Lecture 6 Mon 3/3/25: Sexual and Gender Identity in Medical Practice

Biological Reductionism

Everything about the mind can be reduced to biology

social life → sociological aspects

Impoverished Biology

Gender and Sexuality in the Medical Profession: The "Coming Out" debate

to what extent the practitioner's sexuality should count?

Hands-On Experience - Dissecting a Research Paper to Identify its Design

In this article, I focus on how the hidden curriculum of medical education works to "invisibilize" queerness in patient-provider interactions"

Hidden Curriculum =

“The the hidden curriculum, referring to the implicit, unintended transmission of cultural norms and beliefs in educational settings”.

Queerness =

(current meaning) any gendered/sexualized identity that is not perceived as mainstream

Invisibilize =

conceal or hide, consciously or unconsciousl

Studying why queerness is invisible in medical practice

[1] (= most medical doctors don't express their queer identity) and assessing if this invisibility is transmitted through the implicit aspect of medical education (= the hidden curriculum)[2] or due to other factors [3]

Why do queer doctors conceal their sexual identity?

[1] Is it because they are implicitly taught to do so in medical school

[2], and/or for other reasons?

[3] same as above

The Concordance Debate in Healthcare

Concordance in healthcare = Two meanings

1. An agreement between doctor and patient about about treatment

2. [Late meaning, emerged in the last decades in the US] A shared identity between patient and doctor (-> Identity concordance)

E.g., racial(ized) concordance, gender concordance, sexual orientation concordance, etc.

DEBATE: Pros and Cons of Identity Concordance in Healthcare

Healthcare based on we can understand others (different backgrounds

Pros of Identity Concordance in Healthcare

Increases a feeling of familiarity/relatedness between the patient and the clinician; may decrease fear of shaming/increase same-group solidarity; reinforces identity-group cohesion

Cons of Identity Concordance in Healthcare

It divides the population into pre-established identity categories (e.g., racialized, gendered, etc); it reinforces the underlying assumption that only people with the same background can understand each other; reinforces isolation across identity groups