The Medical Gaze: Medical Models, Power, and Women's Health
Abstract
This paper analyzes the development and interconnections between two medical paradigms, the biomedical and the ecological/psychosocial. Each model shapes differing forms of medical power over women's bodies. The biomedical model relies on science for its status, power, and medical domination, while the ecological/psychosocial model stresses regulation and surveillance of women's healthy bodies. This paper discusses the theoretical importance of these medical paradigms and their effects on women's obstetric and gynecologic health. It concludes by evaluating the contemporary significance of medical gazes for women's health care.Metrics
Downloads
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are aware that articles published in Atlantis are indexed and made available through various scholarly and professional search tools, including but not limited to Erudit.
3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to preprint their work, that is, post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process. This can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Read more on preprints here.
