A review by bookwormdaily
Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness by Deirdre English, Barbara Ehrenreich

informative medium-paced

3.0

 

for our own purposes, we must never lose sight of the fact that it is not our biology that oppresses us—but a social system based on sex and class domination.

this book is a heavy one, about the accessibility to health services, and how the medical staff and its system treat woman based on their background, race, and skin colour.
 
from beginning to end, this book compares the upper-class woman and the low (income) class woman, which side is most at risk for being sick, and who gets sick the most. how people treat these two groups differently when it comes to providing information about the sickness or getting a prescription and access to medical facilities.
 
although, this book was written in the nineties. the message that is being carried inside is still relevant to this day. we see changes but those changes are never significant.
 
I didn’t give a full rating because I felt like a few chapters were repetitive of other chapters, and it happens multiple times. it would be great if those repetitive chapters could be changed with more in-depth or real experiences from the BIPOC rep. also it sometimes irks me knowing this book was written by two white women, like I know their background and their movement, but I think this book would be more comprehensible when it also includes someone who is through that process so other people can felt more relate.
 
other than that, I love the topic of this book and how it gave me so much perspective that I can relate to.