In the process of researching and writing the seven artifacts over this semester I have learned many things related to gender, biological processes, and different ways of life. Considering that I am somewhat close-minded, researching and writing these artifacts have influenced my ways of thinking by exposing me to cultures and religions that I normally wouldn’t give any attention to. I have been enlightened about issues occurring in other countries and cultures that I would have had no idea about before taking this course. Almost everything that was taught in this course I had little to no knowledge of or about.
I plan on working in the medical field, so learning the difference between sex and gender was very beneficial. “Sex refers to biological characteristics….gender is the role and social identification of a person” (Artifact 1, 2019). I want to be an Orthopedic Surgeon, so if I ever obtain a transgender or third gender patient I can have a better understanding on how to treat them psychologically and physically. Considering that these people already suffer from anxiety due to gender dysphoria, I will keep this in mind by trying to prevent squandering them with unnecessary stress- like finding another surgeon or anestethiologist (Artifact 1, 2019). These people are either shoved away or accepted and treated incorrectly. For example transgender patients have a higher risk of suffocating under anesthesia, but most surgeons and anestethiologist are ignorant to this statistic so the patient could suffocate during surgery!
Even if I do make it through medical school I probably won’t be paid as much as my male counterparts! I had always known that men were paid more than women, but I didn’t realize that this problem was caused by so many factors such as pregnancy, segregation, and domestic responsibilities (Artifact 3, 2019). Women also tend to be healthier than men because of having reasons to take frequent visits to the doctors; this can also be due to the fact that men have more dangerous jobs (Artifact 4, 2019). All of this seems to be like common sense, but it never even came across my mind! If I wouldn’t have taken this course, I would have been ignorantly enjoying my $300K/year versus a male Ortho’s salary $400K/year. Ignorance is not bliss in this case!
I always knew that Africa had many different cultures and religions, but I did not realize how different these cultures were from one another! For example, Sierra Leone still practices female circumcision for initiation purposes, but female circumcision is illegal in Egypt (Artifact 6, 2019). Without the research of how medically qualified agencies view female circumcision, I would of thought that this practice to be harmless to a woman’s health! (very ignorant of me!) After researching the WHO and CDC’s views on this practice I came to the conclusion that “the only benefits to female circumcision is cultural or religious acceptance” (Artifact 6, 2019). With the knowledge of circumcision being a part of the initiation of most African culture I would have never of guessed that even Africa made it illegal, its just a matter of breaking the rules or not.
I assumed that these cultures knew that it was harmful for the women and chose to do it anyways, but these people aren’t being educated of the harmful effects of this practice. So it’s not that they are intentionally torturing women, they just simply don’t know that female circumcision is harmful. Preceding this information I just assumed that these evil actions towards women were intentional because of all of the evil spirits that reside in many African cultures.
The artifact that surprised me the most was the last one- Artifact 7. I always knew that some transgender people got gender-affirming surgeries, but I stereotyped them to be pleasant and reliable like Caitlyn Jenner’s. I honestly had no idea that these people were denied health care because of their decision to be transgender! It is common sense now, but I also didn’t even think that the surgeons are only changing the external genitalia and not the internal organs! I had no idea that this struggle even existed! I know now that transgender people were and still are being discriminated against, especially in more conservative states -like in the South! “Transgender people have absolutely HORRIBLE health care and are subjected to horrible violence” (Artifact 7, 2019). There have even been instances where transgender prisoners have been denied their medication (Artifact 7, 2019).
Learning about the menstruation cycle and the different types of hormones that our bodies produce helped me understand how someone can be medically born with extreme hormonal imbalances. Learning about the male’s internal and external organs will help me when I am performing surgery on male patients. Learning about female internal and external organs will help me when I get injured again, or when I have female patients! This information has the ability to influence my future decisions. For example hip pain a tricky thing to treat because many hip conditions have similar symptoms. It will be my job to decide if the pain is originating from the internal(hip joint), external (ligaments, tendons, muscles), or the internal organs. Groin pain could be a torn labrum, torn iliopsoas tendon, ovarian cyst, pelvic inflammatory disease, or even different types of cancer.
My knowledge of these internal conditions can save a patient from being misdiagnosed repeatedly. This knowledge can also prevent the patient from getting unnecessary surgeries like hip replacements, spinal fusions, and painful biopsies. This course has broadened my horizons and has given me many tools that I can use in the future! The knowledge of diverse cultures, biological conditions, and mental health can help shape my future work and can affect my future patient’s lives.
