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Mar. 6th, 2011 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pktechgirlbackupLet's begin with an illustrative anecdote from a physical I had in high school. My doctor had a 100+ question checklist that included things like "Is that gum sugarless?", "Do you wear a helmet when you bike?", and "Do you ever fight with your siblings?". But here is the best one.
doctor: do you ever feel depressed or sad?
me: \ I'm 14.
doctor: so do you?
me: ...no.
And on we went.
More recent, as an adult woman I find myself in the occasional position of having to prove I'm not being abused. This was bad enough before I started sparring, and it's only going to get worse. Luckily my finger fracture was an offensive injury. I have a very large, muscular male friend who did karate with his girlfriend, and lived in fear of her getting injured in training and the cops just assuming he was at fault.
I found the whole "prove to us you're not being abused" thing insulting as a non-abuse victim (they think I'm so stupid I'd put up with that?), but I swallowed that, because I understood the goals. But the more I think about it, the more I think it's insulting to actual abuse victims as well. At this point, who doesn't know at least where to find more information on help for abuse?* Asking them is basically saying "we assume you're too stupid to get out on your own, but surely being asked about abuse as part of three dozen other questions by a doctor who isn't looking you in the eye and projects no empathy can save you. And judging from the medical questions of yours we ignored, we don't expect it to take any time either." There's an extremely narrow margin where the woman isn't ready to get herself out,** but will make good use of the resources the doctor gives her. And I doubt anyone stays there long: they'll move to save-themselves state in short order.
So in order to maybe get those few women out a tiny bit earlier, we're taking up a lot of valuable face time and insulting the other 99.9999% of patients. All because putting a question on a checklist satisfies a politicians need to do something without costing him anything. It's like the Dilbert quote on sexual harrassment: "a billion years of evolution have been corrected with a simple half hour video. Go ahead, do something sexy and watch me ignore it."
*Arguably some recent immigrants might not know. Put up a poster, we're waiting for 40 minutes anyway, it will get read.
**This is not entirely a psychological state. She may also need to do things like "secret away money" or "figure out what the hell to do with the kids" or any other of a million things the doctor cannot help with.
doctor: do you ever feel depressed or sad?
me: \ I'm 14.
doctor: so do you?
me: ...no.
And on we went.
More recent, as an adult woman I find myself in the occasional position of having to prove I'm not being abused. This was bad enough before I started sparring, and it's only going to get worse. Luckily my finger fracture was an offensive injury. I have a very large, muscular male friend who did karate with his girlfriend, and lived in fear of her getting injured in training and the cops just assuming he was at fault.
I found the whole "prove to us you're not being abused" thing insulting as a non-abuse victim (they think I'm so stupid I'd put up with that?), but I swallowed that, because I understood the goals. But the more I think about it, the more I think it's insulting to actual abuse victims as well. At this point, who doesn't know at least where to find more information on help for abuse?* Asking them is basically saying "we assume you're too stupid to get out on your own, but surely being asked about abuse as part of three dozen other questions by a doctor who isn't looking you in the eye and projects no empathy can save you. And judging from the medical questions of yours we ignored, we don't expect it to take any time either." There's an extremely narrow margin where the woman isn't ready to get herself out,** but will make good use of the resources the doctor gives her. And I doubt anyone stays there long: they'll move to save-themselves state in short order.
So in order to maybe get those few women out a tiny bit earlier, we're taking up a lot of valuable face time and insulting the other 99.9999% of patients. All because putting a question on a checklist satisfies a politicians need to do something without costing him anything. It's like the Dilbert quote on sexual harrassment: "a billion years of evolution have been corrected with a simple half hour video. Go ahead, do something sexy and watch me ignore it."
*Arguably some recent immigrants might not know. Put up a poster, we're waiting for 40 minutes anyway, it will get read.
**This is not entirely a psychological state. She may also need to do things like "secret away money" or "figure out what the hell to do with the kids" or any other of a million things the doctor cannot help with.
