The Male Body: The Norm and Ideal Body in Medical Practice - Essay Example

The Male Body: The Norm and Ideal Body in Medical Practice Gender as many people would put it is a cultural description. It is basically described as a cultural subject that deals with the differences of man and woman. Others describe it as a social construction of sex or psychosocial description to sexed identity. Every classification of the human race has their specific description or definition of the human gender based on the fields that they are engaged to. For example, feminists, refers to gender as sexual differences between man and woman in biological sense. Feminism is a controversial topic nowadays. It aims to empower women and gave women equal rights with that of what men have. Their voice in our society plays an important role such that they are given chances to point out their views or perspectives in the topics of their concern. One of the most controversial topics that feminists won't dare give up is the topic that deals with the issue of equality if not the issue of who among the two sexes was advantageous over the other. Of the pertinent issues in this perspective comes the claim that the male body is both the norm and ideal body in medical practice. We define norms as the set of standards that was set before or emanated few years ago, which is then and was still considered as true unless proven wrong or something that has of flawless evidences and have scientific basis. Ideal as we all knew, referred to one thing that is commonly desired by most people in the society. It is also considered as an honest to goodness thing we all ought to have or acquire. The definitions of the two important terminologies in the statement at least made it clear to us what it tries to convey. For me, I definitely refute the claim that the male body is both the norm and ideal body in medical practice. As we all know, the moment we open our eyes when we are still a baby, the kind of system our society have is the patriarchal system. In this system man is the dominant sex or gender. When I say dominant, I mean that man dominated all the aspects and features of the world we live in. by this, it implies that the role of women is secondary with that of men. Medical practices rely mainly on the subject that they are dealing with. Their methods and materials depend on how complex their subject is. Even in medicine the conflict between genders is not exempted. The surgeons tend to identify themselves as good one and very able if they are man due to their capability to do things that they say woman cannot do. This idea or kind of thinking was identified before way back to ancient times until recently that there are growing numbers of female doctor's and nurses in the world. In history, men are the ideal creatures to be the subject of every study. This is due to the kind of system we have, but as we go along and modernized, the role of women in the society is eventually changed. This is mainly due to the fact that there are women who fight and prove the world that they can do more than what others expect them to do or what others think of as their limitations. Today woman's body had also been used in the medical field. As the world modernizes it also opened its coverage to the possibility that a woman's body is also an ideal body to be used in medical practices. The role of history extended to that of practices made in the medical world. Before only man are used in the field as the subject for human study of its anatomy and the processes it undergoes. Also, according to the theory of feminist or feminism, the relationship between biological sexual differences and the way we construct our social aspect of gender, which is a system of variable history, is an advantage to man and a lot more disadvantageous to women. Our culture dictate to us gendered meanings and maintains traditional divisions among genders. This implies that in different fields of practices man generally overpower women not only in strength but also, man and woman compete for the chance to be studied biologically or genetically in specific. Who among them would bring home the title of being the norm and ideal body There are several reasons that could be discussed as to support my claim earlier that the male body is not the norm and ideal body in medical practice. In terms of norm, maybe the male body can get hold of the title before but not today. I can say that before because, since we live in the idea of the patriarchal system, all about men is the ideal and the standards and what is generally accepted. The mentality that they are the superior ones made them standout and thus made them the subject of most studies especially in medical field. The same is true to the definition of the ideal body, but come to think of it, have you ever wondered what it would be if instead of the male body, the female body is used in the medicine This question may have lingered in the minds of the modern physicians that are why they try to do it this time with women. As I go along with my reasons, I just would like to point out that there are differences in woman's and mans body that is needed to be emphasized in order to fully understand them and their importance in the field of medicine. For me, there are main differences in the body composition of man and woman. Women's body is basically the same with that of man except for the nature or the feature of its sex organ plus the enlarged mammary gland commonly described as breast while mans body has its male genitalia different with that of a woman. This difference for me made it clear that for me that woman is a more interesting body to be studied. How can medical practitioners successfully study the features and processes that the human body undergoes when the experimental bodies they use lack other details that are important or significant to their study Is it really true that the ideal body in the medical field is that one which belongs to man or the one that belongs to woman Come to think of it. Another reason is that nowadays the most common consumer of medical products as well as medical operations is women. This is supported by the fact that nowadays women outnumbered men. Studies had showed that females are the ideal subjects of entertainment and other artistic purposes. If this is so then women needed to be as beautiful, young, and fresh looking as ever that is why they needed to maintain their beauties through the help of medicine. The most common operations that most women opt to undergone are the: eye bag removal, face-lift, liposuction, and breast enhancement and also nose lift. Most of these medical surgeries are done to women. Another question at hand is that how can you identify the proper way of doing some operations and satisfy its need to succeed when in reality you are using a male body to do your experimentation as it deals with the notion that the male body is the norm and ideal How can you know the possible consequences bad or good, and its side effects Although basically man and woman have the same physical characteristics, certainly the reaction that they would show is not the same and that defines the difference. The reactions that they tend to exhibit differ in the sense that female is generally more sensitive than men. Their addiction to beauty products can somewhat degenerate the functioning of their body cells in a way that they are affected by the toxic and too strong chemical compositions of the products. Therefore women tend to limit their places of socialization to locations that would be in favor with the social life they have. Simply, they try not provoking the negative reactions through avoidance. This is countered by the fact that men tend to be the out going type of person. They won't mind if they are dealing with the sun in a very exposed manner and thus making their body adapt to that kind of environment. The term is to be sturdy to the things and reactions that might come worse, which the female wont dare. Feminism can refer to both intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and wanted the things in favor to their ideals prevail without taking or intending to crown themselves as the superior beings but instead seek equality to be socially and politically acceptable in the society. Intellectual commitment in the sense that they have to always review their points before they have to present it in public in order to establish their identity as kinds of persons with intellectual responsibility and not just doing or claiming things just for the fun of it and chaos it might bring. It is a political movement in the sense that they are trying to redo the laws and norms prevailing in the society. This is done to make it more favorable for them if not at least considerate of their rights. There are many different kinds of feminism but they are united and motivated by their quest for social justice. Feminist inquiry provides a wide range of perspectives on social, cultural, and political phenomena, the self, sex work, and sexuality. And this creates a good topic for us to ponder and to be thought critically as to whether the norm is acceptable today as it was in the past few years (Stewart). One of the current topics in feminist discourses is that they happen to neglect the role of the government in relation to gender this may be due to the fact that they do not trust the government and the dominant political parties. They tend to suspect of bias among the male sex since we are living in the patriarchal type of society. In order to avoid topics that they have little control of, they tend to avoid conventions that promote the welfare of humanity but instead occupy their time with what they call is humanistic approaches of treating a woman. They talked greatly of the disadvantages and negative factors of, let's say, abortion, pornography and aother related fields which set women to oppression. Different groups of feminist tend to view the role of the state as instrumental idea to create way favorable for the ruling class and therefore without any notice the women in the society then is still laid there at the bottom, oppressed and degraded. They are saying that the government is integrating the law and other political aspect in the perspective of a man who maintains its dominance and could impose its views in the society. The ideas at hand gave rise to the advent of alternative perspective to deal on the impact of the state on gender relations and also to identify whether the state is a set on a mock presentation of events. The first perspective had been proven wrong in such a way that the government has positive effects on gender relations. It shows according to them that the state is concerned in the welfare of its constituents in such a way that they promote financial independence among women on men and others view the role as the instrument of neutralization and not of a male dominance. In this sense the government is said to be in the action of promoting women and their interest whatever their cause is for (ADB). The second issue emphasizes that the impact of state in gender relations depends on who is taking the lead on the action, the cause of promoting it and the process that it undergone such as the arenas they had been and the ways it had passed. Poststructuralist feminist is trying to point out that the state is not a homogenous actor because for them it is not thru that the state is composed of a united entity that is an advocate of specific interests but in reality it deals with the different areas of struggle. In this case feminists come up with a perspectives that are considered as of less dichotomy and more biases thus for Pringle and Watson, they have to re analyze their stands and the need to shift to discourse, which promotes specific interests, must be done. This issue on the role of the state in determining its bias is very much useful as it challenges the priori assumption. The things that had been than can always be ready to be reanalyzed and in analysis, the factors to consider must be properly identified in order to lessen the errors. Some of the most common factors to be considered is the fact that the state has been through a complex history in the past, that it has been subjected to variations within political contexts like for example liberal democracy and gendered power relations (Waylen 7). To further explain and test the issue the feminists had developed a more modernized model on how they can identify how positive and negative resources a government would be. This had been the excuse for them to leave the state behind and push on to the idea of discourse, which in turn focuses on specificity. The ways of analysis that the feminists now deal with had developed into more mature area. They now deal on the specifics, which mean that, for example politics and its effect on gender. Feminists nowadays are more interested in knowing the ways in which politics can affect gendered related subjects and in return how can gender issues be constructed in the political agenda and what would be its most powerful deciding factor to consider. This event is considered as the very recent development in the field of feminism philosophy. The dominance of the of a universal liberal thought had gave way to the discussion of this concerns which deals with the topic of gendered and other differences in the identity of the persons in the society had been opened. There was a point in the history of feminism that the role of female political scientist had been challenged in such a way that they are considered marginalized within the sector in our discipline. This means that they are now associated only to the issues they had been tackling for years and they are tagged as such what is called of their recent study or innovation in the scientific world. As the area or field of study is still young they are considered as a youngster in the field and they had been demarcated to the older fields of study or discipline, which is somewhat, related to them in other aspects. Some of the older fields that they are associated to are the sociology and psychology. As they demarked themselves in these fields of knowledge, they tend to deal on the limited number of possible perspectives and even declare some things, issues or events as not a part of political science even though in reality it is. These things are what other personalities point as their very big disappointment on female scientists but this had been otherwise depended by them through concerted efforts they set to themselves. In this crisis they had proven others wrong in a way that they strategize the best way to exit the dilemma. They had focused on major issues that are of relevant to all aspects of their fields of study and they restricted themselves in using only those parameters that is of scientific basis and has value relevant to their ideals. All of this things include in this paper is basically written to support the claim that the male body is not always considered as the norm and ideal body in medical practice. The fact that there is female organization that could help females confront their weaknesses and spoke up what they think is right and what they think deserves to them leads to the definition of women empowerment. Women in history thought of themselves as only a sub ordinate, a strategic way out to the shortcomings of men and most especially an invisible partner in the political arena and the business world and a useful object to their households. Today women considered themselves as equal to men. In the business and political world they had exerted themselves as to prove their worth and most of them succeeded in their fields. The challenge to them had made them a totally different person. With this, the struggle between man and woman had been given emphasis but we need to be critical of what we think or do. It doesn't mean that you know that certain issue and you point out your side on that issue and would be able to reason out doesn't mean that you are in the right direction. Sometimes we need to reevaluate ourselves and thought for the second time around dopes our point of view shows any significant pattern in the understanding of that topic Have I given them somewhat light for them to see and push trough the study of that problem at hand We are open to criticisms and hear what other people say about the matter. Opening one to criticism could help him/her improve their own personality and grow up as people with sound reasoning. Refuting or supporting a certain topic of interest is a claim that needed critical thinking and critical understanding of the topic given. Such controversial topics as this there are many fields of study to be given proper reading and understanding. Defining terms is very much crucial in order to understand the text fully. Female discourses and their stand in certain matter are very important. Since feminist had established themselves well in this society every point that they have to raise is given due importance but to the reason and understanding that it is of relevant not only to the concern individuals or things or events but also to the society as a whole. It is only in criticizing the works that has been done and the things that had been said we are able to grow and develop ourselves into the person we wanted us to be and thus we create the society that we like. The society that has equality among its citizens is given importance and the rights of each and every person are exercised. In this case there would be no much amok in the society. The order that we all long for might as well be received as a reward otherwise all of this would result to punishment we would all regret in the future. Works Cited Waylen, G. Gender, Feminism and the State: An Overview', in V. Randall and G. Waylen (eds), Gender, Politics and the State. London: Routledge, 1998. Stewart Cara. Different Types of Feminist Theories. http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Speech/rccs/theory84.htm, 2003. Asian Development Bank regional Report 2004. Gender and Governance Issues in Local Government Dec. 2004. Manila. http://72.14.253.104/searchq=cache:jR8_5UAEi5AJ:www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Gender/Gender-Governance/gen-gov-issues.pdf+role+of+the+government+in+gender+issues&hl=tl&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=ph&client=firefox-a Read More