SOSC 2150 Lecture Notes - Pulmonary Hypertension, Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa
Document Summary
Drapetomania slaves who ran away from their masters and homosexuality once considered diseases. The labelling as disease sets parameters of normalcy and deviance. Power is the construction of knowledge (foucault) Disease were used to maintain a status quo. Overweight used to be just a description and symptom. Now seen as a disease in itself. Overweight was not discovered to be a disease. 1) importance of measurability within medicine and other science. Not really a discovery but a new construct. Need for a quantifiable standard to ensure objectivity and rationality. Sets the spectrum of normal based on bodyweight instead of health. Looks to treat only those who fall outside of the normal , regardless of health. While the focus on beauty is not new, a measurable beauty is. Beauty, like disease, is time and space specific. Beauty has always been associated with class, morality, rationality and virtue but what is beautiful has changed.
