Sexist CNN Is At It Again!

Actual title of the CNN article: 5 mistakes women make at the doctor’s office. A previous CNN article was about finding a doctor like one would look for a date, 5 ways to find Dr. Right. WTF!

List of mistakes:

1. Women don’t question doctors

“Being at a doctor’s office often puts the patient in the position of ‘child’ and the doctor in a position of ‘parent,’ ” Northrup said. Northrup’s solution: “Always take someone with you who will ask the questions you are afraid to ask.”When you’re alone, Robin DiMatteo, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, has this suggestion. “Say to the doctor, ‘I realize I don’t have the medical skills that you do, but this doesn’t make sense to me logically. Can we think this through together?’”

According to CNN, the infantilisation of women is the woman’s fault. Women should take a man along with them to the doctor’s office, sort of like taking a man with you to the auto mechanic. Because doctors are not supposed to check his or her bias and sexism against women unless someone else, preferably a big strong man is there asking questions.

So if the patient is in the position of “child” and the doctor is in the position of “parent” then does that go for men as well? Are men at fault for being in the child role when they see the doctor as well?

Not only that, a doctor will tell you in a heartbeat that if the patient is over 18 then you need to STFU because it is none of your business, that talking to you can get them in trouble.

2. Women tend to over-research

According to the Pew Internet Project, women are more likely to look up health information on the Internet. In a telephone survey, 69 percent of women said they’d looked up information about a specific disease or condition, compared with 58 percent of men. Although doing your own research is a good thing, Dr.Pamela Peeke says her female patients are more likely to become overwhelmed by what they read.

I’m sorry but overwhelmed sounds a little too much like hysterical.

3. Women don’t recognize gender bias

Several studies have shown that women’s medical problems are more likely to be interpreted as emotional issues or complaining. “You should recognize that there is doctor bias,” advised Dr. Nieca Goldberg, author of “Women are Not Small Men.” “You don’t want to go to a doctor who says, ‘Now, honey, it’s not all that bad.’ “Goldberg says she remembers going to a doctor who made a remark like that. “I said, ‘I don’t think we’ll be continuing this visit,’ ” she remembered.

Really? But what about when most of society says it is perfectly okay to call women honey, or was it sweetie? So women should recognise gender bias, however, the health professionals are not under the same obligations nor are they under the obligation of removing their biases.

4. Women interpret their own symptoms

Goldberg says she’s seen this over and over again: Instead of just giving the doctor the facts, women sometimes also offer their own interpretations, which can put their own health at risk.

Again, it is the woman’s fault that the doctor went with the patient’s interpretations instead of you know, looking for facts, like blood work, urine samples, EKG results, etc.

5. The mother of all mistakes: Women don’t trust their intuition

The “mother,”—nice wording there!

When all else fails, it is the woman’s fault because she should have forced the doctor to treat her according to her own over-researched and wrongly interpreted opinion. See, if she would have trusted her instincts the doctor would have treated her properly.

Malpractice is her own damn fault.
If the doctor has a gender bias, it is her fault.
If she researches beforehand, it is her fault.
If she does not research beforehand, it is her fault.
If she is in the role of patient, it is her fault.

And don’t you just love how CNN uses female doctors to validate their sexism.