Many feminists are critical of the practices and institutions that medicalize people's lives, especially the lives of women and other members of marginalized groups. I argue that this critique does not necessarily imply a rejection of medicine. I give a brief analysis of the concept of medicalization that supports the view that one can desire medicine without desiring medicalization. I then dis...

In recent decades the practice of female "circumcision" has come under intense international scrutiny, often conceptualized as a violation of women's basic right to health. Although the adverse health consequences of female "circumcision" form the basis of opposition to the practice, anti-circumcision activists, as well as many international medical associations, largely oppose measures to impr...

This article discusses the medicalization of education and its principal characteristics, arguing that medicalization can no longer be understood as being strictly connected to medical imperialism. Other “drivers” of medicalization have become increasingly influential: consumers, economic forces, biotechnology and managed care. The article investigates the close connection between medicalizatio...

The theory of social diagnosis recognizes two principles: 1) extra-medical social structures frame diagnosis; and 2) myriad social actors, in addition to clinicians, contribute to diagnostic labels and processes. The relationship between social diagnosis and (de)medicalization remains undertheorized, however, because social diagnosis does not account for how social actors can also resist the pa...

This article examines the medicalization of deviance through a sociological lens. A definition of deviance is offered in terms of behavioral conduct, and indicates potential reasons individuals behave in a deviant manner. Next, a description of the medicalization of deviance is offered that describes ways deviant behaviors have been re-categorized as medical conditions that can be treated throu...