When it Comes to Health, we are Just Puppets

There are so many incredibly eye-opening things we have learned over the course of this semester. And I must say, all of the topics we focused on were interesting and enjoyable. A huge part about the class that I enjoyed was the relatability between the topics. Rather than having these isolated units that seemed to not fit together, the pieces only added to our overall discussion. I found that the most valuable and interesting theme I picked up on throughout the class was the idea of the social construction of health and illness.

There were several areas in which this idea really stuck out to me. When we talked about mental illness, and the different ways that schizophrenia is perceived in the U.S. compared to India and Guinea. The idea that social beliefs, customs, and power structures shape our interpretation and experience of health is new to me. Coming from a place in which the biomedical model seems solely based in “science” and that this is the supreme way of knowing, I never realized that illnesses weren’t universally experienced or defined. The extent to which cultural circumstances shape health views and outcomes is kind of alarming to me. One little bit from an article about health throughout the times in the U.S. really opened my eyes to this. That was the line that explained how doctor’s orders for pregnant women have changed based on the social roles and control of women. Historically, women were told to avoid driving a car and being promiscuous, because these things represented independence and loose morals respectively. Now, women are told not to smoke/drink, which seems more scientifically sound, but still shows the expectations we have of women and mothers. Likewise, we medicalize things like ADHD and market drugs to change “unruly” children’s behavior as a method of social control over undesirable characteristics.

This leads me to the biggest theme, which is the idea that the U.S. biomedical model serves as a method of social control. When things are constantly medicalized, we see them being treated as undesirable characteristics or as a way to control entire groups of people. For instance, when we talked about pregnancy, we saw the extent to which hospitalized births disempower the woman as well as the midwife. It is not secret that hospitalized births make more money, but they also serve as a way to even further remove women from their own birthing experiences. Likewise, when we view the institution of healthcare in our country is another method of social control. Here, the more wealthy and “good” you are, the better healthcare you will have. And healthcare systems don’t only take our money; they keep us from experiencing health in a way that is beneficial. Capitalism is such a huge driving force behind out nation’s healthcare practices, and in this system there are winners and losers. Namely, the poor lose, and the rich are healthier, thus reinforcing views of wealth and class in our country.

This control expands to other cultures as well. When we impose our biomedical model on others, we also are imposing ideas of capitalism, medicalization, and social constructions of illness as we see them. When the world thinks like us, they cannot fight us. Take the situation of anorexia in Hong Kong, and how perceptions of this illness only came with increased U.S. influence. Or, how ideas of health and beauty in the U.S. seen on T.V. increased Fijian girls’ perceptions of their own bodies. As the U.S. continues to “globalize,” we will begin to force our medical views on the rest of the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if holistic healing and Ayurveda techniques slowly begin to lose their influence in Eastern countries as the U.S. gains more influence.

There are so many themes that have come through in our readings and discussions such as the perils of capitalism, the importance of adequate healthcare systems, and the ways in which ideas of health change between cultures. However, the most poignant and pressing issue, to me, is the amount of control that health practices and ideas exert over us every day.