For as long as I can remember, my interests outside of school were sparked by frustration. Thankfully (or not, depending on who you ask), these interests were fostered and allowed to flourish by my parents. My household was fairly progressive for the early 2000’s. My mom was the primary breadwinner, and my dad was a stay-at-home dad. Even to this day, my parents don’t necessarily participate in the typical gender roles. This I believe has been the driving force behind my feminist mindset. As a young girl, I was inspired by my mom and her work ethic, so I looked for more powerful women that I could learn from. At around 9 years old, I became infatuated with Rachel Carson. She is not the typical feminist icon, but I could not help but to aspire to be someone like her. She was a woman who was interested in science, who was not afraid of what others thought or said about her; she stood up for what she believed in, and was ultimately right in the end, despite harsh criticism.
After learning about Rachel Carson, my parents encouraged me to read Silent Spring. Little did I know, this book would spark my interest in public health. The focus of Rachel Carson’s research revolved around environmental contaminants, such as DDT, and their potential impact on human health. As I got older, I continued become interested in public health issues. My mom began working for a major vaccine manufacturer during the Anti-Vaxxer heyday. Frustrated is not a strong enough word for what I felt when I heard about the movement. When my mom introduced me to two moms who had lost babies to pertussis, I knew that I had to do something. Their babies were too young to receive the vaccination, so they were likely given the illness by someone older who had not received the vaccine or booster. Hearing the stories of what their families went through was heartbreaking. The trips to the NICU, the distinct coughs, the blue skin when their baby could not get enough oxygen, their stories were different but also the same. I realized that these two women represented just a small fraction of those with similar stories, that likely could have been avoided all together.
The next event that acted as a catalyst for hours of learning, numerous books, and eventually my major in college, was the Affordable Care Act. The legal process of trying to get the bill passed was fascinating to me. The government has long tried to address the issues of access to care and cost of care, and despite many efforts we are still dealing with these issues today. People in minority populations face even more difficulty gaining access to affordable and quality care. Learning about this fired up my feminist side; ever since, I have been taking notice of the injustices that seem to apply specifically to women’s health.
I am passionate about a lot of issues; however, I always seem to find a way to relate them back to health. It does not take a lot for me to become intrigued enough to do more research, however it usually starts with me getting angry. I hope that I can turn this anger and frustration into positive motivation for change.
3 thoughts on “Frustrated Learner”
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Great narrative of how you developed interests in feminism and public health: from Rachel Carson, to vaccine complications, to health care access. Lots of directions you could go that could tie both feminism and public health together, or something more intersectional even, to include dynamics of poverty, race, citizenship status, sexual orientation, age. Can really broaden or narrow, and either way could be plenty to work with. Things you could do are focus on education, on policy change, on medical professional community outreach. What are some interesting possibilities to focus on within the Western Pennsylvania area or beyond?
Looking forward to seeing it develop!
I really appreciated the line at the very end of your narrative in which you said, “It does not take a lot for me to become intrigued enough to do more research, however it usually starts with me getting angry.” I am the same way. It seems as though one of the most common narratives in society as we know it today is the discouragement of acting out of anger. I find this particular way of thinking interesting (as well as unfounded) because history is not on its side. History tells us that most movements for change begin out of anger.
Your description of your experience with the “Anti-Vaxxer heyday,” as you call it, is, I think, a prime example of precisely why anger as the driving force for a movement should not be looked down upon. In a case such as the Anti-Vaxxer heyday, anger, for me at least, is the most logical reaction that the families of the babies lost to infection, as well as we as a people striving towards a better society, would have. Mostly because if it wasn’t for parents refusing to have their children vaccinated because of some misinformation spread around on the internet, the deaths of those babies could have been 100% preventable. Thus, a movement to make sure that parents are truly educated about vaccinations, that they realize the effects of not vaccinating their kids on society as a whole, is logical.
I can relate to your frustration fueled research especially regarding the Anti vacc movement. I come from a very conservative family. My mom tends to follow the crowd while my dad plays devils advocate in conversation without ever coming to action. Thus, instead of encouraging my fire, my family fueled it. I think the part of your post that I’m most intrigued in is your connection between public health and feminism. While I had never really thought of the two before, after you mention it, I definitely see that there’s a very relevant connection. I would be interested to throw LGBTQ* health issues into the mix and see how cohesive all these topics could as one.
Obviously, as Dan said, there are a lot of directions that you could go in and I am very interested to see which you choose or how you intersect some or all of them. I have some experience and stories regarding LGBTQ* public health especially regarding education and medical professional community outreach if you are interested in talking!
One of the things I love about public health is the relevance of education. It makes it a little bit easier to believe in your own ability to make a change because at the end of the day, everyone has more or less the same goal (to be healthy). Thus, it is easier to persuade people, and the effective dissemination of information can be tremendously impactful.