Question

Social Construction of Health and Illness Using the Conrad & Barker (2010) reading: What is one key finding of social constructionism? Explain and provide examples. Have you noticed this before in daily life and/or the medical field? After reading the links on BMI: How is BMI socially constructed? Is using BMI a good indicator of health? Why or why not? Has the use of BMI by the medical field influenced your perception of health? Discuss. Stigma is a key concept to understanding the social construction of health and illness. Rather than reading the (long) article on this, please look up one mental health condition that is stigmatized. This may be either a current recognized mental health condition or one that has been de-pathologized. What mental health condition did you decide to look up? How does stigma affect this condition? In what ways is this condition embedded with cultural meaning? (This section should connect to the Conrad & Barker article) How do individuals come to understand and live with this illness? (This section should connect to the Conrad & Barker article) How does stigma affect the way you think about and discuss mental health? Note: you are not required to disclose your mental health status unless you are comfortable and want to. This week and last week’s content included more dense and theoretical content. Do you have any questions, comments, and/or notice any connections to your life/experiences? This section is purposely broad and intended to be as similar as possible to in-class time to discuss the material and to ask questions.

Answer 1

1. Constructing the social reality is the key finding of social constructionism.

Eg : During 19th century , women who were supposed to be pregnant were not allowed to drive, dance at the risk of harming unborn baby.

As of now , the women who bear child in their womb are not allowed to smoke , consume alcohol, party outside specially at night. They are restricted from doing all these things.  

Another example , is that once upon a time in Britain the people who suffered from mental illness were supposed to be possessed by powers of witchcraft .

Yes , the one where the pregnant women are restricted to consume alchohol , smoking , attending parties at night is something I have noticed.

BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It helps to measure the body weight of an individual.

Yes , BMI is socially constructed. The body image of an individual leaves an impact on the person in society. Speaking from cultural discourse point of view, the person is surrounded by the social constructs of the society . Like being fat , is something body shaming , thus insulting the person publicly.Self esteem of a person is attached to the body weight , specially in case of women . Most of the women care of their appearance and weight issues. They would like to lose weight and look beautiful.

BMI are always not correct. So entirely believing it is not recommended. As the scientists believe that , BMI cannot measure the appropriateness of fat and muscle present in the body of an individual.

No , it has not influenced my perception of health. It has given me wrong measurements about my body index.

Being an obese , is something I have seen to be stigmatised . As it heavily impacts the person mentally. They fall into the trap of getting mental problems such as depression , loneliness. In order to combat the problem , it needs a strong mentality to go through a huge changeover.

Socially , the person is isolated from the friend's circle. They restrict themselves from attending many places , as they fear of body shaming. Body shaming is a kind of insult to the person leaving him/her mentally sick. They are an image of guinea pig , at which they laughed upon . Many people crack jokes upon them and get pleasure out of it .

They cannot eat openly in public places , as they are mocked upon .

Stigma , is a way of disgracing.