The older I get, the more I realise the great differences in the way society treats me, as opposed to a male with my exact age, upbringing and general appearance. Yes – I am still complaining about women getting the short end of the stick after my rant last week – its my blog and I can complain if I want to, lol.
So anyway, like I said, as I get older I notice more and more how society places expectations on me simply for being female. I talk a lot about children, I know, but it is really something I deal with on almost a daily basis. In media, in public, amongst friends and family. I am constantly bombarded with this idea that I need to start thinking of ‘starting my family’. Which is offensive in itself by the way. Who says that I don’t already have one?
And yeah, that has made me hyperaware of the many other things I am expected to deal with in the eyes of complete strangers. Like how people tell me ‘I’m so lucky’ that my boyfriend comes grocery shopping with me. Or how my unironed shirt means that I’m lazy. Or the targeted ads I receive on YouTube that are all about cleaning products and feeling tired because geez, looking after those three kids is so difficult – yeah, can totally relate.
But it goes deeper than that. I recently bought this book, called The Female Factor, and I really only bought it to learn more about the female body and how I can care for mine. It talks nutrition, mood, sleep and exercise. I pre-ordered it. Because I hadn’t seen a book like it, that delves through the everyday health problems of women specifically, from every angle, in an easy to digest format.
What I didn’t account for, are all the enraging facts about how women are so grossly misrepresented in medical research, in medical education and in the healthcare system in general. It has not only opened my eyes to the fact that gender disparity is still very real, but also to the fact its so real that its a problem, it literally leads to more death in women. Come on.
Here are some scary facts for you, courtesy of Dr Hazel Wallace:
Because of ideas perpetrated by the school system and their parents, young children in the UK are more than TWICE as likely to draw a man, when asked to draw a scientist.
That bullshit ‘diagnosis’ of Hysteria, a disease caused by simply having a womb in which women display any kind of negative emotion at all, was only removed from official medical classification in 1980.
A woman is one and a half times more likely to receive the wrong initial diagnosis for a heart attack – yes increasing their risk of death.
Women were unfairly banned from long distance running until the 70s, because it was believed by yet more bullshit male doctors that their uterus would fall out their flippen bodies.
It is more common for doctors to prescribe woman with ‘lifestyle changes’ as opposed to actual medication even when they experience physical symptoms.
Most clinical research ignores the female sex and is centred around endosex cis men.
In drug studies, there is a five-to-one men to female ratio. Even though historically, women react to drugs differently than men. (duh.)
And there are so many more, but I’m just too angry at this point to type more. Why is this still our daily life? And then men have the audacity to perpetrate this #notallmen bullshit.
Until next time x
Shell Spotted 