Gendered bodies: A graphic medicine commentary

Area of Science:

• Graphic Medicine
• Queer Scholarship
• Gender and Health Studies

Background:

• Traditional biomedical approaches often overlook individual experiences of gender, sexuality, and health.
• There is a need for methodologies that explore complex social, ethical, and embodied narratives in health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To utilize Graphic Medicine and queer scholarship to explore gender, sexuality, and health.
• To examine how biomedical conceptualizations of gender impact individuals and healthcare experiences.
• To advocate for nuanced and curious approaches to gender, sexuality, and health in scientific research and clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• A commentary framed in comic format, employing Graphic Medicine methodologies.
• Integration of queer scholarship to inform the analysis of gender, sexuality, and health.
• Presentation of graphic narratives with hypothetical stories and cases.

Main Results:

• Comics serve as a tool for introducing complex human narratives and exploring social-contextual and ethical questions in medicine.
• The approach allows for the creation of embodied and complicated narratives about gender, sexuality, and health.
• Graphic narratives illustrate how rigid gender framings can harm individuals within healthcare systems.
• The inextricable link between gender, power, and health across the life course is examined.
• Expansive views of gender are shown to contribute to positive healthcare experiences.

Conclusions:

• Graphic Medicine and queer scholarship provide valuable frameworks for understanding individual impacts of gender and health.
• Challenging rigid biomedical conceptualizations of gender can mitigate harm and improve healthcare.
• Encouraging nuanced and curious approaches is essential for advancing research and clinical practice in gender, sexuality, and health.