The Myth of Bodily Perfection

The paper identifies the myth of bodily perfection as one that permeates the dominant culture of late 20th century Western civilization, and points to ways in which the myth supports the creation of an illusory category of people called 'the disabled'. Grounded in an understanding of disab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDisability & society Vol. 10; no. 4; pp. 413 - 424
Main Author STONE, SHARON DALE
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon, UK Taylor & Francis Group 01.12.1995
Carfax Pub. Co
Subjects
Biological and medical sciences
Disability
Factors
Females
Handicapped
Human Body
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Myths
Perceptions
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Social Constructionism
Visibility
Human
Handicap
Social representation
Experience
Woman
Body schema
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Summary:The paper identifies the myth of bodily perfection as one that permeates the dominant culture of late 20th century Western civilization, and points to ways in which the myth supports the creation of an illusory category of people called 'the disabled'. Grounded in an understanding of disability as socially constructed, and drawing on the experiences of women with disabilities, the paper further points to important differences in social expectations depending on whether one has disabilities that are visible or invisible. In discussions of disability, however, disabilities that are not visible are often ignored. It is concluded that this contributes to the widespread denial of disability and is oppressive.
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ISSN:0968-7599
1360-0508
DOI:10.1080/09687599550023426