Questions for October 13

from WIAS
  1. According to Sapiro, on what do our definitions of health and illness depend?
  2. Explain why the concepts of normal and abnormal are central to our understanding of health.
  3. According to Sapiro, health care providers have traditionally viewed women in terms of what body part(s)?
  4. What does Sapiro compare clitoridectomy to on the male body?
  5. Explain the debate surrounding anti-clitoridectomy activists.
  6. If, as Sapiro asserts, biology alone is not responsible for whether menstruating women feel good, then what else contributes to this situation?
  7. Sapiro quotes Susan Markens, who raises a potential problem with the legitimation of PMS -- explain this problem.
  8. Until the 17th and 18th Centuries, doctors willingly left childbirth to midwives. But then they came back to the practice, forcing midwives out. What reason does Sapiro offer for this change of heart?
  9. When in the U.S. did childbirth become an event that was seen as requiring hospitalization?
  10. Briefly explain the benefits and disadvantages of the lithotomy position.
  11. Explain the medical model of pregnancy.
  12. Explain what is meant by a comparison of the "peaceful haven" and the "cradle of violence."
  13. According to Sapiro, when is stress most likely to be transformed into domestic violence?
  14. Discuss the benefits and disadvantages associated with protective labor legislation.
  15. How does Sapiro link corsets with the practice of foot-binding?
  16. Discuss weight as Sapiro described it varies across the difference of race among women.
  17. Discuss pregnancy as Sapiro described how it varies across the difference of class.
  18. Discuss our culture's relationship to skin color in terms of race, discrimination and fashion and how it has changed over time.
  19. List and briefly explain the 5 criticisms that Sapiro says feminists have of "beauty" practices.
  20. What is the relationship between the terms "healthy male" "healthy female" and "healthy adult" according to a 1970 study cited by Sapiro?
  21. Why are many health professionals calling for the creation of a medical specialty for women's health?
  22. Cite 2 of the 3 reasons Sapiro gives for why the politics of health care is especially relevant to women.
  23. According to Sapiro, what are the 2 main ways in which women can "govern and influence" their health care?
from FTMC
  1. According to hooks, what are the inherent problems of focusing solely on male violence?
  2. What does hooks believe is the root cause of battery?
  3. What effect did the entrance of women into the workforce have on male violence against women?
  4. What example does hooks give of how love and violence are equated?
  5. How do romance novels add to the acceptance of violence?
from FT
  1. Discuss the "essential aloneness of life" that Radicalesbians write about, comparing heterosexual and homosexual experiences with this concept.
  2. Heilbrun writes of an androgynous ideal. How is it possible to know if this ideal has been achieved?
  3. Discuss Heilbrun's musings about the Oedipus story.
  4. Why, accoding to Atkinson, is the issues of the older woman the Achilles' heel of women's movement?
  5. Discuss the "-ette" ending of words as it was critiqued by Miller and Swift.
  6. According to Rubin, what is the major failure of Marxism?
  7. Discuss the incest taboo as written about by Rubin.
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