Unhealthy Habits of Men and Women - Assignment Example

Women and Health Question How would Marxist and radical feminists explain the findings that although women live longer, they visit the doctor more often than men do, are prescribed more tranquillisers, experience greater incidence of stress related and repetitive type injuries and fill more prescriptions than men? At a first level, men seem to be more exposed to unhealthy habits. More specifically, in accordance with a study published in Health in Australia (p. 130) men tend to develop a series of ‘dangerous’ habits like “violent behaviour, aggression, exces­sive alcohol consumption, dangerous driving, smoking and indeed the character of personal relationships are being explicitly recognized as integral to mens health and well-being”. It is for this reason that men have been found to have an increased danger regarding their life comparing to women. Indeed the study mentioned above mentions that “from quite young ages boys and young men are at significantly higher risk of dying from behaviours that are not typically dealt with within a narrowly conceived health care system as such” (Health in Australia, p. 131). However, it seems that because the above described behaviour is being considered rather as an issue of social control problem (White 2002; Schofield et al. 2000, in Health in Australia, p. 131), and not a health problem, the improvement of the situation has not been achieved yet. Towards this direction, smoking rates in Australia can be used as an indicator of the differences between males and females regarding smoking and the possible influence of these differences on women’s life expectancy. In this context, a relevant survey in Australia showed that there is a general trend towards the reduction of smoking in Australia for both males and females. More specifically, although in 1950s “around 70% of males and 30% of females smoked, by 1985 the proportion of men who were daily smokers had declined significantly to approximately one-third of men, while the decline in the proportion of women smoking was far less significant, with over 25% of women being daily smokers while by 2001 there were further declines to 21% and 18% respectively” (Health in Australia, p. 132). The above differences in smoking levels between males and females in Australia can be used as a supplementary tool for justification of women’s superiority in life expectancy. Towards the same direction, a series of Data from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey in Australia, 2001 revealed that “women are more likely to be abstainers than men while of the population at risk of alcohol-related harm, this survey shows that men are more likely than women to drink to levels that place them at high risk of alcohol-related harm in the long term” (Health in Australia, p. 133). The above findings as the previous ones related to smoking prove that women follow a more ‘conservative’ way of life avoiding habits that can be harmful for their health. Although the relevant data involve in Australia they can be used as indicators of specific aspects of women behaviour regarding certain harmful habits like smoking and drinking. These data can also explain the increased levels of life expectancy at birth as they are presented in Table 1 (Appendix section). However, despite their longer life expectancy limits and their ‘healthier’ habits it should be noticed that women tend to visit doctors more often than men and experience greater incidence of stress related and repetitive type injuries. In order to understand the above phenomenon using the Marxist feminist theory, we should primarily refer to the general principles of this theory. In accordance with the main aspects of the Marxist feminist theory “the class struggle is the feminist struggle” [2]. In this context, feminists that support the above theory notice that “the relationship of men and women must be understood as one of unequal power, specifially one of traditional subjugation and oppression of women by men” [2]. From a different point of view the radical feminism identifies patriarchy as the main problem regarding the women’s position in the society and all the problems women face as a result of their position. In the above context, the health problems that women face can be regarded as a direct result of their position in the society which is differentiated from the position of men in terms of hierarchy. Because of this ‘inequality’ in social terms, women tend to face more health problems particular stress related while men although following a more dangerous style of life tend to suffer less from health problems on a long term basis. In accordance with the views of Marxist feminist theorists and mainly the radical feminists, the position of men in the society helps towards the reduction of their health problems since they don’t have to fight for their rights or prove their equality. In fact they are considered to be superior by nature. Question 2 How would Michel Foucault explain women’s excessive morbidity? The women’s excessive morbidity is a widely observed phenomenon. In this context, a research made in Australia recently revealed that “although males are more likely to be in hospital for any form of cardiovascular disease (including stroke, heart failure, or heart or hypertensive disease) females in hos­pitals with cardiovascular disease are more likely to die in hospital than their male counterparts; the reasons for this are by no means clear” (AIHW 2002, National Hospital Morbidity Database in Health in Australia, p. 146). The above phenomenon can be explained using Foucault’s theory on society’s influence on health. Generally, Foucault interested in the “social construction of meanings attached to health, and how disciplinary knowledge (particularly medical knowledge develops and is maintained) using often the concepts surveillance and discourse” (Society and Health, p. 173). In fact, Foucault believed that specific behavioural patterns related with ‘truth’ and ‘knowledge’ can influence the people’s perception for health. For this reason the above researcher explored mainly “the emergence of biomedical knowledge and the techniques of examination and monitoring which have been put in place to regulate and control the human body and to give the biomedical discourse an elevated status of ‘truth’ while other discourses such as those of alternative medicine have been marginalised” (Society and Health, p. 174). The use of the above aspects in the examination of the women’s perception of health can be valuable. However, in order for Foucault’s aspects on health to be used towards the explanation of women’s excessive morbidity there are a few issues that need to be taken into consideration. First of all the behaviour of women can be influenced by the ‘hormones’ or the behaviour of the external environment (to which women are more volatile). Under these terms, there can be no specific tools for behavioural interpretation at least at a primary level. In this context, any surveillance method proposed by Foucault cannot lead to the required results. More specifically, Foucault supports that “the clinical gaze (the capacity of doctors to observe and diagnose utilising the surveillance approaches of modern medicine) can be seen in hospital-based medicine with its emphasis on body surveillance and on ‘confession’ by the patients” (Society and Health, p. 174). However, if there are no standards mode of behaviour – as explained above – the proposals of Foucault could not be of particular importance for the measurement of women morbidity. Indeed the relevant research on Foucault’s aspects on health has revealed that “the major criticism of Foucault’s ideas is that he fails to take into account the resistance which people may exhibit in the medicalisation of their knowledge; people may accept health and medical information, but the more distant they are from the interaction or the illness event, the more likely their lay beliefs are to take over”. In the case of women, their behaviour regarding illness and medical treatment cannot be described precisely in advance. Because of the existence of many elements that influence the behaviour of females (hormones, pressure of the external environment, increased volatility of body in changes of climate/ temperature) it is very likely for morbidity in women to remain a difficult to explore field with no precise explanation of its origin and duration. References Health of Australians, available at http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/aus/ah02/ah02-c02.pdf Society and Health: Social theory for health workers Foucault pp 173-193 Zadoroznji, M., Health in Australia, Chapter 6 ‘Gender and Health: patterns, paradox and beyond’, p. 128-150 Websites http://husky1.stmarys.ca/~evanderveen/wvdv/Gender_relations/feminist_theories.htm [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_theory [2] http://www.geocities.com/menobeyond/thesis1sec1.html [3] Appendix Life expectancy at birth for Australian men and women, and magnitude of womens advantage | TABLE Men Women Women’s advantage (in years) 1920-22 59.1 63.3 4.21 en 1946^8 66.1 70.6 4.5 1950-62 67.9 74.1 6.2 1983 72.1 78.8 6.7 1993 75.0 80.9 5.9 1994-96 75.2 81.1 5.9 2000 76.6 82.1 5.5 Table 1 – Life expectancy at birth for Australian men and women (source: Health in Australia, Chapter Six, p. 129) Read More