Geography

Title: Geography
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Thesis statement
Chandra Mohanty argues that common stereotypes tend to position third world women as undifferentiated and in need of help from western feminists. Therefore this paper is going to bring out the implications these stereotypes have for global health. The main focus will be on the way health issues are framed and intervention issues are designed.
Introduction
American women have historically struggled against various paradigms of inferiority that all other women in the world experience. The female identity has been perceived differently according to various cultures and customs. However, majority of the cultures are based on patriarchal past where men were viewed to be more powerful than women. Women all over the world experience discrimination in the form of education, jobs, sexuality and reproductive choice. American women have fought for their rights thus making them to own businesses, hold political offices and have reproductive and social rights to abortion, divorce and birth control unlike women in the third world countries. In addition to that, they can wear what they choose and laws have been provided to protect them from sexual assault and physical abuse. Media always portrays women as sexual objects even though they hold powerful positions and play important roles in the society.
Stereotypes are an effective and quick way to identify observable attributes of few representatives of a group (Dixon, 2009). Individuals may hear second hand information and apply these characteristics collectively to the whole population. These results about a view of the group that makes them seem overwhelming and less threatening. The use of stereotype allows individuals to feel more powerful and comfortable. It`s often difficult to understand the values, traditions, background and the essence of a person thus making it is easier to use limited knowledge to apply labels and generalize. Labels are biased and prejudiced yet they are acknowledged as stereotypes for cultures. Examples of these exist among the Native Americans or Americans and also some minor cultures such as women, liberals, conservatives, religion and police officers.(Dahlson,1993). Negative stereotyping has led to the development of rules and laws that benefits some people, punish or exclude others.
Implications that stereotype has on global health
Gender bias occurs in the treatment of psychological disorders as doctors tend to diagnose depression more in women compared to men. Gender differences exist when seeking help for psychological disorders as women are more likely to seek assistance from and disclose their mental health problems to primary health care physicians unlike men who seek specialist mental health care and principal users of inpatient care. However, it has been established that gender stereotypes regarding tendencies of women having emotional problems and alcohol problems in men, have appeared to reinforce stigma and constraint in terms of seeking help along stereotype line. The two problems above, have often presented a barrier to accurate recognition and treatment of psychological disorders. Mental problems that are violent oriented are often poorly identified since women are very reluctant to disclose their history of violent victimization unless asked directly by their physicians. Statistics carried out by World Health Organization show that up to 20% of the women attending primary health care in developing countries suffer from depressive disorders or anxiety. In most of the health centers, these patients are never recognized therefore they are not offered with the necessary treatment. In addition to that, communication between the health workers and women patients is authoritarian in many of the developing countries thus making a woman`s disclosure of emotional and psychological distress extremely difficult and stigmatizing. When women decide to disclose their problems for purposes of getting treatment, majority of the health workers tend to express gender bias which eventually leads them to either over-treat or under-treat women. The general public not only disapproves people with mental illness and physical disabilities, but also those with infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and leprosy thus impacting negatively on their health.
Stereotypes about gay men include beliefs that they exhibit mental health traits that are more characteristic of women than men. Comparisons that have been made among the stereotypes about heterosexual women, gay men and lesbians have suggested that the stereotype that exists about gay men partially overlaps with that of heterosexual women and lesbians. The mental health stereotype about gay men has been relevant to both the clinical and social psychology research literature. In relation to clinical psychology; it has been argued that lack of adequate information about gays and lesbians has been a hindrance to effective and efficient therapy with gay men. It has also been established that stereotypes about homosexuality and bisexuality has influenced clinicians` judgment about their clients. Gay men`s mental health has also been given relevance as evidenced from the recent increase in legislations that have focused on limiting or developing their rights. These types of legislations have both positive and negative relationship in respect with the rates of mental disorders in gay, lesbians and bisexual populations. Research on the stereotype about gay has been stimulated by the evolving cultural changes in accepting homosexuality. Studies carried out in the 1960s and 1970s indicated that individuals perceived gay as mentally or distorted illness. Some authors illustrate that people do not view stereotyped groups to be the same rather they fall into different stereotyped categories such as feminine, cross-dressing, closeted, activists and flamboyant.
According to Gordon et.al (2001), the public associates certain mental and physical health problems with specific populations sometimes mistakenly. According to the views of community-residing adults, physicians and undergraduate students, they believed that heart disease is stereotyped as males` health problem. However, American Heart Association (2001) points out that, cardiovascular disease was the main cause of mortality of the women who died in 1998. Similarly, they attribute...