Blindness In Susan Sontag's Illness As Metaphor

The moment you are infected with a disease, you are label by the many imaginations of society. These imagination are not only creative and limitless in culture, but they ultimately create a division between normal and abnormal. In the novel illness as Metaphor, the American author Susan Sontag critiques how speaking disease metaphorically has many consequences by leading to the stigmatization of a disease beyond its scientific condition. Sontag teaches us that stigmatization of disease causes society to become counterproductive by developing an unfair bias when talking about disease and those afflicted with the disease. In particular, the way society discuss blindness based on metaphors create negative stereotypes of blindness and people afflicted with blindness, which by extension makes society counterproductive in understanding

the disease. This lack of understanding with blindness makes society delusional and treats people afflicted with blindness differently from normal people. To an even greater extend, the construction of metaphors in the form of stereotypes enforce negative connotations to blindness potentially makes blind people feel more disadvantageous in society. Furthermore, these negative connotations damage a blind person’s civil rights,anonymity, and self esteem in life which further put them in a more disadvantageous state.

To begin with, the words blind and blindness are immediately put in a negative context as metaphors in modern culture. In particular, this can be seen in the song lyrics call l “Blind” by an American metal band in California call Korn. In Korn’s lyrics, he sings“A place inside my brain, another kind of pain: You don't know the chances... I'm so blind”. In other words, Korn emphasis how being blind cause another kind of psychological pain of confusion. In this line, the condition of being blind is associated with a metaphor as an abnormal suffering that only the blind will understands. Another striking lyric from Korn is “Deeper and deeper and deeper as I dream to live a life that seems to be a lost reality that can never find a way to reach my inner” . This lyric stereotype the condition of being blind is far worse than a lack of sight, but the lack of identity and reality.

Such negative connotations of blindness in culture can be further seen in another song also call “Blind” by Jason Derulo who is a platinum hip hop artist. In lyric of this song, Jason sings “Love made me blind so I couldn't see All the lies you told Were right in front of me”. In this case blindness can metaphorically put in negative aspect of love, which is a heartbreak from being cheated. In the chorus, Jason also sings, “Since love made me blind, You made a fool of me, You made it look so perfect, When it wasn't meant to be”. Jason associated being blind allows one to be made a fool of by not be able to distinguish between the truth among human relationships. Sontag teaches us when we stigmatize disease through language we are able to associate a disease or condition in many negative contexts. This act of giving meaning to the condition in culture may distracts us from really understanding what exactly it is to have the disease, instead according to Sontag “giving meaning to the illness is punitive to the people afflicted with the illness”. Through observations of popular culture, we have to ask ourselves, Is having the condition of being blind means to have an impair vision, or inability to feel, or understand reality? Productive talk about the scientific condition of blindness can be easily ignore, and Sontag idea is clearly being exposed in the way we express about blindness into culture.

Stigmatization of blindness leads to stereotypes of people afflicted with the condition as incapable in the workforce, which distracts us from understanding blind people’s capability.

According to NIB study,which analyzed potential reasons why walloping 70 percents of blind people are not employed, they found that “hiring managers, most respondents (54 percent) felt there were few jobs at their company that blind employees could perform,...Forty-two percent of hiring managers believe blind employees need someone to assist them on the job;.. 34 percent said blind workers are more likely to have work-related accidents.’ These statistics shows us the the condition of being blind is associated with being incapable, clumsy, and unproductive in the workforce. Sontag teaches us when when we give meaning to a disease like blindness, we constructed it in a way that is punishing to those afflicted with the disease. The reality is blind people are capable individual who can carry out the job as well as a normal person in the workforce. This reality is often hidden from managers by negative stereotypes of the condition of being

blind.

Sontag states, “Death is not itself enough to produce terror, but the most terrifying illnesses are those perceived not just as lethal but as dehumanizing” (126) Looking at the reality of someone who is blind can allows us to see the reality of how blindness is stigmatized in today society, which can further put them in a more disadvantageous state through dehumanization. In a blog on Quora, Cristina Hartmann express her experience with retinitis pigmentosa and Usher syndrome that has lead her to have gradual vision loss. Hartmann points out, “Some blind people have acuity issues; others have blind spots but otherwise clear vision, So, what I see is unique to me and my condition… No other blind person will see as I do”. Rather than to be confused with the stereotypes as presented in the NIB story, Hartman tells us that the reality is that there are many different scientific conditions of blindness. However, Hartmann experiences a lack of knowledge about the illness from society. Hartmann shares that “ With a cane or a seeing-eye animal, people notice you because you're different as result some people stare or back away from her as if she is infectious because they think she don't see them, but she do”. The stereotype people holds with a person afflicted with blindness is someone who is dependent, clumsy, and visionless. Sontag’s view stigmatization of the illness like blindness .. distract them from understanding a person afflicted with the condition like Janice. Rather to view her as just a normal person with a condition, Janice lost her anonymity because she is viewed as someone severely disadvantageous.

Furthermore Hartmann’s story could teach us how society treats blind people differently because of the stereotypes that gives blindness a meaning, and Sontag says, “Nothing is more punitive than to give a disease meaning- that meaning being invariably a moralistic one”
Hartmann also gives us information the way someone would interact with her.
”Once, I asked this woman for directions, and she proceeded to lead me, step by step, to the front desk of where I was going. When she tried to take over, I had to tell her firmly that I was fine and that she should go on with what she was doing. Her intentions were good, but overweening kindness is almost as insulting as people who flinch”

Since society has talk blindness metaphorically with so many negative connotations, a blind person lose a sense of anonymous because people will associate a blind person’s personality with the metaphors itself. This methodologically dehumanize the people afflicted with blindness and also distracts us from understanding that blind people do not always need society to feel condescending to accommodate them.

To summarize, Sontag teaches us that stigmatization of disease affects how the society becomes condescending toward the ill by drawing a boundaries between the abnormal and normal. In blindness, the people who are blind are stereotypes as incapable by not enjoy all the enhancement of life with sight. “THE SO MUCH BETTER FEELING WITH SIGHT” (The ability to play more physically sports like basketball, Sontag’s view shows how through various example the way we talk about illness by constructing metaphors makes it counterproductive to talk about the illness. One is distracted by being entangled with metaphors rather than seeing blindness as a disorder with a variety of legal conditions. This comes with negative consequences such as discrimination, feeling of alienation from being normal, and society becoming ideologically delusional. Ultimately the people with afflicted with the disease can be broken emotionally by society by being categorize with common stereotypes as one who suffers from being abnormal, incapable to work, more prone to accidents, and a liability. The usuage of metaphors, stereotypes, and stigmatization further put blind people at a even a greater disadvantageous.Do you believe a person who has alzheimer would also be blind in thought and sight as well? Is Blindness a disease or a metaphor in society ? We are so overwhelmed by the many metaphors associated with blindness to an extent that we becoming counterproductive in distinguishing the reality of the condition.