We often forget as humans that we are part of nature and not separate from it. We are co-creators. Unfortunately our methods in most disciplines, including medicine, work against laws or patterns nature put in place before we arrived. This is perhaps the problem with an authoritarian mindset it that they think they're above a chaotic nature and somehow they think they can bring order to it, or at least contain it amongst themselves.
This view originates from the dawn of the agricultural. Originally humans were hunger-gatherers in small tribes. These societies were egalitarian. They had to respect each other and get along because they depended on each other to survive. There was no ownership. How could somebody claim the air they breathe and the water they drink. They are only gifts that we borrow. Water, air and even the molecules of your own body eventually return to the nature from which they came.
At some point, people could not rely on nature to provide food for them due to changing climate and migrating herds. Nature was seen as chaotic and so humans decided they needed to establish order and control it through farming. Soon after, farmers became attached to their work and thought they owned the land. They less often depended immediately on their community, just themselves. They forgot how to share and care for others. Their neighbors who may not have had a good growing season, don't deserve the harvest they worked hard for, and even if they did, their family was their priority. And so grew the seeds of selfishness. If their neighbors did encroach on their land, they'd wage war to protect what they needed to survive. They no longer understood how tribes could trust nature and put their lives in its shaky hands.
The fact that the white folk believed they held authority over blacks is fitting when you consider that Caucasians descended from agrarians and Africans descended from hunter-gatherers. Not only were genes past down, but also a mindset, worldview, philosophy. Surely, African Americans could not feed themselves if it weren't for the wisdom of their owner.
No one can defy nature. As Foucault suggested, the body is a social entity as much as or more than a biological one. We are psycho/social-biochemical machines which means our genes and neural constructs only allow for certain responses to certain outside stimuli. By saying this, I am admitting to a predestined/deterministic view. Because of this understanding, no matter how Sims intervened or current medicine intervenes, it is simply nature taking its course. Although where this course leads is unknown, predestination does not mean that it is entirely tragic, as is associated with the term fatalism.
Has the medicalization of females bodies been beneficial? No. It is not because we're trying to outrun the inevitable, but rather because the intentions of medical "authorities" to make a profit or be written in the history books rather than wanting to sincerely help patients. Take a look at birth control and some of the comments at the bottom.
http://bodyecology.com/articles/dangers_birth_control_pill.php
~ John
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