Hate fascism? Then don’t be a health supremacist | Medium
▻https://msteenhagen.medium.com/loathe-fascism-then-dont-be-a-health-supremacist-c8841acdf69
Health supremacism is an ideology. Supremacist thinking always starts with an imaginary division of the world into supposedly ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’ people. Health supremacism is the idea that someone who is deemed ‘healthy’ is superior to someone who has some form of impairment to their health; any form of perceived illness or presumed health impairment — on this line of thinking — makes you a categorically ‘inferior’ person. Health supremacism says that those who are healthy have a natural privilege to dominate others in society.
At the heart of health supremacism is a piece of fantasy: that there is such a thing as a ‘naturally healthy’ person who is not and cannot get seriously ill or disabled. This is a fantasy, because it is simply not true. Health is one of the most contingent facts about us human beings. Every one of us is always one infection or accident away from acquiring an illness or disability.
To say that all health is fragile is not to deny that there are structural inequalities in health outcomes: if you cannot afford food, or live in an area with significant air pollution, this is bound to have an impact on your health. Structural inequalities leading to different health outcomes are precisely a reason not to essentialise health status. Yet essentialism about health is precisely what health supremacism demands. It is health supremacy’s backbone fantasy. And health supremacists do whatever they can to actively uphold and perform this fantasy.