Page 180 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

164 Bodies and Things

material lives is far more pervasive than the codes and conventions of
appearance and attractiveness. The medical care of the body is cultural as

well, and when the swine flu erupted in Mexico in the spring of 2009,
culture played a role in making the attack more deadly than it had to be.
Nearly a hundred people – many more women than men – died because
the culture of sickness and medicine in Mexico, especially amongst the
poor, is such that people go to doctors only when illness becomes very
grave. Up to that point, they prefer to medicate themselves using folk
medicines that are sold without prescription. As a result of beliefs that
people absorb from the culture around them, many more people sought

treatment for the flu too late for it to be effective. And many more died as
a result than had to.
Culture affects the treatment of severe illness even when one enters the
professional medical community; it is not only poor people who allow cul-
tural attitudes to affect how they behave. When doctors in America treat
patients with severe illness, the culture of health care in the US, which is

private and profit driven, means that doctors must train patients with severe
trauma from car accidents or gunshots (themselves, of course, culturally
influenced events) much more quickly than doctors in social welfare coun-

tries in Europe such as Denmark. In those countries, government - sponsored
healthcare means that patients are allowed to spend much longer in treat-
ment. American doctors must encourage patients to be self - suffi cient sooner

so that they can survive on their own outside the for - profit system that tries
to minimize the amount of time they spend in expensive hospitals. As a
result, when conducting swallowing therapy, for example, with patients
who need to relearn elementary bodily activities after traumatic injuries,
American doctors use spoken instructions and do not touch or assist the
patients with their hands (which might prolong dependency and delay
independence). European doctors, in contrast, are more likely to use their
hands to assist the patient, since it does not matter how long the patient
takes to learn to survive alone. The government sponsored health care
system does not need to make sure only the minimum is spent to rehabilitate
the patient and does not need to instill independence as quickly so that
patients can survive on their own outside the hospital. The US culture of
healthcare is different because conservatives were more successful in the US
at preventing government - funded healthcare from coming into existence.
Such healthcare would have prevented conservatives in business from prof-
iting, through the sale of expensive health insurance, from other people ’ s
needs. The more liberal and socialist European culture of healthcare assures