Disability Through History

First writing assignment

The state of society has subjugated what is natural and normal as ways of establishing the universal, unquestionable good and right. They have also been the way to justify the denial of legitimacy and certain rights to individuals or groups. Through the reading Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History by Douglas C. Baynton, Three Generations No Imbiciles by Paul A. Lombardo, and The Disability Studies Reader by Lennard J. Davis I will discuss the origins of the ideas and discrimination of society upon groups or individuals with what is or what is perceived to be a disability, how ideals and perceptions have evolved overtime, and how people with disabilities conform into society today.

To pinpoint the origins of discrimination against people with disabilities would have to be when discrimination had originated itself. It dates back to when disabilities were subjugated by the economy. Distant ancestors lived in harsh environments that humanity generated only by the survival of the fittest, and those who did not sustain the ability to “keep up” were distanced and discriminated against. In ancient Greece, Spartans placed importance on removing disabled infants from their society. They were viewed as incapable of succeeding in battle and were subsequently terminated. Different fallacies were produced overtime of abilities of disabled people. If a woman was to give birth to a disabled child she was identified as having intercourse with Satan and the children were seen as “changelings”, the Devil’s substitute for normal children. As humanity progressed through the development of agriculture people with disabilities were sustaining within society, but still seen as abnormal or unnatural.

Societies have ideals of natural and normal, as being what is accepted into a culture and anything that is outside the realm of the notional of natural or normal was to be discriminated against. The most important part of this philosophy is that natural was seen as a divinity from a power of God, but normal was an empirical and dynamic concept base on person/ society’s own beliefs. The ideals from the early twentieth century, according to Bayton, are that the counterpart to the natural was the monstrous, and the opposite of normal is defective. The concept of moving from natural to normal ascended the ideals of a God-centered world to a human-centered world. By the mid-nineteenth century the concept of normality was connected to the notion of human progress. If a person was abnormal they were viewed as a laggard or throwbacks. This then tied into the concept of the white-races being superior as they were “normal” compared to those who were not. Physical or mental illnesses were seen as instances of atavism, though in these times society tried to help the abnormal people and tried to advance them into this forward progression of humanity. Deaf