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schomj's review
3.0
If I'd read this 5 years ago it would have blown my mind. If I'd read it 2 years ago, I would have incorporated it into a project I was working on. Because I'm reading it now, I enjoyed it but wasn't wowed by it.
I appreciated the author's exploration of how medicine currently works as a moral agent, how it replicates existing forms of oppression in treating or dismissing (cis) women, LGB people and people of color.
I was less interested in her discussions of social contracts, just because Rawlsianism makes me roll my eyes. So even though she was critiquing arguments in that school of thought, I just didn't care.
It made me a little nervous that she didn't acknowledge the T and then she cited Janice Raymond, so I was afraid that she was going to go full terf but fortunately she didn't. She didn't talk about trans people at all, actually, which may be because this was published in 1998?? I think talking about transphobia in medical care would have enhanced her argument, but silence on this topic isn't unique to this book (Maya Dusenbery's [b:Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick|30653955|Doing Harm The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick|Maya Dusenbery|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513491498l/30653955._SX50_.jpg|51198903] is much more recent and has the same problem).
It's written in a very academic tone. If you're OK with that and haven't read much on this topic, I would recommend it.
And now to go put Iris Young on my to-read list.
I appreciated the author's exploration of how medicine currently works as a moral agent, how it replicates existing forms of oppression in treating or dismissing (cis) women, LGB people and people of color.
I was less interested in her discussions of social contracts, just because Rawlsianism makes me roll my eyes. So even though she was critiquing arguments in that school of thought, I just didn't care.
It made me a little nervous that she didn't acknowledge the T and then she cited Janice Raymond, so I was afraid that she was going to go full terf but fortunately she didn't. She didn't talk about trans people at all, actually, which may be because this was published in 1998?? I think talking about transphobia in medical care would have enhanced her argument, but silence on this topic isn't unique to this book (Maya Dusenbery's [b:Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick|30653955|Doing Harm The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick|Maya Dusenbery|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513491498l/30653955._SX50_.jpg|51198903] is much more recent and has the same problem).
It's written in a very academic tone. If you're OK with that and haven't read much on this topic, I would recommend it.
And now to go put Iris Young on my to-read list.
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