Kyriarchy in action
Oct. 13th, 2011 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sebastienneGenerally, I've not had too bad a time of it with fatphobia in the medical profession (although I'm not sure that every negative blood test for glucose/thyroid issues has been entirely necessary), but today I saw just a little bit of the system which limits fat people's access to decent healthcare.
I was registering with a new GP (yeah.. only 18 months after I moved house..) and the form required me to give my weight and blood pressure. So far, so standard, yeah? Only I was required to do this using a self-service scale & cuff system in the middle of the waiting room. Yeah.
So, I've done a lot of work to exist in the world without constant niggling self-hatred. I focus on treating my body well so that I can get the most out of it, and not on punishing it for not looking or behaving in a certain way. Dammit, I have a necklace that says "FAT", like it's a neutral descriptor, and sometimes I even have the courage to wear it!
And even I felt judged and shamed by the little machine that spoke aloud (it spoke! aloud!) to tell me to stand up straight. (I didn't know that it was going to go quiet before printing me a little read-out slip that told me that my body is an epidemic.)
Then I moved on to the blood pressure machine! Now, once again, I want to reiterate that I completely understand the utility of taking these routine measurements out of precious GP-time and into self-service. But this one-size-fits-all cuff did not strike me as the way to do it. It hurt, of course - blood pressure readings always do - but there wasn't even a little note on the display, "don't worry, it's meant to feel like that". Just, "sit still". The form also carried instructions to take three readings if BP was higher than 140/85; at 136/86 I wasn't sure it it applied to me, so I did two more. (The subsequent two dropped off; if I'd known I was going to be doing DIY medicine I probably wouldn't have cycled.) And then I thought.. everyone in this waiting room has registered with this GP. They've all seen that instruction. They're seeing me repeat this humiliating pain three times, and they know it is because I am an unhealthy fatty, OMGZORS!!!11.
And then I thought about all the people who'd been through this, and had decided not to make that appointment after all. Or who'd looked at that machine in this public space and remembered past traumas, and decided not to bother registering. And then I was sad.
Note: if you want to comment on this post with any kind of "concern" for my "health", you might want to go and read Five Fat Facts, which covers some concepts I've skimmed over here in a bit more depth.
ETA: Mr Lansley said: "We have to halt and then reverse the tide of obesity in this country." Ooh, that's a new metaphor! Much less viscous than usual fat-analogies. Kind of fun to imagine!
I was registering with a new GP (yeah.. only 18 months after I moved house..) and the form required me to give my weight and blood pressure. So far, so standard, yeah? Only I was required to do this using a self-service scale & cuff system in the middle of the waiting room. Yeah.
So, I've done a lot of work to exist in the world without constant niggling self-hatred. I focus on treating my body well so that I can get the most out of it, and not on punishing it for not looking or behaving in a certain way. Dammit, I have a necklace that says "FAT", like it's a neutral descriptor, and sometimes I even have the courage to wear it!
And even I felt judged and shamed by the little machine that spoke aloud (it spoke! aloud!) to tell me to stand up straight. (I didn't know that it was going to go quiet before printing me a little read-out slip that told me that my body is an epidemic.)
Then I moved on to the blood pressure machine! Now, once again, I want to reiterate that I completely understand the utility of taking these routine measurements out of precious GP-time and into self-service. But this one-size-fits-all cuff did not strike me as the way to do it. It hurt, of course - blood pressure readings always do - but there wasn't even a little note on the display, "don't worry, it's meant to feel like that". Just, "sit still". The form also carried instructions to take three readings if BP was higher than 140/85; at 136/86 I wasn't sure it it applied to me, so I did two more. (The subsequent two dropped off; if I'd known I was going to be doing DIY medicine I probably wouldn't have cycled.) And then I thought.. everyone in this waiting room has registered with this GP. They've all seen that instruction. They're seeing me repeat this humiliating pain three times, and they know it is because I am an unhealthy fatty, OMGZORS!!!11.
And then I thought about all the people who'd been through this, and had decided not to make that appointment after all. Or who'd looked at that machine in this public space and remembered past traumas, and decided not to bother registering. And then I was sad.
Note: if you want to comment on this post with any kind of "concern" for my "health", you might want to go and read Five Fat Facts, which covers some concepts I've skimmed over here in a bit more depth.
ETA: Mr Lansley said: "We have to halt and then reverse the tide of obesity in this country." Ooh, that's a new metaphor! Much less viscous than usual fat-analogies. Kind of fun to imagine!
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-13 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-13 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-14 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-13 03:30 pm (UTC)*hugs*
*realises he needs an icon for 'supporting a friend against oppression, prejudice and general unfairness of the world'*
no subject
Date: 2011-10-13 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-13 06:24 pm (UTC)I'm not particularly overweight, I don't think my physicality is going to be judged by those in the queue, I'm just very, very self-conscious!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-13 07:33 pm (UTC)