THE POLITICS OF BODILY DISABILITY

• Hennie Viviers University of Johannesburg

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7833/90-0-1068

Abstract

Our bodies determine our social selves, our social location. We in turn are determined by the constructed ideal or regulatory body, symbolizing society’s ultimate values. It emerges from culture and in turn shapes and regulates the culture that gave it its life. It often inhabits the (perfect) gods of society, ancient and modern, and rules supreme, often to the point of tyranny as it vehemently upholds the cherished fabric of society. If a society cherishes body wholeness then the unwhole or disabled will be of almost no serious concern. This is true of ancient societies where people with disabilities were outcast. Modern societies with their focus on human rights are more humane and try to integrate the disabled into ordinary mainstream life. But even here the notion of the “normal” regulatory body stigmatizes the “abnormal,” the disabled, so that their acceptance is constantly characterized by struggle. This kind of regulatory body needs to be deconstructed and replaced by a new and more inclusive symbol of bodiliness, the last which should at least resemble that all people are only temporarily abled.