount of Vicodin ( an extremely powerful pain killer), is a bit excessive in my mind. Just as the German woman said, it is amazing to see such drastically different treatment approaches for the same problem. I think that over-medication is a huge problem, especially in the United States. No wonder there are so many people abusing prescription pain-killers and a growing market for selling and buying people’s excess pain meds.
   Another point of interest was issue of drug companies falsely advertising and preying on people’s fear that their behavior is abnormal or they are experience symptoms associated with a serious disease. Advertising needs to include all the facts and list ALL side effects ,so the consumer knows what they are getting involved with. I was pleased to see that there are groups forming that are keeping a careful eye on drug company’s advertising and forcing them to be truthful.

   Lastly, I want to disuss an issue that always gets me heated, frustrated, and sad at the same time. The topic of the ” Sexual Exploitation of Women” is a tough topic for me to disuss. I feel the need to protect all the members of my gender and give them another option to earn an income. Unfortunately, I do not have the capability to do this on my own. But this article affects me, even though I am unable to relate because I am so far removed from the situation. It is still women we are talking about and I am a woman myself, so it frustrates me that strong, beautiful, amazing women only have this type of labor to support themselves and their families.

   Due to an economic need, women are becoming commercial sex workers. This is their best option for making some amount of money, and supporting the people they care about most…usually their own parents, children, nieces, nephews, or other family members. Though these so- called ” prostitutes” may not seem like honorable or strong women, but I think that they are one of the strongest types of women. Such a fierce and determined dedication to their family and trying to improve their family’s life ( as well as their own) is an amazing quality that should be recognized.

4. I thought all the readings were connected in theme and in the fact they were all good introduction articles to the class. Although, I agreed with many of the points in the article, I feel they reflected ideas I was already aware of. I really enjoyed the article, Discourses of the Female Body, primarily because I enjoyed the manner in which it was written. Also, I enjoyed the historical context it provided to women’s health. More so, I enjoyed the discussion of menopause and menstration in the fact that both are often looked upon negatively or as a failing of the body’s system. I think in regards to health in general, many issues are seen as failings or negatively, and in this sense, as disabling- socially, physically and otherwise. In a sense, in terms of Western society, menopause and menstration can be looked upon as disabilites because they disable women in various societal contexts in comparison to men. Also, I strongly agreed with the point the author made in concerns to the fact that women are seen as more talkative than men because they “are being compared to air.” Always, I have hated the stereotype of women as talkative or gossipy beings. In general, I think ALL human beings are prone to gossip, not just women, because humans are social creatures. Yet, why are women always portrayed as the gossipers? I loved the authors point that the point of reference in regards to women being talkative is silence. The article also discussed the importance of race in contexts to female sexuality. I find it interesting that culture defines a woman’s sexuality in terms of her race, amongst other things.

   Next, all the articles discussed the theme of women’s role as “breeders and feeders.” I agree that in Western society women traditionally have been defined in terms of their role as reproducers of society and in terms of economics, of the workforce. I think the concept of women’s role as soley a function of reproduction as playing into the negativety surrounding menopause and menstration. The article, Defining Women’s Health, goes into analysis of society’s portrayel of women soley as breeders of the next generation. This concept produces many problems, including confusing the term women’s health soley with reproductive health. Women’s health is inclusive of many areas, not just reproductive health and I feel this fact is often ignored in face of the importance placed on reproductive health issues. More so, what are the consequences of narrowly focusing on reproductive health for the rest of women’s health issues?

   Next, in the article, Gender, Body, Biomedicine: How Some Feminist Concerns Dragged Reproduction to the Center of Social Theory, I thought the connections to Marxian Theory interesting considering marxian theory often ignores women’s issues. In addition, I liked how the article mentioned the various dichotomies between rational/emotional, public/private, nature/culture, etc. Historically, women have been connected being emotional/less rational and belonging to the private sphere rather than the public one. I think women need to move into the public sphere in order for their health issues to really take precedence. Too often women’s issues have been pushed onto the backburner of society’s concerns.

   I think that women’s issues, now more than ever, need to take a large space in public debate. The rights women have gained over the years are at risk of being revoked. Such a reversal on women’s rights, such as the right to choose, severely impact women’s health.

5. In reply to Aline’s question:

   Our health system is great in the fact that if you have the money or the insurance you have access to the best medical care/technology the world has to offer. Other than that, I’m pretty cynical about our health care system. I myself have Type 1 Diabetes, and our system is full of blockades and loopholes for the sick and needy. More so, if you are not insured or do not possess extreme finances and you are sick, you are pretty much left in a hole. Even being insured doesn’t provide insurance. My health care costs probably land in the range of $5,000-$10,000 a year with premimium insurance. Once I calculated the costs of my care without insurance and it exceded 1 million without any major hospital visits. It makes me sick to my stomache that millions go uninsured every year. How can women fully participate in society when they can’t even access the proper medical care to maintain their health?

6. The articles from this week gave me an introduction to women’s health and brought up some of the most important issues facing women’s health today. The first article from the Medical Anthropology Quarterly called “Defining women’s health” touched upon some of the major aspects of women’s health, such as the reproductive essentialization of women’s bodies and the politics of women’s health. I found it interesting when the article discussed how women are rarely the ones to set the boundaries for their health and how we are thought of mainly as producers. The article points out that most medical services are geared towards reproductive services, such as obstetricians, gynecologists, and maternal and child health. The article also mentions that many organizations, such as the Child Survival Initiative, are mostly focused on reproduction. The world needs to understand that women are faced with several other issues that are just as important as reproduction that are absolutely under-represented in the medical field, such as cervical cancer, PID, and infertility.

   One interesting issue that was talked about in this article that I feel needs to be addressed is that “teenage initiation into early sexual activity is linked to economic uncertainties (and the material benefits of having an older boyfriend), poor career opportunities, single-parent households lacking effective role models, and less concern for the future in communities riddled by violence and poverty” (p. 362). In order to combat these issues young females should be given the proper resources and education to help them make better choices, obtain good jobs, and to guide them while growing up if they do not have any positive adult influence in their lives.

   A second article for this week, “Discourses of the female body,” was my favorite because I did not know about the metaphors that are used to describe and define the female body, and honestly I think these metaphors are unfair because they compare women’s bodies in such a negative way. The article compares women to passive laborers and menstruation to a “productive system gone awry.” Because this menstruation metaphor is so negative, society tends to look at menstruation in a negative way as well. Sometimes I am almost embarrassed to tell someone I am menstruating because it is such a touchy subject in our society and women are made to feel almost dirty when they are menstruating, and it really should not be like this! And I’m sure the men in this class are afraid of menstruation and probably even hate to say the word?

   In my opinion, body piercing and tattooing are not forms of resistance as the article mentions, but I feel they are just ways women can express themselves in artistic ways and make women feel good about themselves. I have my belly button pierced and I love it, but I did not do it to rebel against society’s image of what a woman should look like nor to gain some kind of physical pain. I just like the way it looks, nothing more, nothing less. I do feel that some women get piercings to sexualize their bodies because our society associates certain piercings with sexual activity, such as a tongue ring, but sometimes we get piercings because we just like they way they look and how they make us feel. But it is wrong for us to assume that just because a woman has her tongue pierced, she must give a lot of oral sex.

   Another article we had to read from the Boston Women’s health book talked about the health disparities that women face, how our US health care system is (unfairly) run, and also about new emerging biotechnologies involving embryo cells. I am very interested in our health care system because I think it needs so much reform and I really do not understand why the government does not do something about it. We spend more money than any other nation in the world on health care, yet 25% of all Americans still do not have health care! Right now the way our system is works is that health care relies heavily on the private insurance companies, you basically get the health care that you can afford, and the system is not cost-effective whatsoever. Clearly something is terribly wrong with out system, and I think the best way to reform is to have a universal health care system that is headed by the government, but this will undoubtedly take years to actually happen. In other countries that have a single payer system, such as England and Canada, everyone is guaranteed some sort of basic coverage and they hardly waste any money on administrative work and willing like we do. I feel that health care is a basic human right and we need to change the system to reflect this so that everyone has access to these services.

7. Cervical cancer, PID, and infertility are all related to reproductive health. If you look at reproductive health as broadly defined–beyond that of just giving birth to a baby–then you see that a lot of health issues, for both men and women, could be linked to their reproductive health. A number of these health issues, such as HIV/AIDS or other STIs, affect reproduction and also affect the ways that men and women may conceive of their bodies, sexually and/or reproductively speaking.

8. I enjoyed different aspects of all of this weeks readings. I have often felt as though my definition of my body and society’s definition are at odds. I believe that it is in part because of this conflict that so many women find honest acceptance of their bodies so difficult.

   In DISCOURSES OF THE FEMALE BODY the author discuses how the medical profession has constructed often negative notions of the female body and how those notions are often compounded by race, class and ethnicity. One example that I found extremely disturbing and poignant was that in our culture disabled men are feminized while disabled women are desexualized. The author states that “such constructions place wide ranging constraints on the way the disabled can construct notions of identity and selfhood”. I feel that such constructions place constraints on how all women construct their notions of identity and selfhood. It only underscores why women today are trying to find ways to define and sexualize their bodies on their own terms, through body art and rebellion against mass media’s images of the “perfect body”.

   In GENDER, BODY, BIOMEDICINE the author states that a major benefit of feminist concern with reproduction and childbearing is that it has brought that aspect of private life into focus. As society changes to accept many different and nontraditional families, it runs headfirst into the way culture is changing through the lens of reproduction. She suggests that “reproductive normalization is an achievement “ and I think that today, especially when older women are able to have children, surrogates are a possibility for more couples and more same sex couples are starting families, reproductive normalization may be a key to cultural normalization.

   DEFINING WOMEN’S HEALTH was one of my two favorite readings this week. This article discusses how the biomedical field reduces women’s health to narrow western medical definitions often related to disease or dysfunction and mostly centered on reproduction and in contrast how anthropology has provided a window into women’s lives. Anthropology has provided a window into how women define their health all over the world. What they consider to be their health concerns and health priorities. The agendas of the biomedical field and the field of anthropology are very different, and therefore their perspectives on women’s health are different as well. This article discusses how women’s health cannot be separated from the context of their lives. That all of the factors that act on them: social, political, economic, racial, ethnic affect their health.
   As an MPH student, I feel that this article is extremely relevant in many different ways. Perhaps the most important one being that it seeks to promote awareness of the fact that (obviously) health does not exist in a vacuum. As women are rarely the ones who set the boundaries that identify and define their health problems, how can we expect that our delivery of healthcare to women is adequate? If our culture constructs women as “reproducers” and if reproductive health is the only major point of contact for many women around the globe in terms of healthcare, then aren’t we in the public health & medical fields doing these women a major disservice? As we focus on this area of women’s health, at the same time we pathologize it rather than normalize it as well. We treat pregnancy, childbirth and menopause as medical issues that need to be handled. And at the same time we perpetuate a lack of control and understanding over normal body processes for many women. As the medical field perpetuates this believe it encourages me that there is resurgence of women taking control of their reproductive and overall health again; through the use of midwives and natural childbirth and alternative medicine. Hopefully this trend will continue and spread to women’s insistence on retaining control over their bodies and their lives through ensuring reproductive rights and choice and demanding more holistic approaches to healthcare in this country and in the international policies that this country effects.

   Finally, THE POLITICES OF WOMEN’S HEALTH. This was my other favorite reading for this week. I really enjoyed reading an essay that focused on the politics of women’s health in this country. From the role socioeconomic status plays in the disparities in healthcare, from preventing disease to education, diagnosis and treatment to how our privatized medical system often favors high tech, high expense medical interventions over less expensive, preventative and “alternative” methods while the cost of health care and the numbers of uninsured skyrockets in this country. The fact that health care in the richest nation in the world is not seen as a human right by our government in my mind is close to criminal.
   This article is a great compliment to the others in that it addresses other ways that governments, namely our own, run by white men, continues to control women’s bodies in this country and around the world. Through eroding women’s access to medical care and contraception to our right to choose in this country and others, to laws that effect other aspects of women’s health, such as education, gun control, minimum wage/living wage, women are kept down. They are oppressed by a capitalist patriarchy that continues to impose and negatively impact women’s lives.

9. Even though we are one of the most powerful, highly industrialized countries in the world, our health care system is no where near the best in the world. We have a long ways to go before we finally practice the belief that health care is a basic human right that everyone should have access to. However, we are working on it and currently have a decent health system considering we have the largest, most diverse population of industrialized countries.

   In comparison to single-payer countries like Canada who puts their citizens on waiting lists for surgeries, in our system if you have enough money, you can have many surgeries completed immediately. Most of our population doesn’t have enough money to buy this privilege but the option does exist while it doesn’t in Canada.

   For the many who are too poor to afford private insurance, the dominant sector of the industry, our government offers Medicaid, a program that offers some health care support. Our government also offers another health insurance plan, Medicare, to citizens over the age of 65 years. This plan is available to elders at a time in their lives where they have more medications and are in need of more health care services as their bodies age. However, for many, Medicare doesn’t cover the full cost of medications and health care bills so they must subscribe to another private insurance plan to supplement the Medicare and pay for all their expenses.

   In the next ten years, health care providers will become mostly women as women outnumber men in medical schools across the nation and in other careers such as physician’s assistant etc. This will give women more of a voice in this previously heavily male dominated profession and will most likely improve care for female patients, because doctors will identify more with their female patients. For instance, I read this summer in a news article that it is estimated that 74-82% of hysterectomies are unnecessary or prematurely done without alternative non-surgical options discussed with patients. I believe with more women as doctors, this number will be greatly reduced because irregular women’s reproductive systems won’t be seen as defective and as easily discarded. Female doctors won’t so easily strip women of their reproductive organs whose presence empowers them as women.

   A woman’s right to choose is respected in our country so that there are very few lives lost to the procedure because they are done in a medical setting. Although recent legislation has restricted some aspects of abortion, for most situations abortion is an available option. Most insurance companies and Medicaid cover birth control and make it affordable so that abortion rates have decreased.

   In conclusion, our health care system offers adequate care to many citizens of our country but only to the ones who can afford it. Government plans such as Medicaid and Medicare are good basics but still lack in coverage of services. The U.S. can greatly improve its health care system but as of today it manages to meet the needs of many.

   AutumnRocks

10. I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to be a Women’s Studies major and that I can spend time learning about and researching women’s health. “Discourses of the Female Body” reminded me how much I take for granted the ability to freely discuss an important part of my life. The language used to talk about the female body and the health aspects that surround the female body can be appauling. Terms such as “regress”, “failed”, and “inappropraite orders” are not terms that encourage positive thinking surrounding the female body. When speaking of the body in negative terms such as these only encourages society to see and think of the female body in a negative way and as something that needs to be fixed. This article also talks about how women are seen in terms of their ability to reproduce and how reproduction is a defining factor for women across society. I think it is very interesting that in general women of a white upper class are more likely to accept these terms and ways of thinking while poor, minority women are more likely to resist this way of thinking. This shows one aspect where there is a connection between race, class, ethnicity, and women’s health.
    In the “Gender, Body, Biomedicine” article we can see another part of women’s health where class comes into affect. The article discusses new technologies relating to reproduction that have been developed and how these technologies relate to different women in society. While science is thinking of new ways to help infertile women get pregnant these technological advances are not reaching all women. Only the upper class, generally white, women are able to afford the biomedicine, only further seperating the classes amongst women. However, the article did point out that in one case, the NICU, women of opposing class positions are being brought together. Both are dealing with newborns of low birth weight struggling to survive, however, the wealthy are there because of multiple births while the poor are there due to malnutrition. I think that it is very sad that this is the case and the only way women of different classes can be brought together with something as powerful as reproduction. I also think that this leads to thinking about universal health care and the possibility of making societal changes so that there is more equality when it comes to health care. Universal health care is something that was brought up in the readings but is somehting I know little about and look forward to learning more. I was very surpised to learn from “The Politics of Women’s Health” that the U.S. is one of the only states that does not have universal health care and also that the U.S. spends the most money on health care annually. I actually found this a bit confusing. Also brought up in the Biomedicine reading was the idea surrounding abortions and there relationship with technological advances. Being able to detect disabilities in utero is one way abortions are being affect by technology. Women have the ability to find out early in pregnancy whether or not there is a possibility of disability with the unborn child and given the option to abort. I would be interested in learning more about the statistics surrrounding these types of abortions because I find it appauling that anybody could make that decision based on the information that can be obtained at this time. I was also really interested to learn in the reading that Latino women are more accepting of these disabilites than white women are. I am curious as to the relationship that education and class play into this, knowing that most lower class women would probably not be able to afford the testing needed to determine such disabilities.
    Also in “The Politics of Women’s Health” the issue surrounding money comes up. Most of the health care in the U.S. is a private industry, therefore causing problems with who is able to receive health care. Money is driving the health care industry greatly and doctors are only causing more people to be sick by making it impossible for people to afford health care. I read recently that dermatologist will take a botox patient within 7 days but a patient who has a suspicious mole won’t get in for approximately 68 days. Along with that the doctor would make forty dollars from the mole patient, after the insurance pays up, and would make four hundred in cash from the botox patient. Clearly money is something that is driving doctors, but not in the right direction. This society needs health care to be equal for all inorder to improving quality of life. Women are greatly affected by the uncontrollable costs of the health idustry. What I am now wondering is how we can control this.

11. The article Discourses of the Human Body was very interesting to me, and I thought it covered a broad range of topics. I did not agree with the notion that a “menstruating woman is somehow a failure of a factory system because of the fact that the body could not produce a useful product” That puzzles me because a woman’s body is an amazing thing, and how it functions and what is does is incredible, and to compare a menstruating woman to a failure is ridiculous.

    As Lil Dre Dre commented above, another thing that stood out to me was the issue of teens being sexually active at an early age and that being linked to “economic uncertanties.” I totally agree that all young women, especially those who are in these unfortunate situations, should be educated on these issues, and provided with options in order to break this trend. I think that breaking this trend could help the issue of teen pregnancies in our country, as well as the prevention of STD’s and STI’s.

    The issue of gender, class and ethnicity is one that will most likely reappear throughout this course, and it was mentioned in different parts of the articles. The fact that women of lower economic status dont recieve health care because they don’t have insurance is a huge issue in our country. When I think of women without health insurance, what immediately comes to mind is the preventative measures that can be taken, such as regular PAP tests, to monitor womens health. This all leads back to the issue of health care in our country, which is a major problem, and the underlying cause of many other problems.

12. This week’s articles were all very interesting and brought up a number of topics that I would like to learn a lot more about. In all of the articles it was made clear that we must understand how many factors in women’s lives intersect in order to begin to understand and talk about issues facing our health. It is disturbing how culture in the U.S., supposedly a “free” country, confines the way women are able to live and access adequate health care.
    In the “Gender, Body, Biomedicine” paper, Rapp refers to the “direct grip” that culture has on our bodies through the practices and bodily habits of everyday life. I believe she is trying to make clear the tremendous affect and control that U.S. culture has on our bodies from the time we are born and into later life. In this culture we are socialized in specific ways, according to gender, race, and class. Appropriate behaviors based on these three factors and others are so engrained into our everyday lives that it is quite hard to realize consciously how we can challenge these ideas of how we are expected to treat and view our bodies.

    As the “Politics of Women’s Health” paper clearly explains how health care in the U.S. has become a commodity, where the principle of providing non-profit care for public well-being is practically lost, it is not difficult to understand how people are manipulated by these increasingly privatized institutions and become overwhelmed in trying to get coverage along with quality treatment. More and more women are unable to get the care they need for complicated medical conditions. I do believe that receiving quality health care should be considered a natural, basic human right, and if this were provided, there would be fewer severe health complications for women in general had they been receiving continuous quality care. I agree with Lil Dre Dre that it is ridiculous that the U.S. government does not take initiative to reform the system at all; it could at least start to stop the privatization of hospitals, where they become run like businesses strictly interested in increasing their profit rather than quality care of patients. It is obvious that the government will not provide equal health care to all citizens any time soon, but it is unbelievable that it seems they have not considered the better standard of living citizens in Canada and some European countries experience as a whole under universally provided health care. Also, these health care systems do not rely solely on biotechnical medicine and machines, but incorporate other forms of treatment including acupuncture, natural child birth, and other non-chemical procedures. Conversely, U.S. culture forces us into believing that every bit of new research information that may or may not have been adequately tested or even studied for the public’s best interest, is the best and only treatment that we will receive, if we can pay for it. If more people in the U.S. did not put so much faith in biotechnical medicine and treatment (manipulated by pharmaceutical companies) and looked to other lesser machine invasive and drug involved treatments, perhaps they would not be as oppressed by U.S. health care systems.

    In this culture we are more focused on drugs as treatment rather than a holistic approach to maintaining health. Preventative medicine is also often forgotten where the cultural focus is always on making specific natural bodily processes, particularly of women, into syndromes and diseases. Pharmaceutical advertising focuses on treating a chronic disease or bodily process, and being constantly berated by these advertisements creates more anxiety and a heightened awareness that this process is indeed viewed as negative and unfortunate. Preventative methods of health issues are not as present in the media as are these commercials. As discussed in “Defining Women’s Health” the medicalization of women’s bodies had led to negative bodily metaphors for the reproductive life cycle and for giving birth. Even giving birth has become commodified. Inhorn writes that birth in the U.S. is in complete control of biomedicine, and I think is very sad that culture has socialized us to the extent that even child birth is now treated as a medical disease.

13. The readings this week highlighted the polemics within the issues of women’s reproductive health. What intrigued me most was the new focus on the sociological and ethnological aspect of modern medicine and women’s healthcare. For instance, in the article entitled, “Discourses of the Female Body,” the writer traces an eye-opening history of the “exoticizing” of women of color, indicating that long-standing social perspectives about both Asian and African-American women have affected/infiltrated the image/definition of a woman’s body. The author recounts the truly horrifying story of one African woman, by the name of Sartje Bartman who was horribly objectified as a Westernized image of what is “animalistic” in an African woman. Much like a caged zoo animal, Bartman was gawked at and “probed” by a large, ignorant audience who would go on to believe that *this* image of a woman as “repulsive. Thus, difference in general, (of a woman’s body, heritage, culture etc.) is often, historically, disrespected for being miles away from the anonymously defined notion of what is “normal.” Hence, this relatively new effort to combine anthropological and sociological studies with public health and medicine is not only an interesting idea, but truly vital for the survival and comfort of women all across the globe.
    What also attracted my attention was the issue of education in the field of women’s health, and how the passing on of sometimes very basic knowledge has been hindered by political beliefs. The article entitled, “The Politics of Women’s Health” says it well when it states: “knowledge is only power when we’re given the oppurtunity to use it.” I am a very strong believer in the concept that education translates to power, power to change, power to survive, power to affect society etc. It is greatly distressing and somewhat frightening then, to learn that so many women around the world are unaware of how to protect themselves. For example, fears surrounding the U.S.-instituted “gag rule” have led to the extraction of abortion and contraception education because of conservative U.S. administrations who have mixed their personal, ethical and religious beliefs with the funding of highly significant programs to enrich women’s health around the globe. While these beliefs may be important to these individuals in the administration, they have little to do with the health of, for instance, a woman in Sub-Saharan Africa or South-East Asia who has been abused. The article also states that due to confusion in the specific regulations under the gag rule “some organizations don’t discuss emergency contraception because they fear losing U.S. funds.”
    It angers me greatly that the healthcare of women around the world is being jeopardized by a predominantly white male population in U.S. government administrations who are putting their personal beliefs in front of the general welfare of others. Moreover, it is superbly upsetting that to many in impoverished countries and societies, conservative administrations are hindering their education with abstinence-only education. Negating the existence of the condom, especially for many women in Africa and India who often become victims of the HIV/AIDS pandemic due to their inability to monitor the affairs of their own husbands. Husbands with multiple partners is a leading cause of the contraction of HIV for an alarming number of women. Thus, isn’t it the responsibility of those who have studied methods of contraception and guarding against this mammoth of a virus to spread the knowledge and arm every woman with the facts she needs to survive? Why deny these women the right to know how to protect themselves? Education about sex should be available to all in all that it entails, because the alternative of selective education has proven fatal for far too many women.

14. The most comprehensive and thought provoking article in my opinion was Marcia Inhorn’s Defining Women’s Health. She brings up what she has gleaned as the main issues that need to be addressed and thoroughly studied in order to bring about needed change in the broad issue of womens health. In the introduction, she brings up the subject of lifestyle change as growing exponentially as a cause for chronic disease in women in the United States. Though the meaning of lifestyle implies that it is ones choices that directly contribute to the physical/mental state of health that a particular woman is in, I cant help but think that it is the social and environmental factors that are to blame for many of the health issues women face today. The media bombardment of perfect body image, the decline of the nuclear family, long work hours (especially of women who want to be a mother and a business woman both). Even now, after the facts are in, pharmeceutical companies are still gearing their insulin commercials and hypertension/hypercholesterolemia medication towards men, basically ignoring the presence of it in women. There seems to be a huge piece missing from the medical care puzzle here. While understanding the intricasies of the female body is obviously paramount, a holistic approach is also all but ignored, leaving only the “eat right, exercise, be happy” shrapnel in an old pamphlet in your primary care physican’s office lobby. The article brings up the issue of AIDS campaigns that focus mostly on the reproductive risks/rammifications of the disease. What about HOW the disease was contracted(men forcing women to not use condoms,forced prostitution, partner infidelity etc)? Todays meaning of “health” has been broadened since the narrow “absence of disease” definition. What about social, mental, and spiritual health? It is the social structure, the gender roles, and the world’s overall idea of a woman’s worth and power (not just as a way to extend the bloodline) that needs to be addressed first. It seems so typical that we try to deal with a problem after it has gotten out of control, instead of spending time on researching cause and effect, and preventative measures from all angles of health. Again, with the “Endangered Daughers”, and genital mutilation, it is the social structure that needs to be researched and modified in order to stop such cruel patriarchal practices (cultural relativism aside).

    The second article, “Discourses of the Female Body” definately puts the way men view women in a very palpable manner. Since most all of the above topics have not impacted me directly (yet), it is these types of issues (such as text book medical terminology created by the male-dominated medical professional field) that should absolutely make every woman (and male for that matter) livid. What makes our absolutely natural processes “disgusting” or a “failure, “inappropriate”,”falter” or “lacking” and men’s are seen as commonplace, normal and natural, and even….macho? The answer again, is a huge problem in gender role designation (as weak, subservient, inferior etc) and our social stratificaion: another example of patriarchal/elitist influence. Even erectile dysfunction with the word “dysfunction” is glorified on television with images of the “big man on campus” type of attitude and smug look on his face and a thumbs up from his neighbors. As far as the tattoo and piercing issue goes, everyone is constantly exhibiting some sort of personal expression from the logos they wear, to the ink permanently on their bodies, it is all self expression. I can only hope that the choices that people make are not to follow a trend, or to try to make themselves more appealing to others, but something much more personal.

15. I enjoyed all of the readings for t his week but Inhorn’s “Defining Women’s Health” article and “Discourses on the Female Body” were especially compelling.

    I found the section of “Discourses on the Female Body” pertaining to tattooing and piercing as a form of resistance fascinating. I agree with Lil Dre Dre in that piercings for many women are a form of decoration and have no deeper implications. However, some women, especially those who may not feel that they fit our cultural definition of beauty and are tired of trying to conform to an unrealistic and nearly unattainable goal, may use piercings and tattoos to create their own definition of beauty or to fit themselves to the beauty standard of certain subcultures. I love the fact that women who might have felt unbeautiful in their bodies as members of this society have found ways to in a way take their bodies back and create their own version of something beautiful and unique.

    I really enjoyed the entire “Discourses” article; this and the other articles tied together what to me seem like the major causes and effects of the self-image problem all too common among American women. Feeling uncomfortable in one’s own skin is not a global phenomenon, but in the US many women take insecurity about their bodies and appearance almost for granted. The biomedical establishment has played a large role in creating a female image that has been absorbed by women themselves, to their detriment.

    The Inhorn article mentioned as one of its twelve messages the power to define women’s health. Women’s health and bodies have been depicted by the biomedical establishment basically as pertaining almost solely to reproduction, and taking into account none of the sociocultural aspects that affect women’s well-being in everyday life. Because of the biomedical tendency to focus only on the health issue at hand, and not the person suffering it, many women lack a holistic image of themselves as a person. This is not helped by what Inhorn termed “the reproductive essentialization of women’s lives.” Most of the women’s health field of medicine focuses on problems of reproduction; being viewed solely as wife-mothers contributes to the fragmented images women have of themselves.

    At first the argument that women’s bodies have been colored with negative production-related imagery seemed like a bit of a stretch to me. However, the articles made their points very well. It hardly seems like a random choice that the word for childbirth is labor; miscarriage is a failure to produce a child. These production terms carry over into the pathologizing of natural and essential bodily processes. It seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy that menstruation and PMS have become times of annoyance and embarrassment for women (aside from the fact that having your period is pretty annoying when you’re trying to go about your day, no matter what culture you live in). Making something that women go through every month for most of their lives a “condition” rather than just a process shows the lack of sensitivity and sociocultural awareness of the biomedical establishment.

    Imposing the moral position that teen pregnancy is akin to a “moral disease” is one thing that has bothered me for a while—it’s true that for most young women growing up in the United States, having a baby at 16 isn’t the best case scenario. But in some cultures, including those with communities in the US, having children at a fairly young age is normal, even applauded. To be a young woman struggling with those two standards is unfair.

16. I’m taking an introductory biology course here at Umass. We began the course by talking about stem cells, as a means of transitioning into the rest of the human body. On the first day of discussion, my professor talked of the debate involved in stem cell research: cloning, “designer babies”, the body’s possible reaction to foreign cells, destruction of embryos, etc. Thoughts of ‘where do these healing stem cells come from’ or ‘what could designer babies mean for women, the poor, the disadvantaged’ were not addressed, and didn’t even come to my mind. While reading the chapter of “The Politics of Women’s Health”, these issues were addressed. Not in the same language of my bio textbook, like they’re two completely different issues. I realized how disconnected I was made to feel from the subject that directly involved me. In bio we talked about stem cells helping paralyzed people move again,not my body. But the two seemingly separate things are connected…through my body theoretically. The language which the topic was presented in, is retrospectively very interesting to me. He talked about stem cells, never talked about eggs or invasive medical procedures for women. He was trying to present an unbiased view, but by omission he wasn’t at all.
    On the subject of terminology, I was very excited that “Discourses of the Female Body” specifically addressed sexism in linguistics, “Others argue that language also trivializes and degrades women…(89)”. It’s always been very frustrating for me to hear the words “slut” or “easy” as adjectives to describe women who express their sexuality, versus “player” or “pimp”, more positive words for men. When describing a daring action, I used to use the term “ballsy”, catching myself I realized what I was saying… but I couldn’t say what they did was “girly”, or “that took a lot of vagina”… because saying something is “girly” is demeaning ie. the classic “you (blank) like a girl”. Language in reference to women, needs to be taken back, to mean something positive, (granted references to the male genitalia can be insulting too, but more slang words for a women and women’s bodies are used negatively). Whether in regards to metaphors used in science as discussed in “Discourses of the Female Body”, or in everyday slang and words we use, because we internalize these things and they become subconscious and thus, self fulfilling prophecies.
    All the readings touch or focus upon health and it’s relationship to the intersectionality of gender, race, class, abilities, sexuality, religion, etc on women’s lives. These things are concepts, ideas, that play out on women’s bodies. Thus, bodies, are representations and battlegrounds of these ideas. As the “Gender, Body, Biomedicine” article quoted Susan Bordo, “the material body as a site of political struggle…”(467). An example to illustrate this is in the case between Palestinian and Israeli woman as discussed in “Defining Women’s Health”. Here, a political battle is being fought using women and their reproductive capacities as a pawn. The state (Israel) doesn’t subsidize birth control for Israeli women, but encourages contraception use for Palestinian women. This is because they’re (the state) are afraid of the population of Arabs outnumbering that of the Israelis (363). I remember learning how precivil rights movement, hospitals down South would sterilize African American women after they gave birth without their consent, for very similar reasons. The example given in the reading wasn’t so far away an foreign to me after remembering that. The same way I am treated, and the way I look at my body (and the way my body is looked at), is totally different from the way a woman in Central America views/is viewed.
    Another subject touched on by most is of over medicalization of women’s bodies. There is definitely a stigma in our culture of things that are viewed to me not modern, like healers, midwives, etc. This is really silly because a lot of the times these people and services are more helpful than modern medicine is. One time my father was having a really hard time sleeping, so instead of taking sedatives/ drugs, he went to an herbalist. The herbalist gave him loose tea called, “good sleepy” and sure enough, when my dad drank it, he fell asleep! Some may say that this sort of medicine is all mental, but i say to that, aspects of modern medicine aren’t? I feel like part of this medicalization is due to capitalism, creating an industry out of our health. I say this because the medicalization increases a feeling of disassociation from one’s body. For example, I think of menstrual products. As Lil Dre Dre said, menstruation is made out by society to be gross, impure, etc. Women buy tampons and pads to absorb their shedding lining of the uterus. So many pads, tampons and liners! That’s so much money per year, per 2 years, 10 years! Thousands of dollars! The corporations play on our insecurities. I remember an ad on TV for a super stealthy, small, fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand, sized tampon. The girl in the commercial was walking out in the middle to class with her hand closed, the teacher stops her, thinking she’s about to go and smoke a cigarette, and makes her open up her hand and of course, she was super embarrassed because periods are icky. So women buy into these products. I bought a Diva Cup and it’s the best invention ever. It’s a silicone cup, which catches all your menstrual blood. After the initial pricey investment I don’t have to buy an menstrual products for at least five years or so. This process of the cup involves me. I get my hands all bloody and pour out all of my menstrual blood, some people use the cup to help them make art with their blood. It’s not passive and foreign to me, I am no longer as disconnected from my body in this aspect. I understand how my cycle and period work now. But of course this probably seems really gross to most people. This kind of product counteracts what the industry is going for, the last thing they want is one to be connected with their body.

17. After reading the four assigned articles, I found a common theme of intersectionality in relation to women’s health care as well as the increasing influence of corporate power and resulting concentration of wealth. This leads to negative consequences for women and their health. Since I plan on going into health care as a profession, these articles where not only relavant to my area of study, but provided me with an overview on the obstacles that stand in the way for those who wish to pursure alternative methods of health care. In a country that is driven by biomedicine, the tendency to pathologize normal bodily processes can lead to bad medical management. Although I strongly believe that western medicine can provide benefits in the face of certain health related emergencies, I am also a strong believer in complementary medicine as the best source of preventative care. Our increased reliance on technology to answer or health related issues is doing more harm than not as well as, a lack of women’s voice when it comes to these practices. When it comes to health care, I believe that it is imperative to look at all of the different factors that can lead to an illness, before relying on technological advancements to answer these questions.

18. One of the first articles i read discussing issues in women’s health was “Defining Women’s Health, a Dozen Messages”. This article begins by describing women as “producers”, as the others have mentioned, and how reproduction is a females main point of her existence. While this may seem sexist and may come across as putting limits on what women can do, I do believe for the most part this is true. It is not always viewed as a failure when a woman is unable to have children, being that there are many children already in this world who need a women’s maternity. As the article goes on to say, women’s health care is also mainly focused on reproductive issues. While there are many other concerns a woman can have with her body, it is important to have such a focus on this as well. Other health care services are provided to everyone and can address any problems. If there was a lack of attention given to female reproduction, people would also find faults or find it to be sexist. This article also touches on issues of race, class, and ethnicity. It is said that a middle-class white female would be more likely to not abort a disabled child than someone of another class or backround would. Such stereotypes or generalizations are of course, not at all accurate, but it says something about the way people view others. A lack of proper medical treatment and no health insurance also greatly affects poorer women, as also discussed in Boston Women’s Health Book. Health services is in dire need of finding a way to provide services to all who need it, and not just those who can afford expensive insurance companies.
    Another topic discussed from the article “Discourses of the Body”, that I will add to, was menstruation. Menstruation is clearly a natural occurance in all females and necessary for pregnancy. It is often viewed as disgusting, unclean, and embarassing. It is even mentioned in the article as a failure, or something that has gone wrong. I do not know when these negative feelings came about about menstruation, or when it became almost unspeakable, but it does not make any sense. While it does not need to be chatted about in daily conversation, it should be able to be discussed without seeming like a women is disgusting.

19. Sorry Aline, I did not see your question regarding my intial blog statement. I believe that our health care system is as good as it can be right now. People travel all over the world to come here just to see our doctors and nurses. This could be my own personal biased from being a nursing major and working in a hospital. Of course there are a lot of things that could change, but no health care system is perfect in any part of the world. I DO NOT think that our health care insurance agencies are as great as they could be at all. We need to work on getting Health Care For All in every state for every U.S. citizen.