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Medicalization Of Gender

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Essay # 1
Race is a specific characteristic, used to classify individuals into groups. It is considered a cultural construct because there are no biological affiliations with race. It is something that our society has culturally defined, agreed upon, and accepted. I will be presenting three different scientific facts to support this statement. First, race is produced by the dominant group of society and classified by analyzing a person’s skin color.
This was first seen within the time of slavery, with white European slave owners exerting ethnocentrism over black African American slaves. Skin color was used to determine a person’s status, free or slave. However, a person with more European than African decent was still considered black and …show more content…

As the condition is medicalized, they receive government grants and funding to better the treatment quality and technology given to patients. I feel government representatives also support this medicalization because it focuses the attention off of social components, like the strict gender categories and roles a person must belong to, and onto biological components, to which they are not responsible for. The trans-gender community can be seen to support and reject medicalizing Gender Dysphoria, as it allows treatment to be more accessible, but also increases stigmatization. Strong religious groups advocate against the medicalization of this disorder, as they put the blame on the individual’s parents and argue for prayer and counseling to guide the individual back in the right direction …show more content…

However, there are distinct difference between them. A disease is a medical condition that is clinically recognized to be caused by a biological or chemical factor. Diseases are medical conditions that directly affect internal organs and can be consistently diagnosed throughout the world, regardless of cultural differences. Illness, on the other hand, is the overall experience of being ill. In addition, illness is how a patient makes sense of his feelings of being un-well. Often times, disease and illness coincide with one another. An illness, or feeling of being un-well, can be caused by a disease. For example, the medical condition, anorexia, is considered an illness. Patients suffering from this illness may have poor body image, low self-esteem, or distorted views of food. These perceptions all contribute to the many reasons why a patient suffering with anorexia chooses not to eat. If this illness persists, diseases, such as heart failure, can develop. This is a disease because it effects an organ and can be studied with the same diagnosis worldwide. As diseases remain consistent among different cultures, illnesses vary tremendously. In America, our culture views a healthy woman’s body to be slender and athletic. These cultural pressures influence anorexia and feelings of body insecurities. In Latin-American cultures, anorexia isn’t as prevent because they value their women to have a “curvy” figure. Even though the

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Environmental illnesses can also be caused by the lifestyle of a person which depends on what a person eats or where the person lives. Chemicals in cigarettes can cause lung cancer so if a person is an active smoker, he or she may have lung cancer caused by the chemicals. Nutritional deficiencies occur when the body does not have the required amount of nutrients so this leads to different health problems like a defected bone growth, indigestion or even skin problems. Cardiovascular diseases are normally related to the heart or the blood vessels so these may be diseases like coronary heart diseases, strokes, peripheral arterial disease and more which may cause diabetes, obesity. Mainly, it is the person’s diet and lifestyle which may prevent such diseases.

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Illness can be defined as a state of suffering due to the presence of a disease, this term can be used to describe a patient’s personal experience of a disease. This definition is a modern concept which is based on the scientific approach of illness as a biological or mental abnormality with a cause, train of symptoms and a treatment method. While in primitive societies illness was seen as an evil spirit that attacked people and caused them pain or death, this primitive concept of illness was as a result of superstitious beliefs and lack of scientific development. During the middle ages the concept of illness was influenced heavily by religious beliefs and illness was seen as punishment for sins. The way each society defined illness was

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“In the past, eating disorders were generally considered to be confined to young white females from middle-to-upper class families living in Western societies” (Caradas 112). Both studies exploit the false stereotypes associated with eating disorders and culture. Both parties believe that non Western cultures are being influenced by the “slim is beautiful” idea. Each view points out the false misconception that non Western cultures traditional ideas of being thick is related to health is protecting them from eating disorders. Studies prove all ethnicities have shown concern towards body shape and eating attitudes in recent years around the

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The first discussion of this course we have covered, we learned race is a social construction. According to Snip, he explained why he believes that race is a social construction; he argued that race is being used to pursue social class and political desires. Throughout the history race has changed from time to time. In the context of the United State race was used for assigned people based on their skin color then it become matter of personal identification. The book explains the concept of race, as this “Racialization is the social process by which a racial group identity is attached to a group and that is placed in a race-based social hierarchy.”

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Yet, to understand racial segregation, one must understand the history of race. The age of enlightenment is what sparked human studies and theories for human differences. Traveling to different continents, and allowed Europeans to discover peoples with different appearances, as explained in “Early Classification of Nature” (RACE). “A prime example of the Enlightenment’s influence in science is Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus’ system of biological classifications in Systemae Naturae, published in 1735.. He formalized the distinction among the continental populations of the world and his work helped characterize the concept of race” (“Early Classification of Nature, RACE).

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In conclusion, the way that experts see race and how it had affected and change over the years has demonstrated that there is no empirical definition of race. There is no biological construct of race that has ever stood the test of time or science. Yet the concept is so imbued with social meaning that it remains, despite the lack of scientific evidence regarding this issue. Moreover, the social, cultural and political divisions that have arisen around the idea of race have also created more differences between social groups. Today, race is defined primarily as a matter of perception – how one perceives one self, and how one is perceived by others.

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Social construction is an event made by people from a specific society or culture, which exist only because people agreed to act like it exists for certain regulations. Therefore, a race is a socially constructed category, because it was made to give people from different parts of the world/worldwide an identity when they weren’t a specific “norm” identity. Major details of racial formation theory, where the different cultures, and society, including European culture, scientific theories, and even the time it took place. The racial project represents the race and characteristics of physical appearances, language, and thought. The social origin of racial classification comes from Europeans, slavery, and racial colonization.

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The definition of “health” means the state of being free from illness or injury. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the tree, the ultimate punishment was that we would all suffer for their mistake. However, the disparity that comes along with health related problems is completely unjust. Treatment for one should be reflective of treatment for all.

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Race is the social construct of social identities. We distinguish the uniqueness of individuals in such ways that our genotype and phenotype are closely associated to classifying these individuals into a particular race. Our culture, physical characteristics, and ethnicity separates us into five different categories of race: Black/African American, Yellow/Asian (including Pacific Islanders), Red/Native Americans, Brown/Hispanic/Latino, and White/Caucasian. Throughout history, darker complexions were often looked down upon. White skin becomes more favorable and are seen to be more superior than the other colors, creating this ideology that justifies inequality.

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Argumentative Essay Eating disorders are becoming a rising problem in many individuals regardless of their age or gender. Eating disorders are problems that revolve around abnormal eating behaviors and distorted beliefs about eating, weight or shape. They can be classified as psychiatric problems, which are considered a general medical condition. Eating disorders happen when individuals are obsessed about controlling their weight by controlling what they eat.

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Race is defined as the categorization of individuals based on their physical characteristics, i.e. skin color, facial structure, etcetera. Ethnicity is defined as the categorization of individuals based on their respective social or cultural groups, and is not based upon race. Both race and ethnicity are similar systems of categorization, yet, although race is on the basis on physical features while ethnicity is based on one’s social or cultural background. The concept of race was created by European imperialists and colonialists during the early 17th century, when the slave trade began. The white imperialists needed a system of categorization in order to justify the sharp uptick in the use of the African body as slaves.

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Each individual has their own different social identity. One’s social identity is constructed based on the different influences around them. The development of social identity is influenced by various factors such as the historical, cultural and religious beliefs of the society, community or family where one is brought up. It is influenced by the behaviours and attitudes of authority figures such as parents, teachers and community leaders around them, it is also influenced by external factors such as the media, one’s peers and the overall exposure one has (Carrim, 2006, p56).

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1472 Words | 6 Pages

We are ever since educated that we only have binary sexes – male or female, in schools. Traditions and cultures also suggest perceptions and conventions that creates the “correct” type of male and female. While the majority have their biological sex and gender identity aligned consistently, some just find theirs do not fit perfectly. Schools and the society were not able to explain this phenomenon and thus people related and mixed it to disorders and mental illness, tried to control it and to ‘fix’

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Race, nationality and ethnicity Race and ethnicity are seen as form of an individual’s cultural identity. Researchers have linked the concept of “race” to the discourses of social Darwinism that in essence is a categorization of “types” of people, grouping them by biological and physical characteristics, most common one being skin pigmentation. Grouping people based on their physical traits has lead in time to the phenomenon of “racialization” (or race formation), as people began to see race as more of a social construct and not a result or a category of biology.

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While the topic of mental health awareness has recently been introduced, the roots of mental illnesses run deep into history. Mental illnesses, also called mental disorders, are a wide range of conditions that affect mood, thinking, and behavior. Many people with mental illnesses are now fighting to increase awareness of disorders like depression and anxiety, and some argue that the best way to educate about mental illnesses is to teach about it in school. By educating about mental illnesses in schools, activists are hoping to increase understanding about the topic and prevent teenagers who have mental illnesses from feeling alone.

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