| "I don’t know the stats off the top of my head but I’ve heard many times that men’s health issues are under-studies relative to women’s — ie breast cancer versus prostate cancer." I think the actual metric is extremely complicated. By and large, symptoms of diseases and illness are based on male patients. Drug trials often exclude women (due to pregnancy risk) and many exclude pregnant women (forcing pregnant women to go without necessary medication to protect the fetus). Certain women's cancers like breast cancer recieve significant income but other issues like endomeitrosis recieve little to no research. Women are statistically forced to wait longer at ER and have their pain dismissed more regularly as not indicating anything serious. So in some ways men are considered 'default' for drug trials, clinical health profiles, their pain and health are considered more seriously, etc. On the other hand, there isn't a lot of money for mental health geared towards men in particular, certain cancers that are male specific are ignored, and there isn't as much pressure for thinness and health on men as there are women socially. So I don't think there's clear lines that by far X gender is oppressed on all levels in the healthcare field. It would be more accurate to presume that there are many different systemic failures correlated with different demographics, and this affects different demographics differently. While I agree with you that class has a massive influence, I would hesitate to agree with you that the country's problems should be considered primarily class based. We are still only a generation past (less than a generation? arguably still ongoing?) purposefully refusing to lend or perform economic deals with people based on their race or gender. This would show up as class stratification but has a racial/sexist cause, so it may be inaccurate to presume that solely economic solution would resolve all other societal stratification issues. (But I really do agree with you we need to remove barriers of economic class transfer.) |