CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS AND MISCONCEPTIONS – EDUCATING THE PROFESSIONAL (CULTURAL NORMS)
The commonly held belief that Asian women are uncomfortable about touching their genitals is belied by the observation that many of them have completely shaven vulvae. Clearly with this family, knowledge about cultural norms was no help to the doctor who had to feel a careful way towards the individual wishes of each member. Nor were expectations based on lifestyle sufficient to warn the doctor about the consequences of a particular course of action in the next case.
Paula was a more typical cap-user in cultural terms; she worked in advertising and lived in an expensive city pied-a-terre with her German fiance. Her background was Irish Catholic, but this had never seemed an issue until she needed the morning-after Pill on the one occasion that she had forgotten her diaphragm. Although fully counselled, she had needed tremendous reassurance on more than one occasion that she had not induced an abortion. Her intelligence and education and modern way of life were, in this matter, overwhelmed by a cultural tradition that links the Pill with abortion and mortal sin.
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