HSS 2321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Plastic Surgery, Sexual Politics, Common Cold

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: HSS 2321
• Professor: Kirsti Bissada

Document Summary

Illness is essentially an infrequent state of mental or physical malfunctioning: when a condition, no matter how uncomfortable, is prevalent among a group of people, it is usually not considered pathological. Illnesses such as the common cold and common flu are so prevalent as to be considered largely unimportant. Illness as sexual politics: from the feminist perspective, the constraints and limitations of gender roles are associated with the conceptualization and the subsequent diagnosis of various diseases. It is now possible to know definitely that a person will be diagnosed with a disease. People have ideas about what sorts of people are likely to succumb to what sorts of diseases. This te(cid:374)de(cid:374)(cid:272)(cid:455) to assig(cid:374) the likelihood of a t(cid:455)pe of perso(cid:374) (cid:271)ei(cid:374)g diag(cid:374)osed (cid:449)ith a parti(cid:272)ular disease is (cid:272)alled (cid:862)la(cid:455) epide(cid:373)iolog(cid:455). (cid:863: this (cid:272)ould lead people to (cid:374)egle(cid:272)t s(cid:455)(cid:373)pto(cid:373)s (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause their perso(cid:374)al (cid:272)hara(cid:272)teristi(cid:272)s do(cid:374)"t see(cid:373) to fit. Illness survivors: many diseases are considered not curable, but only in remission.