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Stigma & Dirt

DISABILITY & SOCIETY:Introduction to Disability Studies

Oct 9th, 2007 Week 3, Session 4

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I. Stigma & the Individual Stigma Power Stigma Management

Discreditable - information control Discredited - tension management

-(Simulations)-

II. Society & the “Other” Douglas

Concept of Dirt 5 Ways Cultures deal with “dirt”

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WHAT IS STIGMA’S PURPOSE?

Allows us to deal with: “Anticipated others with out special attention or thought.” (Who’s “IN”/Who’s “OUT”)

Helps Categorize & Manage Multiple Stimuli

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Questions??

Does Human Society always requires an “Other”?

How Is the “Other” Determined?

How Can “Othering” be Challenged?

How is being a DP Different from Other Minority Groups?

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WHERE / HOW DOES STIGMA GET IT’S POWER?

Acceptance of the Devalued State

= SHAME

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Goffman: Stigma Management

Discreditable: information control- ("to tell or not to tell, ….to lie or not to lie,

…. to whom, when and where." )

Discredited: tension management – (attempts to control awkward, difficult or

hostile interactions with "the normals.")

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Discreditable (Management of Information)

Passing: Objective: minimize detection or

disclosure (FDR) 1. Conceal stigma symbols2. Play down the defect3. Distancing (social, physical, emotional)

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Discredited (Management of Tension)

Covering

1. Use of devices to cover the stigma- Surgery (Only results in Record of

Correcting) 2. Engage in activities from which normally be

disqualified- Being President; One handed baseball

player

Aggressiveness / Deviance

1. “The dramatically presented preposterous explanation”

2. “The attack.”

9The International Center for Limb Lengthening, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore

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Other Responses to Stigma

Attempt to Directly Correct 1. Overcoming:

Celebrated in Modern Culture

2. Victimization: Learned Helplessness

3. Avoidence: Isolation / Passing Hypervigilance; “The Stare”

4. Re-assessment: Limitations of “normals” Disability Pride; Deaf Culture

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Gill: Differences from Other Minority Groups

1. Public perceptions of Disabled People- a confusing mix of conflicting emotions

Fear, Pity, Charity, Disgust

2. Stigma can be superficially linked to impairments

3. Lack of “Safe Havens“

4. Socialized as “normal”Gill, “Divided Understandings,” Handbook of Disability Studies, Albretch, et al

2000

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What is Stigmatized

=Reflection of Society

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EXAMPLES

What is stigmatized now that was not 60 years ago?

What was stigmatized 60 years ago that is not now?

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Stigma

Can be a very rapid process: Japanese Americans

Destigmatizing: Usually a gradual process taking years / decades

Our Culture Reinforces Stigma through it’s Obsession with Rank Orderings

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II. Society & the “Other” Douglas

Concept of Dirt 5 Ways Cultures deal with “dirt”

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Douglas 1966Concept of Dirt / “Matter out of

Place.”How Societies Groups or Deals withAmbiguous Margins.

Dirt is an Anomaly - A Discordant

ElementElementPurity & Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (1966)

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Douglas

Argues that ambiguity proves difficult: Culture involves classification,

dirt is disorder, = breakdown of classification, boundaries are

ambiguous or confused.

There no absolute form of dirt

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Douglas5 Ways Cultures deal with “dirt”:

1. Reduce Ambiguity (Fuzziness of Otherness) by Creating dichotomies.

2. Elimination. 3. Avoidance 4. Label as dangerous. 5. Incorporating into ritual.

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1. Reduce AmbiguityCreate Dichotomies:

Disabled / Non-Disabled;

Gay / StraightChild / AdultMale / Female

That which Defies ClassificationEspecially Troublesome to Society:Transvestites, Mulattos, Part Timers, Intersex, Passers, Multiple Impairments

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2. Elimination

EugenicsHolocaustWarPrenatal TestingHuman Genome ProjectDeath Penalty

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3. Avoidance OR Strengthen dirty status:

Ugly LawsNot-In-My-Neighborhood Special EducationSuburban FlightPrisonsAsylums

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4. Label as Dangerous

Bodies / Minds Out of Control

EpilepsyHallucinations

Disturb the complex web of subtle exchanges

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5. Incorporate

Into Ritual

Special Olympics

Charity / Telethons

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Disability Models

It May Help to Think of Them as a

VIEWPOINTOrUNDERSTANDING

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ClareThe mountain as metaphor looms large in the lives of marginalized people, people

whose bones get crushed in the grind of capitalism,patriarchy, white supremacy. How many of us have struggled up the mountain, measured ourselves against it, failed up there, lived in its shadow? We've hit our heads on glass ceilings, tried to climb the class ladder, lost fights against assimilation, scrambled toward that phantom called normality. We hear from the summit that the world is grand from up there, that we live down here at the bottom because we are lazy, stupid, weali, and ugly. We decide to climb that mountain, or male a pact that our children will climb it. The climbing turns out to be unimaginably difficult. We are afraid; evely time we look ahead we can find nothing remotely familiar or comfortable. We lose the trail. Our wheelchairs get stuclc We speak the wrong languages with the wrong accents, wear the wrong clothes, carry our bodies the wrong ways, ask the wrong questions, love the wrong people. And it's goddamn lonely up there on the mountain. We decide to stop climbing and build a new house right where we are.Or we decide to climb back down to the people we love, where the food, the clothes, the dirt, the sidewalk, the steaming asphalt under our feet, our crutches, all feel right. Or we find the path again,decide to continue climbing only to have the very people who told us how wonderful life is at the summit booby-trap the trail. They bum the bridge over the impassable canyon. They redraw our topomaps so that we end up walling in circles. They send their goons-those working-class and poor people they employ as their official brutes-to push us over the edge. Maybe we get to the summit, but probably not. And the price we pay is huge.

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Clare

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3 Examples

“Consider a mother who calls for an appointment for her 14-year-old son with CP. She leaves the following message on your phone: "Hi. I'd like to make an appointment for my son, who's 14. His father and I have some concerns about him, and the school counselor suggested we see a therapist."

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EXAMPLE 1

"My son has left hemiplegia, but he looks mostly normal. He has a slight limp on one side and one hand doesn't work as well as the other. But he does all right. We thought he should be seen because, now that he's older, he doesn't seem as mature as his peers. He makes jokes that seem very young, and I don't want him acting like the class clown. I think his peers just tolerate him, but he doesn't really have any friends."

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EXAMPLE 2

"My son has CP from a birthing accident. I was bleeding badly, and losing a lot of blood. In trying to save me there probably was a time that the baby suffered and didn't get enough oxygen. But we thought he was going to be okay. Then, when he was about 6 months old, he still couldn't sit up, and I knew something was wrong. When the doctor told me it was probably CP I just knew it. God saved my life that day, but at a price. My son is suffering because of something I did."

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EXAMPLE 3

"My son has CP. We've tried to help him learn how tolive with it, but it's been hard. We don't really know

other parents in this situation, and my son doesn't know other kids with disabilities. This year more than before we're seeing that his behavior is out of synch with that of his age group, and we're afraid that he's going to be more rejected by his peers. We know he's never going to be like them, and we want to help him find a group where he'll fit in. We hate to see him so lonely; the phone never rings for him."

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Our Guests?

What Model(s)/View(s)/Understanding were they using to explain Mental Disorders?

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