HLTA03H3 Chapter 5: Identity, Intersectionality & Health
Document Summary
Social identity & health: health is influenced by upstream factors", such as the environment, social inequalities, poverty, sexism and racism. Lifestyles and behaviors, which include smoking, driving when tired, and drug use, are also influential to health: while downstream factors", such as health care services, are important for wellbeing, they come into play when people are already unwell. On the other hand, upstream factors" prevent illness: social identity is our sense of self in relation to society as a whole and its broader social structures. Some components of social identity can include one"s gender, race, and age. People from different social backgrounds are more susceptible to the risks posed by upstream factors. Moreover, their responses and experiences vary: according to zygmunt bauman, social identity is not fixed, but a product of structures of identification. Unlike biological sex, gender has meaning beyond chromosomes.
