Medicalization

Medicalization

(noun | to medicalize, verb)

Medicalization is when we take things that are a natural part of the human condition and begin defining them as medical conditions. As it relates to the Primer, it’s how our cultures have taken things like being trans or intersex or queer, and turned them into medical problems to be solved and medical mysteries to figure out. The act of medicalization separates the person from whatever has been medicalized and sets up an antagonistic relationship between them.

e.g. Trans people’s bodies are often medicalized by the healthcare community.

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