another abstract attempt

The field of medicine acts not only to heal bodies and cure disease, it acts as a repository of power, defining bodies and constituting subjects through discourse. Medicine is a field of knowledge, and as such, can work to conceal its own role in the creation of the gendered subject. In postmodern theory, experience is always “mediated by organized discourses that amount to systems of representation” (Morris 8); in this paper I will examine how the experiences of transgender patients have been shaped by medical discourses. The modern biomedical model inadequately addresses issues of gender and gendered embodiments and offers reductive and mechanistic understandings of illness. I will contextualize the dialogue on postmodern ethics within a discussion of medical care for queer and transgender bodies in order to reconstruct the conceptual territory in which bioethics is presently situated. In order to provide a postmodern critique on gendered biomedical discourses, I will examine the historical conflation of sex and gender as well as heteronormative/gender-policing practices in biomedicine. The purpose of a responsible bioethics is to examine the practices and discourses that enforce gender normativity and consequently erase gender diversity. This critical self-awareness in biomedicine is necessary to unleash the libratory potential within transsituated discursive reiterations. This paper seeks to reveal the cultural contingency of biomedical narratives in order to reformulate a biomedical model which upholds the ethical principals it espouses.

research ethics

so... it's great that this week's assignment is to think about informed consent and research ethics, because it has only recently come to my attention that I would have to submit a proposal to our school's IRB before I could even begin to ask transgender folks (and perhaps use information provided on blogs, journals, etc) about friendly health-care providers and what criteria should be used to sort through trans-sensitive/friendly providers. Our school's IRB website states "Before human subjects are recruited or data is collected from human subjects, the IRB must review and approve all human subject research, regardless of funding, conducted by Appalachian State University faculty, staff or students." Until approved, I couldn't even begin the preliminary research to design the selection criteria for the providers. Then, because participation of healthcare providers might entail at least some legal risk, I would have to make sure all of the consent forms and securities were in place so that I could put participant's information on the resource website. I called our IRB, and my study seems to fall in uncertain territory...so now I am waiting to find out whether or not I need to have my application approved at all. If I have to be approved, the process can take 2-3 weeks. I've submitted the request for review, and am waiting to hear back from the IRB. fun!

Queer Film Series: Gen Silent

Monday 9/20, 7:30pm, Belk Library rm. 114

Gen Silent (2010, USA. 63 minutes.)

An award-winning film documenting elderly LGBT people who go back into the closet to survive in the healthcare system. Here we see meet six LGBT elders and a wide range of paid caregivers: From those who are specifically trained to make LGBT seniors feel safe, to the other end of the spectrum, where LGBT elders face discrimination, neglect or abuse. As we journey through the challenges that these men and women face, we also see reasons for hope as each subject crosses paths with a small but growing group of impassioned professionals trying to wake up the long-term and healthcare industries to their plight.

abstractish

Universalizing perspective on the gender/sex binary with critical analysis of the conflation of sex and gender. Critiquing "reading" of bodies as a texts; examination of gender policing in the field of medicine: pathologizing, gatekeeping, and polarized language. Liberatory potential in reiterations, reclamations, and representation. Analysis of "borderland" analogy; transgender "border-wars." Limits to autonomy; limits of discourse. Dialogue around fear of "the foreigner" and "otherness." Movement towards resources for all identities and embodiments. Argument for the deconstruction of the heteronormative metanarrative through poststructural/queer iterations and visibilities in healthcare. Examination of healthcare options for transgender persons nationally; argument for creating a politics of possibility/poststructural ethics for medicine.

chosen area...

to work

so, I wouldn't count this as incredibly productive, but yesterday I organized all of the relevant readings from my theory classes into one giant filing unit. Now I can easily access a lot of what I have learned in the past few years - alphabetically by author's last name. this feels like a gigantic relief, especially because it gave me a chance to review some of my readings and refresh how i've come to know what i know today. today's goal: go through all of my old planners to find & record relevant projects/events/conferences that have shaped my field of study and knowledge formations. also: skim old readings that might prove particularly relevant to my thesis, scrub the tub, finish misc. homework, color in my anatomy coloring book (yes, it is really fun!), and hopefully post again with any new thoughts.

The Carnival is in town!

Come one, come all! The carnival has come to town...
Sept. 1-4 (through Saturday night) the lights will be shining at the old high country fairgrounds down old 421 ... 6pm 'till later evening. the map - http://www.visitnc.com/listings/view/47219