Caught Between Compliance and Non-Compliance: A Feminist Perspective of Illness and Healthcare

• In Event: Redefining the Feminist Identity in Today's World

Abstract

In this paper, I present and analyze my personal illness story. In doing so, I explore the complexities that emerge at the intersection of gender and health, including issues of consent, agency, and autonomy. Specifically, I reflect on the ideological and systemic factors that contribute to an unforgiving cycle of compliance/non-compliance in US healthcare contexts. Within this paradoxical binary, control is both persistent and illusive, a condition confounded by individualism, paternalistic antagonism, and medical colonization. However, I offer two viable options for reclaiming control in gendered health contexts, even under oppressive and marginalizing conditions.

Author

• Kristen Cole, Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus