The following text was shared with us by a friend of The A Project regarding her experience with a famous doctor in Lebanon recently:

 

I do not know how this doctor just allowed himself to make a medical diagnosis of my body shape and size. I am not his patient. I did not ask for his “medical opinion”. He just looked me in the eyes and told me that I am an “Obese Type I”, and that I need to do something before I become like my mother, who is diagnosed as morbidly obese.



Obese type I is the medical diagnosis I just received based on only what my body looks like by Dr. A.



Please, allow me to introduce Dr. A.* (* Read as “Asshole” due to the quality of the content he generates). Dr. A. feeds on women’s insecurities. He is now trending in that domain on TV shows, Facebook pages, and in every gossip conversation. Everyone is speaking of his heroic “bariatric surgeries”. He is the miracle maker. Under his blessed hands, fat and ugly women become thin and sexy.



This piece of shit gives himself the right to insult and shame his patients for not abiding by the strict diets he orders them to follow. He guilts his patients, mostly females, for causing harm to their bodies, blaming them for their diseases and looks.



Today, he told my mother, who he operated on, that her liver looks gross because she was not following the diet he instructed.  He usually cuts thick stomachs, he told her, but this is the thickest he had ever cut! What a thick and big stomach she has! His mission was accomplished since she was ashamed of her “wrong doing to her body”.



The most alarming thing is that he has this authority and this influence, and my mother ended up feeling so ashamed that she could not tell any of her family members or friends what he had told her about the surgery. Instead, she lied and told them that she was not losing weight no matter how strict her diet is because she has a thick stomach wall, calling a disease.



Today, a 24 year old patient of his told us that he operates on many young “chubby” women. He is that successful in reinforcing body weight standards on his female patients. He exerts this manipulative power to increase his patients and operate on more women. More surgeries and profit for him, all thanks to his feeding on their insecurities from his place of power and authority. It always sickens me knowing that this industry is run by condescending male doctors medicalizing women’s bodies to control them.



I tried to defend myself and other women today. I tried to look strong but I am not. He made his point and he hurt me, and I could not protect myself from that.

 

We realize that medical patriarchy is a prevalent issue that is not limited to single incidents here and there. Our blog welcomes your experiences with the frustrations that come with dealing with medical and psychiatrist doctors on a daily basis. Please feel free to share those experiences with us anonymously or under your name by emailing us at mashroualef@gmail.com

If you just want to talk about it and think out loud, theres always the Sexuality Hotline.