Invisible Cities: The Arts and Renewable Community

Normal and the birth of the deviant

Normal is a relatively recent concept. The word normal, as we think of it, only entered the English language around 1840. ¹¹ It was preceded by the concept of the ideal. This Grecian concept maintained that a person could have some ideal traits, but could never be completely ideal. The only beings seen as ideal were the gods. By these standards everyone is disabled to an extent, no one is perfect. It was not until industrialization and its subsequent byproduct, statistics, that different slices of humanity (politics, health, etc.) began to be measured. The result of these measurements was the creation of the average person, and the notion of the norm, or normal, which was used to calculate and ensure steady production in industry. When measuring swathes of a population, the norm dictates that the majority of a population should fall into the middle of the bell curve and those who are outliers or "deviate" from the norm are, in the case of the disabled, labeled deviants. This idea was created and pursued in the name of efficiency, at a time when the success of industry hinged upon it. ¹²

Many of the early statisticians were eugenicists, a pseudoscience based on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. After statisticians calculated the norm, they set about working on curing, fixing and improving the outliers, those who deviate from that norm; the disabled deviants. The goal then, of the eugenicists, was to norm the outliers and create a more standardized society.

The view that with the help of the medical community a subgroup of people can move from the outskirts of a bell curve towards normalcy is referred to in disability studies as the medical model. Within this model, people who are unable to fit into the constructs of society neatly, a society largely created for the average human, need to be "fixed" in order for them to do so. It is interesting to note that the ideas of vocational rehabilitation, special education, and social welfare are based on this model. ¹³ As a special education teacher my job is to push my "deviant" students towards the center of the bell.

Within this system, the students I teach, marginalized outliers, are either made invisible by the system into which they do not fit snugly, or are illuminated and focused on, as if upon an examination table. These students are singled out and thrown into the spotlight in society's attempts to mend them. When this spotlight is thrust upon them many of the students I teach often prefer the invisibility of quietly disengaging to undergoing whatever treatment has been assigned to correct them.

Some of my students have successfully moved from special education to the general education population and have relished the notion of being out of the spotlight, singled out as inferior or abnormal. Too often, when this transition occurs the celebration is not for their improved skills or self-advocacy, but for their transcendence from abnormality to the mass of the general population. The invisibility they seek is not that of a marginalized outlier, but that of someone in the norm who isn't noticed for the masses they resemble. The medical model that my students are forced to navigate through is flawed on many levels, specifically as it relates to the transition from the secondary school to society at large, and the unfortunate stigma they carry with them through this progression. This discrimination is unlikely to end anytime soon, as this concept of normal dictates the notions of inferiority and superiority that are engrained into our culture.

As a result of the stigma that came with being "abnormal", families of people with disabilities in the early 20 ^th century began to feel ashamed and embarrassed to have an offspring or family member with such a condition. As a result, these people were hidden away from society at home, often sequestered in a backroom where there was the least opportunity for visibility. ¹⁴ This act, preventing the disabled person from engaging in education or vocation, only served to lend fuel to the argument that people with disabilities were unable to navigate or exist in modern society. I have unfortunately come in contact with many parents that limit their children based on preconceived notions they likely learned growing up in the same system. These students are frequently reminded by their parents that they do not fit snugly within the system and that they are not working hard enough to achieve normalcy.

Much like my students, if these people with disabilities in the early 20 ^th century were not able to make progress towards the center of the bell they were deemed unproductive and assigned professional supervision. This supervision was enlisted in order to move a group of people towards "normalcy," however when professionals failed to fit these people into the mold, the eugenicists called for euthanasia as the only answer, that it violated the laws of nature to keep alive these "feebleminded" and otherwise disabled people, lest they progenerate. Not only was the call made for their extermination, but they were blamed for social problems, such as poverty, crime and vice. ¹⁵

When the eugenicists' call for a cull of the disability community fell through, sterilization became the next best option. Most of the states in this country went on to pass sterilization statutes that went into effect for the "unfit". Due to lack of sufficient assimilation on the part of many people with disabilities, in addition to sterilization some were permanently sequestered and others were segregated. With the notion of permanent sequestration the era of institutionalization began and did not begin to cease until the late 1950's. ¹⁶ One of the biggest reasons for the cessation was the growing strength and numbers of disability rights groups and advocates; and though the movement did not start with him, Ed Roberts has embodied the struggle and the fight of the disability rights movement.