The Queer Theory Analysis Used By Lefrancois And Diamond Essay

The readings this week solidified many long standing questions that I’ve had about the healthcare system, and further proved to me just how flawed it is. The introduction and chapter four from The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr established a framework and common language surrounding how the current healthcare system came to be. The introduction specifically heavily focused on the concept of authority and how cultural and societal authority differ and work to strengthen an individual's power. Following this intro, the fourth chapter serves to provide the reader with baseline historical context on how hospitals and physicians have evolved from voluntary institutions into for-profit corporations. Using these chapters as foundational knowledge Gambles chapter gains new nuances to the need for Black hospitals to be established, and the competing forces that were at work to ensure their failure.

Katz states, “the conviction that physicians should decide what is best for their patients, and, therefore, that the authority and power to do so should remain bested in them, continued to have deep hold on the practices of the medical profession “(214).

In this section of chapter 3 Georgian Davis talks about the power the medical field had on the topic of the intersex body. Georgina set up an interview at a pediatric medical center with Dr. I who was a well-known expert of the intersex body. After the publication of the “Consensus Statement of Management of Intersex Disorders” intersex language had been replaced with the terminology DSD (Disorders of Sex Development) in the medical profession. As mentioned in chapter 2 she reiterates critiques that the medical field have undergone based on their inability to diagnose honesty to people with intersex traits. She noted that the medical profession can either do harm or good to the intersex community based on its position in the level of gender structure. In the medical profession, there was not always a form of naming abnormalities. It began with the Greeks and continued into the 18th century until they created a classification of the many medical traits. Sociologist Phil Brown argues that for there to be diagnostics there has two be two parts to complete it. One the diagnosis is technique which includes forming the classification by using various tasks and techniques. While the work diagnosis includes clinical evaluations and task. By using this form of diagnosis, we can better understand intersexuality.

In Foucault’s work “The Body and Sexuality” Foucault suggests, power no longer asserts itself as a deduction, as a "right of death." The primary interest of power now is

In the sociology of medicine Parson (1951) regarded medicine as functional in social terms. By tackling the person’s problems in medical terms the tendency towards deviance that was represented by ill health could be safely directed, until they could return to their normal self. (Lawrence 1994: p 64-65: BMJ 2004: Parson cited in Gabe, Bury & Elston 2006, p 127).

Richard Blanco’s list poem, “Queer Theory: According to my Grandmother” explores the relationship between a boy and his grandmother. Readers are forced to notice that Blanco repeats the phrase, “I’ve seen you” multiple times. This raises the question as to why Blanco puts emphasis on that specific remark. Blanco repeats the phrase, “I’ve seen you” to affirm that the grandmother knows her grandson is gay. While she most likely has not seen her grandson do some things on her forbidden list, she says she has to make her grandson more aware of his actions. This is in an attempt to shelter the grandson from the criticism of others. The grandmother resolves with accepting her grandson’s sexuality, but wanting to protect him from society’s negative views.

It can be a positive or negative effect, having and using power depending on how it is controlled by the individual. Positive effect is to facilitate treatment and negative is preventing access to services, due to pre-existing conditions such as mental health. Power and control operate on varying levels and service users may recognise that the professionals due to their knowledge and expertise have the power. Social and cultural expectations can affect balance of power in health. Peterson and Bunton stated that there was a desire to identify, control and eliminate disease’ (2000, pg 9). In conjunction with the growth of medicine and science came the medical model. This approach focuses on the individual having dysfunction and treating identified health issues. Welshman suggested it was created to respond to socially upsetting or disruptive phenomena’ (2006, pg 9). The

The rise of medicalization has been affected by many social factors, and has caused a winning-and-losing situation for those caught in the middle. In Peter Conrad’s article The Shifting Engines of Medicalization, he explains how medicalization was constructed by three certain factors: first, the authority within the medical profession; second, the activities of social movements and interest groups; and third, the rise in behavioral pediatrics in terms of medical control of childhood diseases, and directed organizational professional activities (Conrad, 2005, p. 4). There have been debates that some things should no longer be treated as an illness in the medical sphere. Conrad explains how the pharmaceutical industries are more aggressive in promoting their products to physicians and to the public, which is empowered by the consumers becoming increasingly active in their demand for medical services and treatments (2005, p. 5, 9). Companies are marketing diseases (creating “epidemics” and drug scares within a society) and then selling the drugs to treat those diseases (Conrad, 2005, p. 6). Society and these companies make it seem as though these disorders and diseases can happen to anyone at any time.

The Atlanta-based internist is concerned with how recipients and providers of medical services receive and make health advice and recommendations, respectively. He rues the current practice of medicine, which now pays more emphasis to data or evidence: anything that the data reveals are immediately taken as hard science, with the results taken from studies that claim to “represent a consistently reliable representation of the real world of human beings” i.e., those who do not participate in the studies. For Paul, the data or studies could mean

This essay will discuss about the medical dominance, how power and hierarchy have influence on both patient and medical professionals in the Australian health care system, especially in the field of midwifery. The general concepts of power and the hierarchy in health care setting and how it has closely interwoven with the health sociology would be investigated throughout the essay. The social determinants of health in terms of social justice and equality, moreover, are significant factors in accessing appropriate health service and achieving better health outcome with the patient. It would also utilise the conflict theory to illustrate historical, structural, cultural and critical factors on supporting the power structure, agencies related

As being developed by poststructuralism, feminism, lesbian & gay studies and even American pragmatist theory (Parker,2001; Seidman,1997), queer theory has become one of the most important theories, which contributes to the research of sociology, arts and organizations. On the one hand, queer theory has been used to study the relations between the sexuality, gender and workplace. On the other hand, by utilizing denaturalized, deconstructive and performative methods to queer the presumptions of the taken-for-granted norms, queer theorists question and disprove the traditions which people cherish (Seidman,1995).

The “Sociological Perspective on Health and the Health Care” introduced perspectives about social structure, and social relations. The readers learn the sociological theory and the main misconceptions related to health care, and their policies. It provides an explanation of the production and the distribution of health care services. Firstly, structural functionalism focuses on individuals and groups in society and how it maintains a social role. Furthermore, symbolic interactionism focus on the conflicts in interaction amongst individuals. Moreover, social constructionism focuses on the medical facts and social authority and the reign over all in society. Also, gender and race influence the social conditions, and implications evident in Canadian health. Class conflicts with the control of power and the relationship between the employers and employees. It enhances the inequality evident in workplaces and the social stratification; ranking one by their assets. Materialism portrays that society is a social consensus rather than a conflict. However, this conflicts between the rich and the poor. Therefore, the healthcare impacts the minority, and affects it the most. Since the rich have an advantage of other options, however the minority struggles to afford private health care or buy their way around. Furthermore, the Marxist theory and oppression focuses on the exploitation by capitalism. It emphasizes on

The conceptualisation of medicine as an institution of societal control was first theorised by Parsons (1951), and from this stemmed the notion of the deviant termed illness in which the “sick role” was a legitimised condition. The societal reaction and perspective was deemed a pillar of the emerging social construction of disease and conception of the formalised medical model of disease. Concerns surrounding medicalisation fundamentally stem from the fusion of social and medical concerns wherein the lines between the two are gradually blurred and the the social consequences of the proliferation of disease diagnosis that results from such ambiguities of the social medical model.

In Foucault and Queer Theory Spargo defines queer theory as a nebulous group of cultural criticism and analysis of social power structures relating to sexuality . It is these power structures and aspects of culture that are responsible for the discourse that creates and informs ones understanding of gender, race, and sexuality. However these aspects of identity do not exist separately from one another, but are constructed in tandem throughout history. These layers of identity inform each other in a way that is difficult if not impossible to separate. They do not act independently with an additive effect but intersect constructing their own unique set of experiences and perspectives. In this paper I will be exploring queer theory

Imagine you are injured or sick and have sought a doctor’s help. Although you trusted your doctor, something, something seemingly very in control of the doctor, went wrong. You are angry and confused, but also think of the commonality of medical malpractice. So, why do doctors, who are supposed to help, harm? Though many flaws influence it, malpractice can be, and often is unintentional. Most doctors aren’t trained to harm their patients. Inexperience and lack of medical discovery led to unintentional suffering of the patient. Personal flaws, like lack of willingness to abandon previous medical methods and shortcomings in communication also harm patients. Further reasons why doctors harm are socio-medical understandings that breed hate, prejudices stemming from a society’s belief about certain people, such as the medical practice under the Nazi regime. Additionally, displayed in the case of Ignác Semmelweis, judgement of one to oneself can be detrimental to any progress one’s ideas could make. We will examine these concepts through Jerome Groopman’s “Flesh-and-Blood Decision Making”, Sherwin Nuland’s The Doctors’ Plague and Barbara Bachrach’s “In the Name of Public Health”. Those who practice medicine are, unfortunately, unfree from the imperfections that plague all of humanity. Through these intimate and varied faults, doctors do harm.