Disability and identity: social construction of disability

Sociology: Culture & Identity

1. Disability and identity

   • The social construction of disability
     • Key term: An impairment is osme abnormal functioning of the body or mind, either that one is born with or which arises from injury or disease.
     • Key term: Disability is a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out normal day - to - day activities.
     • Impairment is some abnormal functioning of the body, which only becomes a disability when it prevents people from carrying out normal day-to-day activities. Impairment is therefore not the same as disability.
       • Study: Shakespeare (1998) suggests that disability shoudl be seen as social construstion - a problem created by the attitudes of society and not by the state of our bodies.
     • Study: Shakespeare argues that disability is created by societies that dont take into account the needs of those who do not meet with that society's ideas of what is 'normal'. The stereotype in any society of a 'normal' or acceptable body may generate a disabled identity among those with bodies that do not conform to this stereotype, particularly those with a physical impairments, even when the impairment does not cause mobility or other physical difficulties for that person.
     • Whether someone is disabled or not is then a social product - it is social attitudes which turn an impairment into a disability, as osciety discriminates againts people with impairments.
     • Study: Shakespeare agrues, 'people become disabled, not because they have physical or mental impairments, but because they have physical or mental differences from the majority, which challenge traditional ideas of what counts as 'normal'. Disability is about the relationship between people with an impairment and a society which discriminates against them'.
   • Disability, socialisation and stereotyping
     • Most of us learn about disability as part of the socialisation process, rather than as a result of personal experience. Popular view of disability, for those without direct experience, are often formed through the mass media. Media images of disability are often linked with socially unacceptable behaviours, or suggesting that we have good reasons to fear people with impairments, especially those with mental or behavioural difficulties, or who display violent or inexplicable behaviour.
     • Stereotypes of disability
       • Study: Barnes (1992) suggested stereotypes of disability, particularly those generated by the mass media, included ideas that disabled people are:
         • Dependent on others
         • Unable to contribute to society
         • non-sexual and have no sex life
         • Unable to express and speak up for themselves
         • Less than human
         • Monsters or wicked people
         • Only rarely do the media treat disability as a perfectly normal part of everyday life. Disability therefore becomes an identity becomes an identity makring people out as different from others.
   • Disability as a 'master identity'
     • A person has mulitple identities, and a disabled people may not see their impariment as the defining characteristic of their identity - they may regard themsleves, and wish others to see them, for example mainly as black, and/ or working class etc rather than disabled.
       • However, amny people with impairments may experience difficulty in asserting their own choice od identity in the face of the 'disabled' identity, based on stereotypes, that others seek to impose on them. They may find it hard to make others see the 'real me' inside the disabled person. The other dimensions of their identity, in terms of ethnicity, social class, gender, sexuality or lifestyle, for example, may be ignored once the label of 'disabled person' is applied by others. To borrow and adapt the term 'master status' from the sociology of deviance, disability might be regarded as a 'master identity' - an identity that overrides all other aspects of that person's identity, whether they want it to or not.
   • Disability - a stigmatized or spolied identity: An identity of exclusion
     • The label 'disabled' frequently carries with it a stigma arising from stereotyping, which prevents people with impairments from achieving full social acceptance. An impairment may be seen by others as involving total disablement, rather than as just one aspect, and remaining abilities may not be recognised.
     • The stigma attached to disability, leading to what Goffman called a stigmatized or spoiled social identity, means it can also become an identity of exclusion, excluding disabled people from full participation in society,as they face, for instance, unnecessary physical barriers in buildings and streets, discrimination in employment, inadequate medical care, negative portrayals in the media, and mocking, patronizing or dismissive attitudes from others. Disabled people may fail at what Goffman called 'impression management', because stereotypes of disability spoil their presentation of self, and the identity they wish to project to others through managing the impressions others have of them.