Your Fatphobic Violence is Actively Killing Me — Breaking Normal

We’re going to start with some basics: the united states is fueled by oppression. Every aspect of this nation runs on oppression, which means the united states’ institutions run on oppression. The united states healthcare systems and its minions are no different.

The idea of health is based on a white supremacist patriarchal capitalist ideology that there is a perfect human specimen, and that perfect human is white, male, able-bodied, not fat, and is cisgender and heterosexual. Generally speaking, they are not short, preferably blond with blue eyes, of a particular class and nationality, but those characteristics are flexible. When it comes to healthcare, anyone not embodying these traits is “Other”.

Being Other in healthcare means you will be subjected to oppressive violence at every turn. Your race, gender, size, and ability are pathologized and assumptions will be made about you that will affect how medical staff treats you. It will affect whether clinicians will listen to you. It will determine whether they believe you. Medical staff will decide whether or not they will allow you access to care based on their assumptions and will outright deny you care should you not measure up to their biased standards. In many scenarios, they have the power to decide whether you live or die.