Sick Woman Theory Summary

Clarita Carlos

Dr. S Kafai

EWS 441

May 31, 2016

Sick Woman Theory

Sick Woman refers to any person who is subjugated or oppressed by the capitalist system. Johanna Hedva’s article Sick Woman Theory, concentrates on the marginalized people, suffering from chronic or mental illness, asking for a change on both social and political relations. “Sick Woman Theory” states that the idea of wellness and of being normal is a capitalist idea, being well means being able to go to work, and must be rejected. The way the patriarchal system has set the standards is for anyone not meeting the social norm not to be capable of survival. If a disability holds someone captive in their own body and unable to actively protest, then they must find an alternative

Hedva states that "the body and mind are sensitive and reactive to regimes of oppression" (2015), where oppression definined wellness as the ability to contribute to the economy and the interests of wealthy, white, cisgender, heterosexual men. In a patriarchal system anyone that does not fit the social norm are seen as “rejects” and if the system is not able to “fix” them are seen as disposable. Hedva quotes, "Psychologists have constructed a myth… that somewhere there exists some state of health which is the norm, meaning that most people presumably are in that state, and those who are anxious, depressed, neurotic, distressed, or generally unhappy are deviant." (2015) To be healthy is to be white and

The sickness is not something that affects the human body but it is the poverty, violence, unaffordable healthcare, housing crises, food scarcity, and health stigma that has become normal in society. By placing a high value on health and healthcare, the patriarchal society we live in has been able to set a value on people. Thus those which are considered inferior to begin with, such as racial minorities, women or queer people, have a bigger disadvantage. The persons worth is then measured in the ability to sell labor, mediated by identity, and defines our access to the basic needs of life, those who are sick are seen as expendable in exchange of the interest of those who are "well". Hedva states, "To stay alive, capitalism cannot be responsible for our care… its logic of exploitation requires that some of us die” (2015).

Thus, Sick Woman Theory is born: "Sick Woman Theory is an insistence that most modes of political protest are internalized, lived, embodied, suffering, and no doubt invisible. Sick Woman Theory redefines existence in a body as something that is primarily and always vulnerable”