Looking beyond the pool: An intersectional feminist perspective on osteopathic education

Abstract

This paper is a critical conflict-based intersectional feminist analysis of professional training that requires students to undress and expose their bodies in order to acquire knowledge. A premise of this essay is that such training is exclusive, harmful and rooted in aesthetic values that tend to percolate osteopathic discourse in multiple ways. The dangerous side of aesthetically guided professional behaviour renders potential harm to people who sit on the margins of what is considered beautiful and normal in the Global North, subsequently contributing to the wider health inequities and social injustice. This paper proposes alternative ways of acquiring knowledge that could support the osteopathic profession and education in becoming more inclusive and socially just, by adopting intersectional feminist framework. At the core of the essay are following questions: Are there ethical costs in prioritising aesthetic and body-based values? In the age of profound socio-political conflicts, what values truly matter in osteopathy? Also, has the time finally come to leave the confines of anatomical aestheticism, and enter the anatomical realm of social justice and transformative action?