Stigma Spring 2022

  SEX AND DISABILITY Robert Murphy & Becoming Paralyzed "The lessons learned from the experience of paralysis have profound meaning for our understanding of human culture and the place of the individual within it. The relationship between society and its symbolic standards for acting and evaluating on the one hand, and the strivings and interests of ordinary people on the other are not easily adjusted to each other or mutually supportive. Rather, the individual and culture are essentially in conflict, and history, instead of being the realization of human intentions and cultural values, is commonly a contradiction of both.  T he study of paralysis is a splendid arena for viewing this struggle of the individual against society, for the disabled are not a breed apart, but a metaphor for the human condition."   (Murphy) Dispassionate Autobiography of Paralysis: Why start this way? "There is a halcyon period in the life of a middle-class American male that ...

  EVERYONE HERE SPOKE SIGN LANGUAGE Anthropology & The Disabled ·           Genetics of deafness ·           Sociolinguistics ·           Ethnography ·           oral & written history ·           ethnohistory of deafness ~traditionally, disabilities have been analyzed primarily in medical terms, or by social scientists in terms of deviance. (apart from the majority population) NOT NORMAL DEAFNESS IS: ·      socially isolating (sign language is not known by hearing) Handicap is defined by the community in which it appears. Here, deafness is NORMAL DISABLED vs HANDICAPPED? A disability may be the cause of a handicap. For example, if a person has a disability that prevents them from being able to move their legs, it may result in a ha...

  See what I'm Saying Bilingualism Using the Media DEAF STIGMA (Out-Group Alignments) Stigma Ricci To properly understand a concept, we first turn to the dictionaries, to see how that word is defined in our language, objectively, and the multiple subjective meanings it holds in our society. So far, we haven’t found a dictionary that includes a citation for “Deaf culture,” but all dictionaries have listings for “culture,” so we’re including two of them. A definition of Deaf culture is quoted from our book,  For Hearing People Only: Third Edition . Dictionary definitions of  culture From  The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition  (online version): Cul·ture ( kul 'cher) n. a.  The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. b.  These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or p...

  Deafness as Culture: A Psychosocial Perspective Megan A. Jones, Ph.D. Center on Disability Studies University of Hawaii at Manoa  Introduction The purpose of this paper is to use psychosocial theories of stigma, language and prejudice to discuss the factors that contribute to the transformation of deafness from a stigma to a cultural identity. This paper is not intended to support or deny the existence and importance of a Deaf culture. Rather, it seeks to examine the question: How does deafness, which has historically been labeled as a disability, become the basis for cultural identification? The literature on deafness as disabling, versus as signifying culture, will be summarized. Psychosocial theories about the role of stigma, language and prejudice in the formation and maintenance of personal and group identity will then be explored. These theories will be applied to the controversy on deafness as culture: the role of the stigma of disability, the use of sign-language, an...