Read the assigned readings and lecture materials below and watch the embedded videos. Then, complete and submit the Google Doc:
I attached the google doc that needs to be submitted
Medicine, Health, and Reproductive Justice – Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
Our physical and mental health impact every aspect of our lives. And just like other aspects of our lives, our health is impacted by our gender and other aspects of our identities, like race, sexual orientation, economic status, etc.
Consider this: Women are less likely to have health insurance. This is in part because women are more likely to be part-time workers or to work full-time jobs that don’t offer benefits. Women are also more likely than men to be on insurance as a dependent, through their spouse’s insurance, which means that in cases of divorce or separation, they will be without health insurance. Other factors impacting health include access to healthy foods, and things like gym memberships (plus time to go to them!) and people with more wealth are more likely to have access to these.
Additionally, consider gender stratification and the fact that characteristics associated with men and masculinity are more valued and more “normalized” (androcentrism). In the case of health, the male body is considered the “norm” against which all other bodies are measured. So, women are often not the subjects of studies for new medications and medical procedures, so it’s not clear how these will affect women with their very different hormones. For example, “Baseline data for heart monitors were based on middle-aged white men, causing serious complications for patients who did not fit this description” (see citation below). In fact, women and men experience heart attacks differently. The dramatic heart pain we associate with heart attacks is more common in men, so it can be harder for women to even recognize when they have a heart attack! Also, more money is spent on diseases that affect men more than women (Parkinsons, heart disease, lung cancer), while medical concerns that are specific to women receive the least amount of funding and are subjects of far fewer studies.
Plus, the normal functions of a woman’s body are often medicalized, which means that normal functions of the body get categorized as being indicative of disease, and thus require medical intervention. Consider everything about a woman’s experience that is cyclical or episodic: menstruation, pregnancy, lactation, menopause. Our culture tends to pathologize these in addition to medicalizing. To pathologize is to treat something normal as if it is abnormal, or bad. Consider all the jokes about menstruation making women “crazy.” Or the fact that breastfeeding in public is controversial. Pregnancy and birth, in particular, are treated as experiences that require a lot of medical intervention; women are often treated as if they know little about what is best for their own bodies, as if only doctors can make decisions for them regarding their pregnancy and birth.
Gender stereotyping is also a problem in women’s health care. Consider the phenomenon of “provider bias,” in which a medical professional makes assumptions about a person’s symptoms based on their own personal assumptions about gender, race, and other factors–and medical providers are often not aware that they’re doing this unconsciously. For example, it’s well-documented that women’s complaints about their physical health are often dismissed as “anxiety,” or the women are viewed as overreacting or being overly emotional, as you saw illustrated in the assigned reading about hysteria. As a result, not only do women’s physiological problems often go untreated, but they are far more likely to be prescribed anxiety-mediating and mood-altering medications, which come with side effects. (All of this information is from Chapter 7 of Gendered Voices Feminist Visions 7th edition, Shaw and Lee.)
And of course, anyone identifying outside the male-female binary may fear even going to a doctor to seek basic treatment, and will often face mistreatment and undue stress when they do. This is in part because non-cisgender and non-heterosexual gender identities and sexual orientations have also been pathologized in society. They have, at points throughout recent history, been treated as a disease, or something that needs to be cured, as in the 90s when scientific research was conducted to try to identify the “gay gene.” (There isn’t one, by the way.)
Additionally, women of color face the intersecting challenges brought on by medical racism. For example, Black women in the US still suffer fromhigher rates of maternal mortality and poorer health care in general.
These issues can lead to subpar medical care that causes great harm, and may lead individuals to avoid seeking medical care altogether.
All of this has a long tradition, and we could talk about this for an entire semester. (And the WGS department does have a whole class on women’s health, WGS 103!)
What it comes down to:
Because men and male bodies are “normalized,” women and female bodies have historically been pathologized. In part because of this pathologizing, women’s bodies are more likely to become medicalized. What all of this means is that women often do not have agency over their own bodies. Their bodily autonomy has often been–and continues to be–controlled by men: husbands, doctors, and now, politicians and policy makers.
Hysteria
Throughout the illustrated reading “The Dark History of Hysteria” by Beguez, we see depictions of various men throughout history expressing opinions about what ails women. In fact, we hardly see women speak at all. While the author details the history of hysteria, she also illustrates who controlled the fate of women’s bodies throughout this history: men, especially medical professionals. And while hysteria is no longer an official diagnosis, the tradition of not allowing women to speak, not listening to women in health care settings, and attributing women’s physical complaints to something deemed feminine (in modern times, anxiety, or “it’s all in their head”) endures.
Reproductive Justice
The readings by hooks and Kang et al discuss reproductive justice, a movement that combines “reproductive rights” with “social justice,” to acknowledge that people experience reproductive rights differently, and the framing of reproductive rights as opposed to justice, privileged the needs and experiences of predominantly white, materially privileged women. Reproductive justice, then, attempts to take a more intersectional approach.
While reproductive justice tends to be portrayed as primarily concerned with abortion, hooks points out in Chapter 5 that reproductive justice also includes “basic sex education, prenatal care, preventive health care that would help females understand how their bodies worked, to forced sterilization, unnecessary cesareans and/or hysterectomies, and the medical complications they left in their wake” (26). Hooks also ties reproductive justice to sexual freedom when she says that “there could be no sexual liberation for women and men without better, safer contraceptives–without the right to a safe, legal abortion” (26).
Most importantly, hooks notes that
“If women do not have the right to choose what happens to our bodies we risk relinquishing rights in all other areas of our lives” (29).
Watch the video below for more about reproductive justice:
One aspect of reproductive justice mentioned in the chapter from Kang et al as well as the chapter from hooks is eugenics, which sometimes comes in the form of forced sterilization. “Forced sterilization” is exactly what it sounds like–people are forcibly sterilized so they can no longer have children, usually by tubal ligation (having their “tubes tied”) or through vasectomy, when they are deemed “unfit” by a powerful entity, like the state or federal government. In the U.S., Black Americans, Latinas, Native Americans, people with disabilities, poor people, and incarcerated people have all been targeted as subjects of forced sterilization. Women are the primary targets of these eugenics campaigns, but men have been sterilized as well. You will learn more about this in the next lecture.
Key Terms/Concepts
As you move through the course, take notes on your copy of the Key Terms/Concepts spreadsheet.
Key Terms/Concepts in this lecture or readings:
- medicalization
- pathologizing
- hysteria
- reproductive justice
- eugenics
What to Submit
This Google Document: Health 1 Activity
Make a copy of this document so you can type on it directly.
(If you answer more than one, I will grade the first one.)
1. The prevailing characteristic of our study of women’s health is that women have historically struggled to control their own bodily agency or autonomy . Hysteria is one example of this. Referring to “The Dark History of Hysteria” and any other material from the lecture, explain how the history of hysteria illustrates women’s struggle for bodily autonomy.
2. Choose a quote from Chapter 5 of Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks that illustrates why reproductive justice is important to feminism and to women’s freedom and autonomy.
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Quote (with page number): |
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Explain how the quote illustrates why reproductive justice is important to feminism and to women’s freedom. Mention at least one other reading or video from the Health 1 lecture in your discussion of the quote. |
3. Provide an example of a health concern related to sex or gender being medicalized or pathologized. You can write about yourself, or someone else you have observed. Explain how/why this is an example of medicalization or pathologizing.
For example, if you menstruate or are close to someone who does, have you observed menstruation being medicalized or pathologized? If you’ve given birth or are close to someone who has, have you observed pregnancy or birth being medicalized or pathologized? If you identify as trans or non-binary, or you are close to someone who does, have you observed these gender identities being medicalized or pathologized?
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5
Our Bodies, Ourselves: Reproductive Rights
When contemporary feminist movement began the issues that were
projected as most relevant were those that were directly linked to the
experiences of highly educated white women (most of whom were
materially privileged.) Since feminist movement followed in the
wake ofcivil rights and sexualliberation it seemed appropriate at the
time that issues around the female body were foregrounded. Con
trary to the image the mass media presented to the world, a feminist
movement starting with women burning bras at a Miss America
pageant and then later images of women seeking abortions, one of
the first issues which served as a catalyst for the formation of the
movement was sexuality – the issue being the rights of women to
choose when and with whom they would be sexual. The sexual ex
ploitation of women’s bodies had been a common occurrence in
radical movements for social justice whether socialist, civil rights, etc.
When the so-called sexual revolution was at its peak the issue of
free love (which usually meant having as much sex as one wanted
with whomever one desired) brought females face to face with the
issue of unwanted pregnancy. Before there could be any gender equity
around the issue of free love women needed access to safe, effective con
traceptives and abortions. While individual white women with class
privilege often had access to both these safeguards, most women
25 DOI: 10.4324/9781315743189-5
2 0 1 4 . R o u t l e d g e .
A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w .
EBSCO Publishing: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) printed on 5/19/2025 8:27:19 PM UTC via CERRITOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE 864857; bell hooks; Feminism Is for Everybody : Passionate Politics Account:ehost.
26 FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYBODY
did not. Often individual women with class privilege were too
ashamed of unwanted pregnancy to make use of their more direct ac
cess to responsible health care. The women of the late ’60s and early
’70s who clamOïed for abortions had seen the tragedies of illegal
abortions, the misery of forced marriages as a consequence of un
wanted pregnancies. Many of us were the unplanned children of tal
ented, creative women whose lives had been changed by unplanned
and unwanted pregnancies; we witnessed their bitterness, their rage,
their disappointment with their lot in life. And we were clear that
there could be no genuine sexual liberation for women and men
without better, safer contraceptives – without the right to a safe,
legal abortion.
In retrospect, it is evident that highlighting abortion rather than
reproductive rights as a whole reflected the class biases of the
women who were at the forefront of the movement. While the issue
ofabortion was and remains relevant to all women, there were other
reproductive issues that were just as vital which needed attention
and might have served to galvanize masses. These issues ranged from
basic sex education, prenatal care, preventive health care that would
help females understand how their bodies worked, to forced steril
ization, unnecessary cesareans and/or hysterectomies, and the
medical complications they Ieft in their wake. Of all these issues in
dividual white women with class privilege identified most intimately
with the pain of unwanted pregnancy. And they highlighted the
abortion issue. They were not by any means the only group in need of
access to safe, legal abortions. As already stated, they were far more
likely to have the means to acquire an abortion than poor and work
ing-class women. In those days poor women, black women included,
oftensought illegal abortions. The right to have an abortion was not a
white-women-only issue; it was simply not the only or even the most
important reproductive concern for masses of American women.
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27 OUR BODIES, OURSEL YES
The development of effective though not totally safe birth con
tral pills (created by male scientists, most of whom were not anti
sexist) truly paved the way for female sexualliberation more sa than
abortion rights. Wamen like mysèlf who were in our late teens when
the pill was first widely available were spared the fear and shame of
unwanted pregnancies. Responsible birth contral liberated many
wamen like myself who were pra-choice but not necessarily pra
abortion for ourselves fram having to personally confrant the issue.
While I never had an unwanted pregnancy in the heyday of sexual
liberation, many of my peers sawabortion as a better choice than
conscious, vigilant use ofbirth contral pills. And they did frequently
use abortion as a means of birth contral. Using the pill meant a
woman was directly confranting her choice to be sexually active.
Wamen who were more conscientious about birth contral were of
ten regarded as sexually loose by men. I t was easier for some females
just to iet things happen sexuaiiy then take care of the “prabiem”
later with abortions. We now know that bath repeated abortions or
pralonged use of birth contra! pills with high levels of estragen are
not risk-free. Yet women were willing to take risks to have sexual
freedom – to have the right to choose.
The abortion issue captured the attention of mass media be
cause it really challenged the fundamentalist thinking ofChristianity.
It directly challenged the notion th at a woman’s reason for existence
was to bear children. It called the nation’s attention to the female
body as na other issue could have done. It was a direct challenge to
the church. Later all the other repraductive issues that feminist
thinkers called attention to were aften ignored by mass media. The
long-range medica! prablems from cesareans and hysterectomies
we re not juicy subjects for mass media; they actually called attention
to a capitalist patriarchal male-dominated medical system that con
tralled women’s bodies and did with them anything they wanted to
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28 FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYBODY
do. To focus on gender injustice in these arenas would have been
too radical for a mass media which remains deeply conservative and
for the most part anti-feminist.
No feminist activists in the late ’60s and early ’70s imagined that
we would have to wage a battle for women’s reproductive rights in
the ’90s. Once feminist move ment created the cultural revolution
which made the use of relatively risk-free contraceptives acceptable
and the right to have a safe, legal abortion possible women simply
assumed those rights would no longer be questioned. The demise of
an organized, radical feminist mass-based political move ment cou
pled with anti-feminist backlash from an organized right-wing polit
ical front which relies on fundamentalist interpretations of religion
placed abortion back on the political agenda. The right of females to
choose is now called into question.
Sadly the anti-abortion platform has most viciously targeted
state-funded, inexpensive, and, when need be, free abortions. As a
consequence women of all races who have class privilege continue
to have access to safe abortions – continue to have the right to
choose – while materially disadvantaged women suffer. Masses of
poor and working-class women lose access to abortion when there
is no government funding available for reproductive rights health
care. Women with class privilege do not feeI threatened when abor
tions can be had only if one has lots of money because they can still
have them. But masses of women do not have class power. More
women than ever before are entering the ranks of the poor and indi
gent. Without the right to safe, inexpensive, and free abortions they
lose all control over their bodies. Ifwe return to a world where abor
tions are only accessible to those females with lots of money we risk
the return of public policy that will aim to make abortion illegal. It’s
already happening in many conservative states. Women ofall classes
must continue to make abortions safe, legal, and affordable.
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OUR BODIES, OURSEL YES 29
The right of wamen tO choose whether or not to have an abor
tion is only one aspect of reproductive freedom. Depending on a
woman’s age and circumstance of life the aspect of reproductive
rights that matters most will change. A sexually active wo man in her
20s or 30s who finds birth control pills unsafe may one day face an
unwanted pregnancy and the right to have a legal, safe, inexpensive
abortion may be the reproductive issue that is most relevant. But
when she is menopausal and doctors are urging her to have a hyster
ectomy that may be the most relevant reproductive rights issue.
As we seek to rekindle the flames of mass-based feminist move
ment reproductive rights will remain a central feminist agenda. If
wamen do not have the right to choose what happens to our bodies
we risk relinquishing rights in all other areas ofour lives. In renewed
feminist movement the overall issue of reproductive rights wil! take
precedence over any single issue. This does not meant that the push
for legal, safe, inexpensive abortions will not remain central, it wil!
simply not be the only issue that is centralized. If sex education, pre
ventive health care, and easy access to contraceptives are offered to
every female, fewer of us will have unwanted pregnancies. As a con
sequence the need for abortions would diminish.
Losing ground on the issue of legal, safe, inexpensive abortion
means that wamen lose ground on all reproductive issues. The
anti-choice movement is fundamentally anti-feminist. While it is
possible for wamen to individually choose never to have an abor
tion, allegiance to feminist polities means that they still are pro-choice,
that they support the right of females who need abortions to choose
whether or not to have them. Young females who have always had
access to effective contraception – who have never witnessed the
tragedies caused by illegal abortions – have na firsthand experience
of the powerlessness and vulnerability to exploitation that will al
ways be the outcome if females do not have reproductive rights.
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30 FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYBODY
Ongoing discussion about the wide range of issues that come under
the heading of reproductive rights is needed if females of all ages
and our male allies in struggle are to understand why these rights are
important. This understanding is the basis of our commitment to
keeping reproductive rights a reality for all females. Feminist focus
on reproductive rights is needed to protect and sustain our freedom.
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