Medical Entanglements : Rethinking Feminist Debates about Healthcare

This is a book about feminism and medicine in the United States. It is also a book about messiness, complexity, complicity, and irresolvability. More than a de cade ago, in connection with my interest in con temporary asexual identities, I started thinking about drug "treatments" for female sexual dissatisfaction (i.e., "female Viagra"). These interventions had been actively opposed by a group of feminist activists and scholars. Some feminist scholars had gone so far as to testify to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in opposition to these drugs (Tiefer 2006). Thus, when I began analyzing these interventions, I felt compelled to articulate my stance on them, and the choices seemed, at least to me, rather stark: for or against. On one hand, I was persuaded by feminist critics who argued that these "treatments" were developed primarily to increase drug com pany profits and that they inappropriately pathologized women's sexuality while ignoring social causes of sexual dissatisfaction (see, e.g., Tiefer 2006). On the other hand, I was persuaded by arguments that women have the right to experience sexual plea sure, if they want it, and thus should have the option to pursue phar ma ceu ti cal solutions (however imperfect) to sexual dissatisfaction (see, e.g., Nappi et al. 2010). 1 The more I thought about the issue, the more complicated it became. For every argument I added to the "for" column, I could add a counterargument to the "against" column and vice versa. As a result, I threw up my hands in temporary defeat and placed the proj ect on the backburner, convinced that I would eventually be able to determine the "right" answer to the question once I had acquired the proper theoretical tools. However, in the intervening years, I have read about or witnessed a similar kind of back-and-forth occurring over a number of dif er ent medical interventions. In these instances, in response to the promotion of a specific medical intervention, feminist, antiracist, queer, and/or disability studies scholars and activists ofer a power ful critique of the normalizing tendencies of medicine and of its c h a p t e r 1 "Medical Entanglements uses intersectional feminist, queer, and crip theory to move beyond "for or against" approaches to medical intervention. Using a series of case studies - sex-confirmation surgery, pharmaceutical treatments for sexual dissatisfaction, and weight loss interventions - the book argues that, because of systemic inequality, most mainstream medical interventions will simultaneously reinforce social inequality and alleviate some individual suffering. The book demonstrates that there is no way to think ourselves out of this conundrum as the contradictions are a product of unjust systems. Thus, Gupta argues that feminist activists and theorists should allow individuals to choose whether to use a particular intervention, while directing their social justice efforts at dismantling systems of oppression and at ensuring that all people, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, class, or ability, have access to the basic resources required to flourish."--Google Books viewed May 13, 2021 "Medical Entanglements uses intersectional feminist, queer, and crip theory to move beyond "for or against" approaches to medical intervention. Using a series of case studies - sex-confirmation surgery, pharmaceutical treatments for sexual dissatisfaction, and weight loss interventions - the book argues that, because of systemic inequality, most mainstream medical interventions will simultaneously reinforce social inequality and alleviate some individual suffering. The book demonstrates that there is no way to think ourselves out of this conundrum as the contradictions are a product of unjust systems. Thus, Gupta argues that feminist activists and theorists should allow individuals to choose whether to use a particular intervention, while directing their social justice efforts at dismantling systems of oppression and at ensuring that all people, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, class, or ability, have access to the basic resources required to flourish." -- Publisher's description "Medical Entanglements uses intersectional feminist, queer, and crip theory to move beyond "for or against" approaches to medical intervention. Using a series of case studies - sex-confirmation surgery, pharmaceutical treatments for sexual dissatisfaction, and weight loss interventions - the book argues that, because of systemic inequality, most mainstream medical interventions will simultaneously reinforce social inequality and alleviate some individual suffering. The book demonstrates that there is no way to think ourselves out of this conundrum as the contradictions are a product of unjust systems. Thus, Gupta argues that feminist activists and theorists should allow individuals to choose whether to use a particular intervention, while directing their social justice efforts at dismantling systems of oppression and at ensuring that all people, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, class, or ability, have access to the basic resources required to flourish."--Provided by vendor Contents 1. Introduction: No Safe Ground 2. Feminist Critiques of Medicine (and Some Responses) 3. Theorizing from Transition-Related Care: Analytical Tools for Complexity 4. Sexuopharmaceuticals: Queering Medicalization 5. Constructing Fat, Constructing Fat Stigma: Rethinking Weight-Reduction Interventions 6. Conclusion: Medicine without Eugenics? Acknowledgments Notes References Index