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https://msteenhagen.medium.com/loathe-fascism-then-dont-be-a-health-supremacist-c8841acdf69>
"Health supremacism is an ideology. Supremacist thinking always starts with an
imaginary division of the world into supposedly ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’
people. Health supremacism is the idea that someone who is deemed ‘healthy’ is
superior to someone who has some form of impairment to their health; any form
of perceived illness or presumed health impairment — on this line of thinking —
makes you a categorically ‘inferior’ person. Health supremacism says that those
who are healthy have a natural privilege to dominate others in society.
At the heart of health supremacism is a piece of fantasy: that there is such a
thing as a ‘naturally healthy’ person who is not and cannot get seriously ill
or disabled. This is a fantasy, because it is simply not true. Health is one of
the most contingent facts about us human beings. Every one of us is always one
infection or accident away from acquiring an illness or disability.
To say that all health is fragile is not to deny that there are structural
inequalities in health outcomes: if you cannot afford food, or live in an area
with significant air pollution, this is bound to have an impact on your health.
Structural inequalities leading to different health outcomes are precisely a
reason not to essentialise health status. Yet essentialism about health is
precisely what health supremacism demands. It is health supremacy’s backbone
fantasy. And health supremacists do whatever they can to actively uphold and
perform this fantasy.
The ploy is to imagine health as revealing something deep and essential about a
person. Instead of acknowledging that health and illness can technically befall
anyone, health supremacism imagines good health to be an inherent, natural
trait of some persons (but not others). Self-proclaimed health status starts to
become part of individual identity. This conception of health as an essential
feature of some (but not others) lays the foundation for a worldview in which a
specific group — the self-professed ‘naturally healthy’ ones — is naturally
superior to others."
Via Muse.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
