Feminism: Breaking Gender Stereotypes for Equality - Essay Sample

Introduction

A feminist is any person who stands up for equality for all genders. Gender stereotyping can be defined as biased thoughts whereby females and males are subjectively relegated characteristics and duties decided and restricted by their sexual orientation. Prejudiced attitude towards women all arises from the stereotypes that have been placed on women and girls by society and they limit them from participating in various activities CITATION Cha13 \l 1033 (Chalabaev, 2013). These stereotypes cause ingrained beliefs, values, prejudice, and norms that are against women. They get utilised to legitimize and maintain the chronicled relations of control of men over women and also sexist demeanours that hold back the advancement of women (Stout, 2016). Generally, medicalisation refers to how non-medical human conditions and behaviours come to be defined in medical terms and ending up needing medical attention such as medical study, treatment and diagnosis or even prevention. This paper is going to discuss the reasons why feminist argue that gender stereotyping and medicalisation have historically impacted women's health negatively.

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History Of How Women Are Socially Constructed – Madder, Sickly, Weaker Sex

There are so many cases in the history of women that have built them socially as madder, sickly and weaker sex. The social construction of gender is a theory in the field of sociology and feminism, which talks about the cultural origin of expressions and perceptions related to gender in terms of interpersonal and group social construction (Seidman, 2016). Social construction supports the issue of gender roles with the opinion that it brings out and encourages the required social behaviour of an individual within a specific social environment. The gender roles in the society have been historically defined, and in most cases, these definitions only mean placing a woman in an abusive and negative position in society (Alesina, 2013). The social rules or duties of men and women in society are based on their biological distinctions. Women getting defined as a weaker sex, sickly or madder is not something that started recently. The lawful injustice on this weaker sex is broad and is not something to be ignored. The society puts men in a situation where they seem superior towards women even when, in most cases, they still need women to help them out.

Generally, the woman's life has always been seen a different compared to that of the men hence making them the weaker sex through inferiority. Their inferiority has been historically based on their biological differences like reproductive processes, endocrine system and also sexuality. Women’s opinions or expressions did not play a role in any part. The society raised women to be homemakers and nothing else (Lindsey, 2015). The social construction of women was in such a way that they were only supposed to be voiceless, submissive to the male gender, especially their husbands and focused on their families. Women that tried to bend those rules were seen as sick and mentally ill. The women that were lawbreakers were given special forms of treatment to cure their illness, such as bed rests and herbal medicines. Historically, a woman who could not bend to the wishes of a man was discriminated in the society, with some being taken to a psychiatrist to get treated (Leora Auslander, 2014). The women being treated as inferior is what brought up the stereotype of women being the weaker sex.

Medicalisation Of Women’s Health/Bodies e.g. Puberty, Menstruation, Pregnancy and Menopause- Prone to Mental Illness

Medicalisation of women's health/bodies, for instance, puberty, menstruation, pregnancy and menopause has been historically done and is still being done today. Medicalisation of women’s health and bodies is higher than that of men. The rate at which this gender is being used as a site for both control and women is wanting comparing to that of men. For instance, healthy human behaviours like crying, unhappiness and disinterest in sex get associated with mental illness such as depression when a woman expresses them (Andermann, 2010). Instead, they are reasonable when shown by men. The societal construction stand concerning this matter is that women are emotionally unstable and that their reproductive hormones their uniqueness of emotions. Therefore, for society, only men can handle what they feel and not women. This is simply a misconception because there is no way the female hormones can cause depression, and they only affect the relational and social behaviours of women (Liebert, 2010). Women end up being given various treatment medications that are even necessary like Selective Serotin Reuptake Inhibitors, which is prescribed as an anti-depressant medicine (Barlow, 2015).

Pregnant women undergo a lot of processes concerned with medicalisation. Issues such as the growth of the foetus arise from nowhere, and now women are supposed to receive certain forms of medications to boost the health of their children. Historically tests were even done to these women when they are unconscious (Columbia, n.d.). There is a lot of medicines being given to women at this stage to treat non-medical conditions that are not that necessary. Women are getting used as lab rats where the medical study is done on them, for instance, when no emergency medications get used on them in the name of helping with the childbirth (Minnesota, 2013). The natural life experiences of pregnancy and childbirth have now shifted to get controlled in the medical environment (Prosen, 2019).

How Has This History Affected Women’s Health and The Way Women Get Treated

This history has affected women's health and the way women get treated. Gender is an element that must get considered when looking at the medicalisation, and it has been affected by the history of social construction. The stereotypes based on gender roles in the social construction process has made medicalisation on women negative in various ways. For instance, this history of social construction has made medicalisation act as a tool for social control (Van Dijk, 2016). The social control comes in when natural variations that exist in the daily life and human experiences, for instance, the biological distinction between women and men, or contrasts in slants and self- expression are made societal or when they get medicalised. Women are prone to encountering surgical interventions, and to be endorsed psychotropic medicine for transparent therapeutic issues.

The history of social construction has also allowed medicalisation to have the power of denying females human and agency rights. All this is denied when medicalisation provides both social and legal pathways that can get used to control the lives and bodies of women in society. Women get used as human specimens, even without their consent. Women being given medications without reasons is also an example where medicalisation abuses the female rights as human beings. The gender role stereotypes have been seen dominating in many of the formal medication practices and professions by males being the dominating genders. This inequality brought about by social construction gets illustrated in this same field when most of the men get to do the diagnosis and treatment processes and not women (Ljungholm, 2016).

Medicalisation together with social construction, have affected the female way feels view their bodies. The society has constructed a particular physical body that a female body should be like hence reducing the self-esteem of most people in the community. The fact that the human body comes in many shapes and sizes is a fact that many societal norms tend to ignore while focusing on this issue. Medication, on the other side, has various treatments such as plastic surgery to make females feel better, which is not good (Abate, 2010)`. The society has control over the female bodies when it creates a specific physical figure that the female body should get formed in. These are all adverse effects on women. The society and medicalisation trying to control the female body and minds is harmful because they make women doubt themselves, which give rise to body insecurities and lack of self-esteem. Making one gender feel inferior compared to the other gender is what social construction stands for (Wray, 2008).

Conclusion

Even though in most cases in the society women have severally outlived men, the stereotypes in the society stand as a barrier for them to accomplish many things in life. Treatment today is based on the individuals’ gender. That is what makes the doctor know the kind of rapport to create between the patient and the doctor. History of social construction and medicalisation have a lot of negative impacts on women in society. Both social control and medicalisation have control over the bodies and minds of women which is not good because that's the abuse of human rights. Judging women based on various prejudices prevents women from achieving a lot of things in society. Men, on the other hand, tend to take advantage of all that by dominating in various domains in the community. Social construction only helps shape the social behaviour of individuals by restricting them from doing certain things and behaving in specific ways.

References

ABATE, M., 2010. “Plastic Makes Perfect”: My Beautiful Mommy, Cosmetic Surgery, and the Medicalization of Motherhood. Women's Studies, [online] 39(7), pp.715-746. Available at:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00497878.2010.505152?journalCode=gwst20

Alesina, A., Giuliano, P. and Nunn, N., 2013. On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough*. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, [online] 128(2), pp.469-530. Available at: <https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=+Alesina%2C+A.+G.+P.+a.+N.+N.%2C+2013.+On+the+origins+of+gender+roles%3A+Women+and+the+Plough.+The+Journal+of+&btnG=>.

Andermann, L., 2010. Culture and the social construction of gender: Mapping the intersection with mental health. International Review of Psychiatry, [online] 22(5), pp.501-512. Available at: <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09540261.2010.506184>.

Barlow, D. D. M. S. S. a. L. M., 2015. Abnormal psychology ( 4th Cdn ed.). s.l.:New Education Ltd..

Chalabaev, A., Sarrazin, P., Fontayne, P., Boiché, J. and Clément-Guillotin, C., 2013. The influence of sex stereotypes and gender roles on participation and performance in sport and exercise: Review and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, [online] 14(2), pp.136-144. Available at: <https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Chalabaev%2C+A.+S.+P.+P.+B.+J.+a.+C..+G.+C.%2C+2013.+The+influence+of+sex+streotypes+and+gender+roles+on+participation+and+performance+in+sport+and+exercise%3A+Review+and+future+directions..+Psychology+of+sport+and+exercise%2C+14%282%29%2C+pp.+136-144.&btnG=>.

Columbia, U. o. B., n.d. Medicalization and the Female Body.. [Online] Available at: https://wiki.ubc.ca/Medicalization-and-the-Female-Body[Accessed 29 May 2020].

Leora Auslander, R. R. a. M. Z.-F., 2014. Making Gender with Things. Clio, Women, Gender, History. Available at: https://journals.openedition.org/cliowgh...