Blog 3: Reproduction and Health

I will state the obvious and say that sex sells in Western society. But why is it selling and what are the negative and positive views towards the reproduction organs that are actively being utilized? First off, men dominate once again within a patriarchal society and are put on a pedestal when it comes to importance of tending and pleasing them. Their sperm count is virtually endless as they reproduce millions of their little “mini-me’s” inside them every day. The man is granted leadership roles when discussing sex and given priority for sexual pleasure. So what happens when their sexual needs are not being met due to age or becoming “rusty?” Men go to the doctor and are diagnosed with a condition called andropause, which means that they lack testosterone levels and simultaneously have a low sex drive. But wait, men can’t be seen as weak or non-horny! They must be cured to stay on top (pun intended).

Male reproductive systems are given first priority within the gendered world of sex because science is allowing the patriarch to continue dominating. Doctors have created products for increasing and replacing lost amount of testosterone within men that is being sold on the market. Their sexual lives and manliness cannot be lost with age, and must be maintained through keeping up their libido and sustaining their testosterone levels which define their masculinity. Losing control is negative, but upholding a good sex life and manliness is positive, therefore making their sperm count and amounts of testosterone a health concern with positive reinforcements of treatment.

Women, on the other hand, have everything but priority when it comes to medical attention to enhance their reproductive systems. Their monthly cycle of menstruation is not their forte or sign of womanhood, but instead a sign of weakness. Medicine and other products relating to women’s monthly cycle of menstruation are perceived as negative and embarrassing; a time to take medication to cover up women’s symptoms of womanhood. This particular time of the month they will not only become a sensitive and emotional female, but also a bleeder. There “mini-me’s” are not congratulated or recognized, but silenced and degraded as women are pressured to take medications that will control their emotions and prevent them from become a complete bitch (excuse my language, but this is an honest label put on females who are menstruating).

Both menstruation and menopause are considered painful, discomforting, and emotional points in time that hinder a woman physically and mentally as her feelings are metaphorically bleeding out her mouth and eyes, if she cries, and her egg is literally bleeding out of her body, or the process of menstruating is coming to a stop all together. A woman’s libido and her pleasure are rarely, almost never, taken into consideration, when reviewing the types of medications offered to women and their monthly cycle. Sex is not something that raises importance when discussing menopause, unlike a male going through his aging process of testosterone levels.

Both male and female reproduction organs are natural ways of living and one’s health. Why then is there a bias towards male reproduction organs as priority and concern when levels drop, compared to a woman who is losing her eggs every year and eventually will not be able to reproduce after a certain age? The patriarch reinforces the notion of male reproduction systems as critical aspects of a man’s masculinity. But a woman is degraded by her outburst of emotions and a sense of internal and external ugliness she must experience throughout her lifetime of menstruation and menopause.

Blog 2: Sexuality and Health

We cannot ask ourselves this question enough, but who is spreading HIV/AIDS? It cannot possibly be you or me. It must be someone else that I do not know or lives half way across the world. Unfortunately, this is not true and Americans cannot expect to have complete confidence in doctors to explain the spread of this epidemic because the public is equally just as important in the search for these answers.

Traveling and migrating to new places can play a surprising role in the spread of HIV/AIDS because if the people who are travelling come in contact with the infected, they contract the disease typically without knowing. For example, the reading about Oaxaca, Mexico discusses the migrant workers who traveled to the US boarders. In their free time they found themselves bored and able to hire prostitutes for entertainment. The specific men who told their stories admitted having sex with the same women during an evening of pleasure. There is a high chance the men contracted the disease through one another’s semen. This does not necessarily mean that these men had sex with each other, although sex between two men is another prevalent cause of spreading HIV/AIDS, but their semen was spread to one another through having sex with the same women.

Also, by the public admitting to how they contracted or spread the disease challenges the stereotypes and assumptions in the world of science of how HIV/AIDS is spread. Some of these confessions include sexual contact with a spouse or intimate partner in which, the disease was transmitted, or an over-all lack of using condoms properly and consistently. Every victim or carrier of this disease have different backgrounds and reasoning as to why or to whom they passed the disease onto, but these people are included in all types of categories ranging from prostitutes to workers to married couples, showing the diversity of who is involved and infected by the disease. This challenges generalization that only the poor and underdeveloped countries are suffering.

In South Africa, there is a heavy blame put on females for spreading HIV/AIDS within the country, but in fact these women are contracting the disease from someone else such as a husband, boyfriend, or male acquaintance. The men had it first and then gave it to the women, therefore the accusations are incorrect and needs to be reevaluated as to who is carrying the disease to the African women? Not only are gender inequalities within South Africa degrade females, but also globally is hindering the care for women who have contracted the disease. “In every country, women with AIDS tend to be more socially and economically disadvantaged than men-younger, poorer, less educated, and less employed than men with AIDS. In consequence, women do not have the same access to HIV testing” (Lorber and Moore 110).

According to the South African traditions and views discussed in the reading, women have the highest rate of becoming victimized by HIV/AIDS, but have the lowest rate of attention and medical care provided for them. Also, the sexual intercourse the females have with a particular male is not always voluntary. The women are frequently forced in a variety of social and economical ways, and also the overriding desire of bearing a child.

I find it extremely important for the world outside of science and medicine to take part and feel just as important as conquering the battle of HIV/AIDS, because the public is who it is effecting and the doctors who are only there for limited support due to access, funds, and resources. Although doctors are the ones who help treat and research the disease, they can only do so much for spreading the word on the streets. Therefore, I believe everyone should take advantage of their right as a human to demand to be informed, aware, and surmount this extreme and devastating epidemic of HIV and AIDS.

I have never met a person with HIV or AIDS, but know that they are somewhere near me. The readings helped me grasp the reality of how close this disease may be to you or me and are not something that solely exists in underdeveloped countries. I also believe that when fear becomes a reality or when someone you know personally becomes a victim of HIV/AIDS, the whole spectrum of having a shield against this disease is torn down. The rawness and bona fide reality of this disease is present and may affect anyone at anytime. So don’t think that the sorrowful television ads of African people suffering from HIV/AIDS are not also making a family or friend in America suffer at the same time.

Blog 1: Health and Human Rights

When feeling slightly under the weather, middle-class Americans can easily go to the pharmacy and choose from an assortment of medicines and legal drugs. The process sounds extremely easy and accessible. But this does not hold true for the rest of the world, and even among the poor within America. Availability to drugs internationally is quite limited, and the inequalities that are intertwined with the constricted access to medical resources are hindering countless lives. Social class plays one of the biggest roles in dividing health privileges and rights.

Governments have made and are making laws that will seclude the poor to unfortunate health and the wealthy to excellent health care. Not only are the poor already typically in bad situations, but are being stigmatized for their social placement and cut off from the abundance of medical resources that should be available to everyone. Being poor is not solely defined by one’s financial state, but poor may mean a person living in unhealthy conditions through their household, their culture, or even incarceration that is limiting health access and rights for medical attention.

For example, the reading that discusses the Russian prisoners who are being untreated for tuberculosis due to the cost-efficiency debates shows the importance of money over a human body. Living in the underprivileged condition of an over-populated prison with no precautions or treatments towards the health of the prisoners is showing the lack of equality towards medical treatment. Due to the concerns towards cost-efficiency for treating the Russian prisoners have put their rights on hold for inhumane reasons. The prisoners are being pushed aside by the over-ruling social class of the privileged and treated poorly for the state they are currently in; being jail-junkies.

Governments and the groups that are making patents on medication and health care laws are overly concerned about money. This raises the question of health being a business instead of a right, so in fact a person’s life will be determined on the amount of money they have to spend on treatment. Again, social class is placing the unfortunate into an even more devastating position of unfair treatment due to companies’ greed and obsession over their profits. With educated and well-researched groups that can fight these monopolies, rules can be changed to make health care accessible to all areas of societies within international cultures and increase efforts towards prevention of bad health and curing the ill-fated victims of disease. An example of fighting back towards inequalities of health care is shown through the AIDS activists who fought the South African government’s AIDS treatment policies.

Reading and seeing the global inequalities of health rights has helped me look at my own in health with a different perspective. As stated before, I have complete access to any grocery that has a pharmacy and pick up cold/”under the weather” remedies. This makes my health problems seem so minute when thinking about who really needs treatments world-wide. It also makes me grateful for the access I have to medical treatment and health conditions that I have had vaccines for. But it also upsets me to know that health has indeed been turned into a business instead of sincere concern towards human rights.

AIDS is one of the leading causes of death as seen in the movie we watched in class. Every day, thousands of people contract or die from the disease and most cannot be properly treated for it due to lack of funds and conditions of clinics. Yet, companies continue to be greedy with their money and cost-efficient investments with their products. The real concern should be towards the well-being of every individual has a human right. In some of the most extreme cases of painstaking lack of health care, the government should think to themselves, “What if that was my family member and wouldn’t I demand the best health care available?” Everyone that is dieing or infected with disease is someone’s family member, relative, or close friend, so everyone should be given a fair chance to live. Instead, the focus is put towards where the most promising income may be stimulated and not towards the people who truly need immediate care. The scenes from the movie were breath-taking as I sat in my chair and could do nothing for these suffering AIDS victims.

I understand health care changes within the government cannot be done and put into action at a fast rate, but I feel like there is a lack of consideration towards such changes. It shouldn’t have to take an AIDS activist group to convince the South African government to make changes in their treatment access, but should be common sense that infected need treatment, and the dieing prevented. If I worked in an American clinic or hospital where I would witness numerous health-related problems, I know I would want to give those patients equal rights to treatment and life. Also, I would expect as an American to be treated the same way. Therefore, international cultures and governments who are privileged should consider how they personally would want to be treated, and think of how they would feel if they were deprived of equal care. I know it is difficult to transfer these words into actions, but my main concern is for all the governments’ focus to be turned towards humans, not money.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!
My program went out for a Thanksgiving dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in Hangzhou. Our teacher/program paid for it of course. There were a lot of interesting dishes...the food was so-so. I definitely missed an all-American feast! But guess this had to so suffice considering we had not other choice. But I had a chance to call my family during Thanksgiving (States time) to say hi and hear about all the delicious food they ate. Wow, I was super jelous. But we had a friend from Valpo school come and join us from the States for dinner and he brought some chocolate and Cheez-its for us. Wow, fake cheese never tasted so good! Ha, and I had a mac 'n' cheese from one my friend's care packages from home that just about made me pee my pants it tasted so much like home. Nothing like a bowl full of sodium and processed cheese. Yes sir.
So I am super relieved to not have any finals in my Chinese classes. We just found out this past week. All the teachers decided the mid-terms were so recent that there wasn't necessary to give us a final...thank goodness! So, next week will be my last week of class and then I will have just under two weeks of free time and relaxing time. I might even travel if I have the money and time to. I would really like to go back to Beijing and spend more time enjoying the scenery without rushing through everything in a day. Plus we really didn't have much time to travel during the semester and kept cramming in site seeing into short periods of time, so it will be nice to have some free time on our hands. We do still have a final in our Civilization Culture class...a paper at that. So guess that will be all the homework I will need to work on.
Can't wait to come home!!!!

Mid-terms

Wow, it's getting so cold here in Hangzhou. The rain is miserable to be out in because it is so cold and dreary. But everyone has their umbrellas out and continuing to walk everywhere. I have recently come down with a cold and coughing on a daily basis. I finally got over my stubbornness and went to the school's clinic. That place really concerned me...with their different sense of hygiene and how all the rooms were outdoors, or at least looked that way because they never close any doors!
After some confusion, I finally had a thermometer put in my mouth and seated in a small room. The doctor didn't check for anything else after I told him my common-cold symptoms. Because I didn't have a fever, they were not too concerned. So I was given a list of four different drugs to pick up in the next room which cost about $15 total. I got a box of Tylenol Cold medicine, some cough syrup, some other pill which I will not take because I cannot read anything on these boxes, and then some packets of natural herbal medicine to mix in hot water. I tried that herbal stuff...man it made me miss sugar so bad. It smelled and tasted like poop or something along those lines. But I do feel better having been on the medications for about a day now. I have also slept every free minute I have on my hands. This is hard because we have mid-terms this week and last Friday. *Big stack of flashcards, here I come!*
Friday we had our speaking/oral exam which went okay. Then listening/audio yesterday which I thought was a breeze. And I could actually understand what they were saying for once because they didn't talk a hundred miles a minute. So that was a relief! And then this Thursday I have my grammer/comprehensive test that will take about two hours to complete. It is all in Chinese characters, no phonics! Yikes, that will be interesting.
Anyways, next week is Thanksgiving!! That's crazy and really makes me crave mashed potatoes and gravy. Ha, and some cherry pie on the side with a dash of vanilla ice cream would truly be splendid!

Poop

So tomorrow I have another unit test in my Chinese comprehensive class. That means I have a lot of flashcards to go through! We learn a lot of new vocab every week and sometimes it's hard to keep up. But so many of the international students don't even care and just skip classes and never do the homework. There have already been three students who have been kicked out of all the classes for not coming for over a third of the classes already. I just don't understand if you are paying to study abroad that you wouldn't actually have interest in what you are coming for. Many of the international students are only interested in learning Chinese on the streets and don't care to read or right the characters. I mean, it's not the funnest thing to do and it's challenging, but it also has meaning and it expands you're ability to use Chinese in the future. Well, whatever. Not my problem.
Sense of time has been frustrating me lately. Just the fact that I like to be punctual and for the most part on time for whatever. But that definitely does not apply to everyone and can really waste a lot of time in a person's day. Words can also have very different meanings when moving from one culture to another. For example, if you say you are going to be there soon, it translates into at a least an hour and a half later. And when you say you are coming, that translates into 30 minutes minimum. It's really quite frustrating because then you have to reset a watch in your mind to try and predict and re-plan the time you will ask someone to meet you. But punctuality is really not a word in some people's vocab. I just don't know how I would get through a day when I knew I was making people constantly wait for me. I would at least feel a slight sense of apology.

Sarah's Trip

So let's start from the beginning. I left for the Shanghai PuDong International airport around 11am last Friday from a travel agency. The bus took me directly to the airport. I was so anxious for Sarah to arrive that I became very impatient as I stood at the entrance of the international arrivals. When I finally saw her a huge hug because I was so happy to finally see someone from home! She looked exhausted as I did when I walked off the 13hr plane ride. And we were off to Hyatt number one...
The hotel was beautiful and Sarah had a room on the 28th floor that overlooked the Bund. It was so amazing at night with all the buildings' lights. I really enjoyed our stay in Shanghai as it consisted of a personal tour and a champagne brunch. We also spent an afternoon at the spa where we got full-body massages and free time in the hot tub and steam room. It was rejuviating and relaxing. Shanghai is definitely a modern version of China so Sarah did not quite get an accurate view of how the Chinese leave. I left that opportunity of experience for Hangzhou!
Well after a scary and confusing night in Hangzhou four nights later, Sarah and I are back at another Hyatt hotel. This one overlooks the West Lake, which is another beautiful attraction in China. We got a chance to check out a tea museum and take a paddle boat ride around a section of West Lake. Sarah stayed in Shanghai for three nights and Hangzhou for three nights. And now she is enjoying her last few days back in Shanghai at the third Hyatt of her trip. She will return back to the states this Saturday. I hope she enjoyed her stay, as I very much loved having her come here. It meant a lot to have a close family member come across the world to visit! And I know it wasn't easy.
Now it's time to crack down and prepare myself for the three midterms I have coming up in less than two weeks!!! I am scared and hope my cramming study habits will work this one last time, haha. Let me tell you, green tea is going to get my through the cold weather and save my voice! I bought a small teapot strainer at the tea museum that is quite handy. I really love tea and having China's loose leaf tea most definitely puts Lipton and Arizona tea to shame! Time is flying and already over half way done! Where has the first month and a half gone? I have no idea. But I know I am loving every minute of it here and hope to be able to readjust to American lifestyle when I return home.
Miss you all and have a great Thanksgiving!!!
Peace