Medical Bias: From Obesity to Genital Surgery

In her article on obesity, Murray describes medical bias and its basis in norms of morality. As well as declaring what is healthy, medical discourse positions people as either normal or pathological. Murray relates this to social discrimination against 'fat' people. This bias can also be seen in medical discourse around intersex people who are generally described and treated in terms of normality. There are ethnicity, class and gender biases that influence medical discourse around genital surgery in general. This is evident in the way 'female genital mutilation' is perceived in Western society compared with the general acceptance of cosmetic genital surgery.

Feminist ≠ Man Hater

I've always wondered why feminism so often has so many negative connotations. It seems to me that one reason for this stigma is that feminists and "man haters" have been boxed together to become one and the same. Perhaps what is needed in order to destigmatise feminism is greater recognition of the social constructionism of men (or all genders) in patriarchal society and an understanding of "gender as a structure of social relations, a system of material practices resulting in material inequalities" (Connell 2002, p. 94) in opposition to seemingly widely held views that feminists generalise men to be the sole cause of women's oppression. Unfortunately it is the negative and extremist memories of feminism that seem to linger in people's minds for the longest. Who wants to claim to be a feminist if in doing so they are risking being accused of something else altogether?

I saw this article today, in which Elle Hardy claims that feminism values equality over opportunity and choice. What I'd like to ask is, in what way is the fight for equality not also a fight for greater opportunity and choice?

The Personal is Political: Intersections of Politics in the Private and the Public

"Feminism grasped the reality that politically, liberal citizenship was derived from a basic distinction drawn between the private and the public, thereby intrinsically excluding women from public life and leaving them unprotected from abuse within the family." (Krishnaraj 2009, 44)

The private lives of families are generally seen as just that, private. However if we delve a bit deeper and look instead at the patterns and repeated occurrences within families that make up part of the bigger picture, suddenly the "private" comes into focus as part of the public domain. Gal describes this effect as a recalibration (2002). By bringing the private domain of families into a public perspective, repeated incidences of, for example, abuse can be gathered as a political problem that needs to be addressed on a public level and no longer swept under the carpet as individual private issues. According to Menon, that which is seen as 'personal' needs to be recognized as "...completely submerged in power relations, with significant implications for what is called 'the public'"(2012, p. 35), and is, therefore, 'political'.  By understanding the feminist slogan, "The Personal is Political", the intersections between politics in the public sphere and politics in the private sphere become visible.

References

Gal, S 2002, "A Semiotics of the Public/Private Distinction", differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 77-95.

Krishnaraj, M 2009, "Women's Citizenship and the Private-Public Dichotomy", Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 44, no. 17, pp. 43-45.

Menon, N 2012, Seeing Like a Feminist, Zubaan, New Delhi

Gendered Work and Play

I used to be absolutely certain that boys shouldn't play with dolls.

Now I'm absolutely certain that I was wrong.

In this week's reading, Barbara Pocock talks about unpaid work in Australia (such as child care, cleaning and cooking among other work that occurs mostly in the private domain of the house) and describes maternal guilt as how "many women feel criticized for their choices (whether in paid jobs or at home, whether with children or without)." (p. 47) Pocock describes women at home as being seen as "loving, selfless care-givers", while those who work carry the stigma of a "selfish career woman". Yet, women are still pressured to work, and to become educated before having children. In the current system it seems that women can't win. They are criticized for not pulling their weight as dependent house wives, however if they have a career they are seen as selfish. Greater recognition needs to be given to unpaid work so as to limit the suffering that comes about from "maternal guilt". Children are still brought up with gendered expectations that reinforce their roles in the workplace. Here is an article that looks at the increase in the gendering of children's toys:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4617704