Stigmatization And Otherness Analysis

People with a disability are in many ways othered within our society. Othering was expressed by Canales (2010) as, power within relationships for domination and subordination, with the potential consequences of being alienated, marginalized, decreased opportunities, internalized oppression, and excluded. Canales (2010) also suggested that “exclusionary othering is often influenced by the visibility of one's otherness and that these stigmatizing features that are immediately apparent, construct one's identity as other (p.19)… Their otherness is signified by their relational differences; when compared to the ‘ordinary’ and ‘natural’ attributes of persons perceived as socially acceptable (p.19)”.

The amount of people who live with disabilities is a controversial number. Depending on what law and diagnostic tools used, a person may have a visible disability, or one that may lie beneath the surface of his or her appearance. Some people believe that the term “disability” is merely a label use to hold back, or prescribe helplessness. Meanwhile, individuals who have been properly diagnosed with disabilities struggle to maintain respect and acceptance every day. In plain language, there is a lot of misunderstanding between people with disabilities and those without. It is firstly important to get everyone on the same page regarding the definition of disability.

Disability is a definition of a physical or mental condition which impacts on a person’s movements, activities and senses. People with disabilities were informed of bias and disadvantages compared to an ordinary person. There are many biases and prejudices contributed to the discrimination of individuals with a disability. Partly because of social connotations the disabled people are useless, cannot work. In fact, these extraordinary people always bring and do incredible things. They not only overcome their grim fate, but also bring good things to life, especially those who are perfectly considering better than an ordinary person, they are not aware of the capacity of individuals disabilities with them characteristics such as loyalty, dedication, and hard work.

Nancy Mairs is the author of the controversial essay On Being a Cripple. Here, she writes of her experiences dealing with the degenerative disease, Multiple Sclerosis, on a daily basis as well as her preferences on the proper terms are for what to call a person who is disabilities. Although she uses the term crippled to describe herself, she believes that no one should use it to describe another. Her argument, though it stands on unstable grounds, is effective in bringing attention in sharing one point of view of what the correct terminologies to call people with disabilities are. On Being a Cripple also has a second purpose that is raising awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. Mairs’s uses many generalizations that are overall untrue and

People who suffer from the difficulties of having a disability as well as being discriminated against may have complications managing. In daily life, individuals seek the approval, acceptance, and companionship of their peers; those with disabilities are no different in what they seek. Therefore, being out casted can have very disturbing conclusions. A woman and her daughter experienced severe brutality because of the daughter’s mental disabilities. In order to escape the cruelty the woman killed both her daughter and herself (Williams, Rachel). As if it isn’t wretched enough, others with disabilities also feel the discrimination against them, more so than other groups of society. In addition to discriminating, people do it

People who are mentally ill or disabled are often stigmatized in society and deemed of lesser value than those who are “normal,” meaning they do not have a mental illness or disability. There are only a few options for treatment within the disabled community and all of the options are unfair. They are, hospitalization to imprisonment to being homeless. These so-called treatments for those who are considered “abnormal” and “sick” dehumanize them, prevent them from making their own life decisions, devalue their quality of life, and further perpetuate stereotypes by separating the normal and abnormal people (as if they are different). In my paper, I will utilize the article “A Training Ground for Untrained Artists” by Nathaniel Richdec and a

Visible manifestations of an underlying disability may be misattributed by an observer to other causes (Santuzzi et al. 3). For instance, someone who suffers from chronic pain may not be able to do as much activity as someone who does not suffer, but when the person with chronic pain takes a break, they are labeled as “lazy” or told they are “bringing the team down.” Stigma can make those who suffer from serious invisible disabilities feel as though they are making up their own symptoms, or being a burden on those around them, and these stigmas can have serious consequences on the health of someone with an invisible disability.

Disability in a socio-cultural context can be defined as "a barrier to participation of people with impairments or chronic illnesses arising from an interaction of the impairment or illness with discriminatory attitudes, cultures, policies or institutional practices" (Booth, 2000). The traditional view of disability often focuses on the individual, highlighting incapacities or failings, a defect, or impairment. This focus creates obstacles to participation on equal terms since an individual who seems to lack certain capacities may not be able to attain autonomy.

One of the largest proponents of the mere-difference view of disability is Elizabeth Barnes. She briefly summarizes her view in four quick bullet points; firstly, that disability is similar to features like race or gender. The second being that disability is not a departure from “normal functioning”. Third, disability is a part of human diversity that has value work preserving. Finally, that most of the downsides from having a disability come from society’s treatment of disabled people. She conceded that all these are not necessary to have a mere-difference view of disability, only that one deny both a good-difference and bad-difference view of disability.

1. My associations with the word, “disability,” has always revolved around the idea of a person who has physical or mental dysfunction that may prevent them from in engaging in various physical or mental activities. Therefore, I never imagined that a person who is physically disabled would still be able to be athletic. Also, I tend to associate the term, “athlete,” with an individual who is physically capable of engaging in a sport. These associations were formed from my own lack of interactions and experiences with those who are disabled, yet still manage to be athletic. Aside from my own preconceived notions, my generalized prejudices derived from seeing how those within my family were unable to play athletic sports because of their disability. The portrayal of individuals with a disability lacking a wide range of physical movement has also reinforced my

Despite the response to disability varying greatly between times, places and cultures (Barnes, 2012), there is no doubt that disability has an immeasurable impact on people’s lives. Disability affects an individual’s identity and their ability to work, socialise and be involved in society. In this essay I will discuss how approaches to disability have changed over time, specifically how approaches to disability have developed in recent centuries. I will start by discussing the medical model before moving on to its direct challenge in the social model. Finally I will discuss responses to the social model, in particular the biopsychosocial model.

There are many words to describe individuals who are different, four of which are disorder, disability, handicap, and exceptional. Of the four, one is a label placed onto the individual by society. A handicap is a limitation imposed on a person by the environment and the person’s capacity to cope with that limitation. To combat these limitations, the barrier-free

There are many stigmas, or misconceptions and misperceptions in our society which need to be shattered. I believe that one of the worse possible effects of stigma is that it causes those affected by psychological disorders, or mental illness, to crawl more deeply into themselves because it provokes a sense of shame. Stigma thrusts those suffering with mental illness into a sense of isolation, social exclusion, and discrimination. “Stigma can lead to discrimination … It may be obvious or direct … Or it may be unintentional or subtle…” (Staff). Stigma is often as big as the illness itself and I confess to having been a perpetuator of this dreaded thing, although not consciously aware and without the intent of furthering the harm of someone.

Fortenberry et al.[165] carried out the research to examine the relationships between stigma and shame with two types of STD related care for HIV testing and gonorrhea. Their study reveals that decreased likelihood of being tested for HIV and gonorrhea due to the stigma associated with HIV and the findings are consistent with widely held assumptions about the role of stigma as a barrier to STD related care. Further stigma rather than shame is a barrier to seek STD related care and highlights the possible difficulties facing intervention strategy to improve STD related care

The labelling theory are the actions of individuals who are labelled or seen as deviant. The theorist Becker suggests labelling theories which is to look beyond by just the norm-breaking act but instead focuses on how society view people who are deemed as deviant in this case physically disabled and reactions from society whether it is good or bad. Physical disability is when a person lost full or partial loss of their bodily functions. Labelling perspective is still relevant in our society and for society to be able to look beyond the norm breaking; society needs to develop an understanding about the difference between ‘disabilities’. Stigma labels may produce the deviant behaviour that is being condemned and therefore individuals can ‘become’ the thing that they are ‘labelled’ as. ‘Stigma are bodily traits, marks or features that are in some way unusual’. Which can occur as a consequence for social rejection.