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Feminism and Health Care

I was not what I like to call academically active during my years in high school. By
academically active, I mean participating in my education in a way that requires effort and care.
Many students across all levels can relate to this definition, I would imagine, since being present
in the classroom doesnt mean that the work that is being done is reaping any benefits unless
the student is academically active. Much like a person of no faith standing in a church during a
service, a student without a drive to be academically active will not benefit much from whatever
is expected to be learned.
This complacency for school arose for many reasons, but it was my senior year and the bulk of
the apathy cocktail was composed of general burnout. I was tired of school and I was tired of
learning, or rather: showing up to class just to find out that if I skipped, I wouldnt have missed
much. Surprisingly, an experience I had in my Current Issues course in my senior year of high
school that I thought for sure was a course I could blow off, turned out to be one of the only
events I still think about 6 years out of high school.
My teacher was an asshole. He drove a Toyota Prius, loved the Dave Matthews Band, and went
backpacking in Europe some time over a decade ago and still talked about it on more than one
occasion. We lived in Chicagoland and he still wore Northface and Patagonia fleeces, probably
relics from his backpacking trip he couldnt let go of. He was an on paper liberal-another term I
use for people who are advocates of social progressiveness theoretically but fall short in their
own actions and practices.
I had the class for first period so it started a good twenty minutes before 8am. I had sleeping
problems then (and now) and so often I showed up to class with a few or no hours of sleep.
Listening to high school aged students (myself included) talk about very serious social and
cultural issues this early in the morning was something I couldnt will myself to do even if I was
academically active. Just imagine this: not sleeping, mudding through a complex depression,
and listening to a 14 year old girl say Well, I dont think women are as capable as men. If they

were, they wouldnt be oppressed as much!. On most days, I could just barely convince myself
to sit through it by texting friends and doing homework for other classes. On the Health Care
Reform Day, though, the day where we would be discussing the new reform proposal as a
class; I was alert and paying full attention. A rarity for me.
In 2009, President Obama tried to overhaul health care completely. The system was (and at this
time in 2015, still is) incredibly broken. It was not unheard of for people with serious afflictions to
be left with no options other than to sell their home, car, possessions, etc. just to afford a
fraction of the care that they need for their condition. Prescription drugs were so expensive that
people were going without them and paying the serious consequences of neglecting their
health. Democrats were pushing for reform, and if you listened closely enough you could hear
murmurings of universalizing health care creep about. Softly at first, and then yells.
Universalizing health care, that is to make health care very affordable if not free, was an
outrageous idea. America prides itself in privatizing health care. I know this because I cant have
a discussion about health care without the other party mentioning how great it is that the
government isnt involved. It keeps a great element of capitalism in the system: theres
competition! Because there is competition, health care providers must be driven to provide the
most excellent care and not become reckless or careless with their practice.
When my teacher prompted us by asking what we thought about the new proposal, these points
were all raised. One girl retold the story that everyone at the time seemed to have but didnt
know where it came from: someone she knew knew someone who waited in a Canadian
emergency room for a broken bone or a heart attack or a gunshot wound for a whopping 8
hours! This person was in pain or dying or bleeding for that long before someone could come
and help them since they were all so swamped with other people who were showing up for
anything and everything since their healthcare is free. A person with a splinter under their
fingernail was served before the dying or bleeding friend. Outrageous!

Stories of other rumors and hypothetical situations arose making it quite clear these kids were
not keen to the idea of universalizing health care, even if it meant making it more accessible to
them and the people they knew. Even the kids who knew people who were ill or were ill
themselves were against it, citing that they didnt want the quality of care to go down or to be
unable to receive it when they need it. Regardless of if they identified themselves as someone
who needs health care on a regular basis, ALL people will need health care at some point in
their lives. Just from mental health care alone, almost everyone will need to seek treatment
within their lifetime. However, these people did not want it. They were convinced any other
alternative to their broken system would somehow be MORE broken, would somehow cause
more deaths and suffering, and somehow would cost them more.
What about if there is a person who is a smoker or is fat and needs more health care because
of their own actions? was inevitably brought up. Im not going to pay more in taxes just so I get
to insure this persons poor decisions. The agreement was unanimous. The victim of whatever
affliction was to be blamed and the resolution started and stopped at Well, you shouldnt have
smoked or drank or ate so much. Carelessness equals a lack of compassion for human life, so
long as we as americans are concerned. Life is something that is only valued when it is treated
and adorned a certain way.
I didnt know it then, but these people were afraid. Not only the students among me in my
classroom, but the nation as a whole. Citizens were frightened that this change would be worse
(again, somehow) than the system in place that almost everyone was in agreement that was
completely and utterly broken. They were convinced that somehow making everything better
would somehow make it worse. Everyone wasnt under the same impression coincidentally.
They were under that impression from the very simple word: socialism.
America has had a fear of anything not capitalist since the birth of itself, but communist and
socialist fears stem from the 1950s specifically with the Cold War and fear of nuclear attack.
This fear now appears to be genetically ingrained into us, as now all it takes is bringing up the

word and we are convinced all associations are demonizations of our own values. The word
socialism is not inherently bad. It is a word to describe a system where resources are shared
and the government and the people collaborate to do so. Now that we are afraid of the word, it
will instantly kill any idea presented to us that might benefit it. Instead of fighting for
universalized healthcare, the discussion centered around why it isnt socialist.
The health care reform of 2009 that never really saw the light of day is a great analogy to the
treatment of feminist ideals. A system that was desperately needed, that almost everyone would
benefit from (unless you were in the top income bracket in the US that statistically almost no
one was) was rejected because of its association with a demonized word. Feminism is a bad
word. In my junior year of college, a discussion about feminism arose when a professor asked
our class what feminism was. A girl said, When people think women are better than men and
no one corrected her. People begrudgingly credit feminism with equality and any meaning
beyond that is silenced by a stigma that feminists are radical and violent. Feminists want to gain
more privilege by taking yours away! Feminists want you to analyze your behavior because
youre doing something wrong. Feminists must appeal to you by sympathizing with you and
suggesting you are a victim as well in order for you to feel included. Feminists are the failed
health care reform: trying to help but dead and buried before even making it out of the womb.

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