IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v143y2015icp9-16.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Microaggressions and the reproduction of social inequalities in medical encounters in Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Smith-Oka, Vania

Abstract

This article examines the role of microaggressions in the interactions between biomedical personnel and marginalized patients to addresses the constitutive property of medical interactions and their contribution to a class-differentiated and discriminatory local social world. Based on ethnographic fieldwork over the course of three months (2008–2011) the study examined the clinical relationships between obstetric patients and clinicians in a public hospital in the city of Puebla, Mexico. It reveals four factors present in the social hierarchies in Mexico that predispose clinicians to callous interactions toward “problematic others” in society, resulting in microaggressions within clinical encounters: (a) perceptions of suitability for good motherhood; (b) moralized versions of modern motherhood inscribed on patient bodies; (c) a priori assumptions about the hypersexuality of low-income women; and (d) clinician frustration exacerbated by overwork resulting in corporeal violence. This work concludes by questioning the efforts for universal health rights that do not address underlying social and economic inequities.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith-Oka, Vania, 2015. "Microaggressions and the reproduction of social inequalities in medical encounters in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 9-16.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:143:y:2015:i:c:p:9-16
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615300915
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.039?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smith-Oka, Vania, 2012. "Bodies of risk: Constructing motherhood in a Mexican public hospital," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2275-2282.
    2. Jewkes, Rachel & Abrahams, Naeemah & Mvo, Zodumo, 1998. "Why do nurses abuse patients? Reflections from South African obstetric services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(11), pages 1781-1795, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Williams, Sarah A., 2020. "Narratives of responsibility: Maternal mortality, reproductive governance, and midwifery in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    2. James Gordon Rice & Helga Baldvins Bjargardóttir & Hanna Björg Sigurjónsdóttir, 2020. "Child Protection, Disability and Obstetric Violence: Three Case Studies from Iceland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Smith-Oka, Vania, 2022. "Cutting Women: Unnecessary cesareans as iatrogenesis and obstetric violence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    4. Gamlin, Jennie B., 2020. "“You see, we women, we can't talk, we can't have an opinion…”. The coloniality of gender and childbirth practices in Indigenous Wixárika families," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    5. Hovav, April, 2020. "Cutting out the surrogate: Caesarean sections in the Mexican surrogacy industry," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jennifer J. Infanti & Anke Zbikowski & Kumudu Wijewardene & Katarina Swahnberg, 2020. "Feasibility of Participatory Theater Workshops to Increase Staff Awareness of and Readiness to Respond to Abuse in Health Care: A Qualitative Study of a Pilot Intervention Using Forum Play among Sri L," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-14, October.
    2. Brüggemann, Jelmer & Persson, Alma & Wijma, Barbro, 2019. "Understanding and preventing situations of abuse in health care – Navigation work in a Swedish palliative care setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 52-58.
    3. Fleuriet, K. Jill & Sunil, T.S., 2015. "Reproductive habitus, psychosocial health, and birth weight variation in Mexican immigrant and Mexican American women in south Texas," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 102-109.
    4. Katarina Swahnberg & Anke Zbikowski & Kumudu Wijewardene & Agneta Josephson & Prembarsha Khadka & Dinesh Jeyakumaran & Udari Mambulage & Jennifer J. Infanti, 2019. "Can Forum Play Contribute to Counteracting Abuse in Health Care? A Pilot Intervention Study in Sri Lanka," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-10, May.
    5. Hovav, April, 2020. "Cutting out the surrogate: Caesarean sections in the Mexican surrogacy industry," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    6. Kelly, Gabrielle, 2017. "Patient agency and contested notions of disability in social assistance applications in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 109-116.
    7. Varley, Emma, 2010. "Targeted doctors, missing patients: Obstetric health services and sectarian conflict in Northern Pakistan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 61-70, January.
    8. Paula Tibandebage & Tausi Kida & Maureen Mackintosh & Joyce Ikingura, 2016. "Can managers empower nurse-midwives to improve maternal health care? A comparison of two resource-poor hospitals in Tanzania," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 379-395, October.
    9. Jaffré, Yannick & Suh, Siri, 2016. "Where the lay and the technical meet: Using an anthropology of interfaces to explain persistent reproductive health disparities in West Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 175-183.
    10. Horwood, Christiane & Voce, Anna & Vermaak, Kerry & Rollins, Nigel & Qazi, Shamim, 2010. "Routine checks for HIV in children attending primary health care facilities in South Africa: Attitudes of nurses and child caregivers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 313-320, January.
    11. Stadler, Jonathan J. & Delany, Sinead & Mntambo, Mdu, 2008. "Women's perceptions and experiences of HIV prevention trials in Soweto, South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 189-200, January.
    12. d'Alessandro, Eugénie, 2015. "Human activities and microbial geographies. An anthropological approach to the risk of infections in West African hospitals," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 64-72.
    13. Malambo, Nomthandazo, 2021. "“Not from home”: Cancer screening avoidance and the safety of distance in Eswatini," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    14. Bradley, Susan & McCourt, Christine & Rayment, Juliet & Parmar, Divya, 2016. "Disrespectful intrapartum care during facility-based delivery in sub-Saharan Africa: A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis of women's perceptions and experiences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 157-170.
    15. De Allegri, Manuela & Ridde, Valéry & Louis, Valérie R. & Sarker, Malabika & Tiendrebéogo, Justin & Yé, Maurice & Müller, Olaf & Jahn, Albrecht, 2011. "Determinants of utilisation of maternal care services after the reduction of user fees: A case study from rural Burkina Faso," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 210-218, March.
    16. Zubia Mumtaz & Adrienne V Levay & Afshan Bhatti, 2015. "Successful Community Midwives in Pakistan: An Asset-Based Approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-12, September.
    17. Ouedraogo, Ramatou & Juma, Kenneth, 2020. "From the shadows to light. Perceptions of women and healthcare providers of post-abortion care in Burkina Faso," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    18. Pourette, Dolorès & Pierlovisi, Carole & Randriantsara, Ranjatiana & Rakotomanana, Elliot & Mattern, Chiarella, 2018. "Avoiding a "big" baby: Local perceptions and social responses toward childbirth-related complications in Menabe, Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 52-61.
    19. Lewando Hundt, Gillian & Alzaroo, Salah & Hasna, Fadia & Alsmeiran, Mohammed, 2012. "The provision of accessible, acceptable health care in rural remote areas and the right to health: Bedouin in the North East region of Jordan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 36-43.
    20. Sarah Shelmerdine, 2017. "Pathways to Inhumane Care: Masculinity and Violence in a South African Emergency Unit," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(3), pages 21582440177, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:143:y:2015:i:c:p:9-16. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.