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Reviews tagging 'Racism'
The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women by Anushay Hossain
11 reviews
courtneyfalling's review
informative
fast-paced
3.5
I wrote my thesis on bias, harm, and epistemic injustice in the US medical-industrial complex, exactly along the lines of this book, so I was excited to see its recent publication in October 2021! I had found a few books then that I liked enough, but most scholarship on this issue was glaringly from white writers, so this book's perspective combining facts and journalistic stories with personal stories on medical trauma during childbirth as a Bangladeshi immigrant in the US was welcome. And I was especially excited to receive an ARC of this book (thanks to the publisher and NetGalley), so I could move it up my reading list! After reading, I still think it's a good addition to the genre, especially as an introduction to medical sexism and racism, but the analysis and organization was a little lackluster.
Positive aspects: I liked how this book rooted itself in the author's perspectives as an immigrant and woman of color. The pandemic statistics and stories are hugely relevant and necessary updates to pre-pandemic scholarship. I liked how chapters focused not just on physical and maternal health barriers but also on mental health barriers, especially when depression and anxiety are the logical culminations of increased career and caretaking burdens. And I liked that this book ends with some tangible tips for women, especially WOC, to track their medical care and advocate for themselves in an overwhelming system. A lot of these books end relatively hopelessly, and although this acknowledges the need for significant institutional change beyond any individual's capacity, these tips are vital for folks' survival right now.
Negative aspects: This takes on a highly neoliberal and reformist tone about medicine. Prior to reading, I thought a solid, introductory account on medical bias from a WOC was the main book I was missing in this genre. I'm realizing it may instead be a book on this topic through a more radical lens, explicitly critiquing the medical-industrial complex. I say this because even this book takes on an overarching argument that, whatever bias exists against women at large, the issue is worse for WOC. The better and needed alternative might be centering WOC first then extrapolating outward to what exists and may come to exist for larger swathes of the population (or just focusing on WOC). As one example of the analytical shift I mean, there's a section here about how women's under-treatment in procedures that really shouldn’t be outpatient is a sexist vestige and we need more time, in-patient attention, and pain medication and resources for these procedures. But the medical-industrial complex as a whole is trending toward churning patients in and out quickly with no real care for them. The overall trend isn't stagnant or improving, it's actively worsening, and this happens to be how it's manifesting for women as a particularly vulnerable population with a long historical legacy of medical mistreatment. Similarly, the "I have faith in Biden" argument is laughably bad to me, the reverence for the US as a (potential) gold standard of healthcare that can trickle down into other countries ignores ongoing imperialism and much more insightful and useful understandings of political economy, and the 'vaccine hesitancy in Black communities' discourse strikes me as inappropriately framed (because yes, Tuskegee is a real and awful legacy, but we need to look at material barriers to vaccination in Black communities driving low vaccination and high death rates, rather than buying into a narrative that ultimately blames the 'sensitive feelings' of Black folks). And even the sections on mental health stray away from 'hard' examples of psychiatric disabilities beyond depression, including altered states, autism and ADHD, comorbid physical and mental health conditions, and so on.
Positive aspects: I liked how this book rooted itself in the author's perspectives as an immigrant and woman of color. The pandemic statistics and stories are hugely relevant and necessary updates to pre-pandemic scholarship. I liked how chapters focused not just on physical and maternal health barriers but also on mental health barriers, especially when depression and anxiety are the logical culminations of increased career and caretaking burdens. And I liked that this book ends with some tangible tips for women, especially WOC, to track their medical care and advocate for themselves in an overwhelming system. A lot of these books end relatively hopelessly, and although this acknowledges the need for significant institutional change beyond any individual's capacity, these tips are vital for folks' survival right now.
Negative aspects: This takes on a highly neoliberal and reformist tone about medicine. Prior to reading, I thought a solid, introductory account on medical bias from a WOC was the main book I was missing in this genre. I'm realizing it may instead be a book on this topic through a more radical lens, explicitly critiquing the medical-industrial complex. I say this because even this book takes on an overarching argument that, whatever bias exists against women at large, the issue is worse for WOC. The better and needed alternative might be centering WOC first then extrapolating outward to what exists and may come to exist for larger swathes of the population (or just focusing on WOC). As one example of the analytical shift I mean, there's a section here about how women's under-treatment in procedures that really shouldn’t be outpatient is a sexist vestige and we need more time, in-patient attention, and pain medication and resources for these procedures. But the medical-industrial complex as a whole is trending toward churning patients in and out quickly with no real care for them. The overall trend isn't stagnant or improving, it's actively worsening, and this happens to be how it's manifesting for women as a particularly vulnerable population with a long historical legacy of medical mistreatment. Similarly, the "I have faith in Biden" argument is laughably bad to me, the reverence for the US as a (potential) gold standard of healthcare that can trickle down into other countries ignores ongoing imperialism and much more insightful and useful understandings of political economy, and the 'vaccine hesitancy in Black communities' discourse strikes me as inappropriately framed (because yes, Tuskegee is a real and awful legacy, but we need to look at material barriers to vaccination in Black communities driving low vaccination and high death rates, rather than buying into a narrative that ultimately blames the 'sensitive feelings' of Black folks). And even the sections on mental health stray away from 'hard' examples of psychiatric disabilities beyond depression, including altered states, autism and ADHD, comorbid physical and mental health conditions, and so on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma and Pregnancy
Moderate: Child death, Death, Misogyny, and Racism