I was deeply offended by Mia Mingus' response to my comment in class on Monday. For those who were not there, I will explain the situation. Mia Mingus defines herself as a "queer disabled woman of color." For the purposes of this post, I will speak only of her disability. As a result of the polio she contracted as a baby, Mingus had problems with one of her legs. To correct the impairment, and aid her to walk properly, she wore a leg brace for (if I remember correctly) about twelve years of her life before finally deciding that she no longer wanted to wear the braces, even if it meant that she would eventually be in a wheel chair.
Mingus had a terrible experience with the bracing-- she described doctors who spoke over her head and never asked how she was feeling as well as immense pain and discomfort. Ultimately, Mingus blamed society, and specifically targeted the medical world, for her disability. She explained the theory of disability as a social construct, but took this one step further to state that doctors never consider patients as people and instead think of them only as a problem they need to correct.
She explained her belief that doctors only motive was money-- citing the multimillion dollar business of brace making as an example.
Since I had a somewhat similar story, with a very different outcome, I thought sharing my own personal struggle with bracing would be relevant and provide another perspective. After being diagnosed with scoliosis at age 9, I began bracing immediately. For 24 hours a day I wore extremely uncomfortable back braces for 5 years before my doctors and I accepted that the bracing was not working for me. I was devastated-- I felt that my doctors had given me a false hope. I felt betrayed. Luckily for me, corrective surgery was an option. It was a huge surgery- 8 hours, 2 weeks in the hospital followed by another full month in bed, then six more months in a back brace, but luckily it worked. It was my doctors unyielding hopefulness and determination to allow me to walk for the rest of my life that inspired me to become a doctor-- so I can devote my life to affording others the opportunities I was afforded all because of the dedication of my doctors.
Mingus immediately attacked me-- even despite my apparent appreciation for what medicine had done for me, I was overlooking the fact that walking shouldn't be an ultimate goal. What's wrong with being in a wheel chair? She asked. Unfortunately, class was over before I had a chance to respond. I am certainly not arguing that there are problems in the accessibility of the world to disabled people- clearly there are improvements that need to be made, however, ultimately the shortest distance between two points is a straight line-- I don't really think you can argue that being in a wheelchair is an easier means of getting around than walking. Again, this is not to say that people in wheelchairs shouldn't be afforded the opportunities of people who can walk, all I am saying here is that, if given the opportunity, I imagine everyone would rather be able to walk than be confined to a wheelchair.
While I can certainly appreciate that Mingus may have had a terrible experience with the medical field growing up, I think her generalizations targeting the entire medical world as money grubbing and uncaring of people are insulting and benighted. As a few people pointed out, sure, there are doctors, as there are professionals in every field, who are in it for the wrong reasons. But I think broadening this example to include the entire medical field is not only hurtful and ignorant, but undermines the power of her beliefs and distracts from her desire to open minds about the social construction of disability.
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Thank you for sharing your experience. What I love about this class is that we are making critiques in biomedicine, not just disregarding it. That seems to have a much more hopeful message than some of the things the past few articles have been about. It seemed like up until now, we have been studying past problems in medicine and science, probably making it easier for us to judge. We had no problem learning from mistakes from the past. And now, reading contemporary critiques and people denouncing science, it's harder for us to comprehend and agree. Even if this is true though, none of the recent readings have proposed how to correct the medicine. Rather, they judge society, which while important, does not actually help. The proposed solutions are utopias that seem to disregard the good of science. Your experience is a good example of how science can help someone, so thank you again for sharing. Everything we've done has been important, changing our own standpoint views, so it's good to add yours into the mix, balancing out the more recent readings.
Yes, Thank you again for sharing such a personal experience! this is what Women's Studies is about. The personal is political!
One thing I'd like us to remember is that everyone has a standpoint and that our standpoints inform how we view the world. Ms. Mingus' experience with disability reflects the voice of many people with disabilities who are trying to challenge societal notions of what's "normal".
Many people who use wheelchairs for mobility would find your statement, "I imagine everyone would rather be able to walk than be confined to a wheelchair" as deeply offensive as you found Mingus' response to your comment. For many, a wheelchair is no different from you using a car to get to where you are trying to go. They do not feel "confined" but rather find that particular technology useful. Your comment seems to imply that people who use wheelchairs have a poorer quality of life than those who walk, that walking is somehow better than using a wheelchair, and that efficiency is more important than making room for more people to move through the world as they need to. Is this what you mean?
I don't recall Ms. Mingus characterizing all doctor's as uncaring but as they are in the business of "fixing" people they do tend to see themselves as needing to "correct problems," like walks that aren't "pretty." What I hope you heard from Ms. Mingus and from the class on the whole is that a lot of what we do in the name of "health" really has to do with what society finds aesthetically pleasing, which is a construction that shifts over time. Just like we can look back at the scientific and medically justified actions against women and people of color as being biased, perhaps society will have a similar perspective on disability one day. What may seem like a utopia for some people, may be equity or liberation for others.
In the United States, unlike in many other industrialized nations, medicine is a for profit business industry. I don't think that Ms. Mingus would argue with you about where some doctors hearts are, but I think her point was more that medicine profits tremendously in this country while it "helps people," which can consciously or unconsciously influence how doctors practice medicine.
It might be interesting to read some additional disability studies material and consider this as an area of focus for your final project. I wonder what you might find to help support and/or challenge your claims.
I was initially offended by Ms. Mingus’s response to your story because I too couldn’t understand why walking wouldn’t be the most desirable outcome. Though the definition of what is normal is very hazy, I felt that walking could definitely be considered the normal manner of movement for a human since that was how nature designed our bodies. So I guess my confusion from Mia’s statement came from my reasoning that if nature dictated this norm which society then observes as the norm, then why wouldn’t someone desire treatments that could help them to walk? I have later taken Mia’s response as trying to make a point that walking is just one aspect of life. We can move through life by walking, with wheels, or other mobility devices and which ever one we use, would it drastically change how we lead our lives or our values? For example, if I had been in a wheelchair, it wouldn’t have affected my desire to go to college. This is just how I’m interpreting her response and maybe it’s wrong because I don’t remember her exact words.
During Mia’s presentation, I asked her if she had ever confronted her brace makers or doctors about how she felt that their treatments were trying to fit her to the norm of society. She said she hadn’t and mainly because she believed they were so strongly influenced by the social construct of disability that they would not be able to understand the idea of society fixing itself to accommodate her. What I wanted to ask also was how we can make doctors and the general public aware of the social construct of disability so that it doesn’t influence the treatments that doctors prescribe. I’m not premed, so I’m curious as to whether there are required classes that educate aspiring doctors about social constructs. And if not, how do we get them integrated into med school curriculum? I honestly never would have been aware of all the social constructs in our society and how they influence science and related fields if I had not taken this class.
I wasn't in the room, so missed what happened, hence I'll limit myself to the statement "I imagine everyone would rather be able to walk than be confined to a wheelchair". Not everyone feels that way. Many of us born with "normal" bodyes, that is, bodies that are functioning the way the body is designed to function, would prefer to be unable to walk, and use wheelchairs.
I do not at all mean that people in a wheelchair have a poorer quality of life than those not in wheelchairs, nor do I believe that efficiency is more imortant than making room for people to move through the world as they need to. As I stated in my original post, to the contrary, I think a number of changes need to be made to make the world more available to people with disabilities and who (for example) use wheelchairs as a means of getting around, and I'm sorry if my point was not made clearly. What I meant to say, and what I still maintain, is that I do believe that walking is easier than using a wheelchair. I think this is exemplified the fact that almost no one uses a wheelchair by choice-- if it were more, or even equally convienient, wouldn't more people who are capable of walking choose to use wheelchairs? Efficiency is VERY important in our world, whether we like it or not, and certainly for those unable to walk-- wheelchairs provide an excellent option, however, it is simply not as efficient as walking. Again, I do not by any means think that efficiency trumps the need of the world to make concessions, but I do think that for those able, or those who, with a little work might be able, walking is just an easier option.
I'm sure people will still disagree, but here, I'm just going to have to ask you to respect my opinion, and my right to have one, as I respect yours and your right to differ from mine.
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