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Social and cultural influences on personal identity
How disabled individuals are viewed by society
Social and cultural influences on personal identity
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The concept of privilege intersects with the treatment of persons with disabilities in many ways. In order to first understand how it intersects we must first define the word privilege. Privilege refers to the “rights, advantages and protection enjoyed by some at the expense of and beyond the rights, advantages, and protections available to others” (= , Ch 5). According to Peggy McIntosh, “We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck” (White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, 2). Privilege intersects with the treatment of people with disabilities because “privilege is socially constructed to benefit the member of the dominant group” (=, ch 5). For example, an able-bodied person does One of my favorite examples of privilege is the third eye story (= , Ch 5). This is a story about a person who live in a safe and loving community then goes to a new place where everyone looks at him weirdly and talks about him behind his back, eventually, he realizes that everyone has a third eye. He feels ashamed for not having a third eye and tries to hide his “disability” by buying sunglasses; however, when he goes to them, he is ridiculed and taken to when the two eyed glasses are. People offer to fix him by giving him a risky surgery. He goes to a play where he is giving a white can and the pamphlet only caters to people with a third eye. The play is about a community similar to the one the person lived in but this was depressing and sad. After the play ends, the two eyed person feels ashamed and ugly (= , Ch 5).This story shows the internal and attitudinal effects of privilege. Unfortunately, this at time may be how some able-bodied people affect disabled people. Many able- bodied people believe that they have the right to their position as a dominant group. Due to the fact that they work hard and are smart, therefore, they should
Today in the United States of America people are both privileged and oppressed based on their diversity markers and social locations. These advantages and disadvantages are put in place by the people whom are in power, or otherwise known as the government and other leading officials. This is a major issue in today’s society that often tends to be masked by the many other issues within the country as well as by the privileged people. Many people who experience privilege tend to believe that privilege and oppression do not exist and that everyone has equal opportunity, but that is not the case privilege and oppression does exist and it can be seen every day in society. After a careful review of Dena Samuel’s “Matrix Model of Oppression and Privilege” I identified myself as rather privileged due to my social and diversity locations on her model.
The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 set out to end the discrimination people with disabilities encounter. The Act gave disabled people the right to employment, access to goods, facilities, and services and the right to buy and rent land and property. These rights came into force in December 1996, making treating a disabled person less favorably than an able-bodied person unlawful. Further rights came into force in October 1999, including the idea that service providers should consider making reasonable adjustments to the way they deliver their services so that people with a disability can use them. (The DDA...) However, despite these
Privileges are things that a person receives that gives them an advantage over most people (Merriam-Webster). These are benefits that only certain people receive for being in a certain group or discourse. Peggy McIntosh, director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, wrote “White Privilege and Male Privilege” and states “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privileges, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege” (605). She argues that whites and males receive certain privileges, yet they do not even notice them. This shows that different races and women are still put at a disadvantage, but the people who receive the benefits are blind to the problem.
For example, the dualism of sexes, the idea that there are only women and men, oppresses non-binary and trans* people. As a matter of fact it was not until recent history that there was language to describe non-binary and trans* people 's identities. It is just the tip of the oppression iceberg to deny someone a label for their identity. In a similar fashion, people with disabilities face a dualism too, the idea that there are able-bodied or normal people and disabled people. While at first glance this may seem to make sense there are multiple problems with the dualism of disabled and able-bodied people. Firstly, it groups all disabled people into one category. There are a plethora of ways in which a person can be disabled and the conversation should not boil down to one homogeneous identity for disabled people. The second problem is the idea that people with disabilities are not normal. In American society the idea of "normal" is a middle-class, white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied man. This quiet obviously excludes many groups of people who are left to feel as though they are not "normal" and these ideas of "normalness" oppress people. Another item that is added to the list of "normal" characteristics is being sexually active. In America, the ideas of sex and sexuality are extremely important to the average person. Through socialization and enforcement with the media the American people are told that their sexuality is where they derive their self-worth. When a person is told that the larger society does not view them as a sexual being then they can infer that they have no worth within larger society. Jennifer Bartlette discusses the importance of being sexual and feeling sexually attractive in her article "Longing for the Male Gaze." Bartlette has cerebral palsy, and although she is attractive men do not harass her when she walks down the street. Bartlette expresses
It is important to understand how privilege affects others because it allows you to see how other people can be affected in different situations on a daily basis. It allows you to picture yourself in their perspectives and to better understand how a person’s ethnic background, sexual orientation, and social class can mean the difference in how others treat them.
Privilege is defined as “a special advantage or authority possessed by a particular person or group” in the Cambridge Dictionary (“privilege”). Globally, white individuals are often granted privileges than minority groups do not receive. While white privilege often goes unnoticed by white individuals, it causes many disadvantages for people of color and affects how they see themselves. Furthermore, Affirmative Action attempts to equal the playing field for minorities but is faced with contention by many white people.
America has had plenty of racial unrest, and what 's shocking is how we continue to ignore its side effects. Many people believe white privilege does not exist or it’s not a real thing even though America was built by white people, with a foundation for whites. White privilege is prevalent in America. They believe there is no way the color of someone’s skin, gives them a privilege. In reality, it does. No matter how much we ignore the fact, that the color of your skin can change the way you live, it’s true. It’s not fair, but it’s true.
Through reading this paper you will learn about the key points from the article, A Social Worker’s Reflection on Power, Privilege, and Oppression written by Michael S. Spencer and the article White Privilege: Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh. Then the paper will include my personal beliefs on the topic of privilege and even some of my own personal privilege that are in my knapsack and that have helped me along my way in life. Finally, There will also be a point in the paper where I will have the ability to informed you about how privilege affect people and how they can positively affect people who do not receive them. Privileges impacts many groups of people in many different ways. They can be effected by
The social theory of privilege states that unearned or otherwise reasonably unacquirable advantages are social endowed to a particular person or group of people. These unearned advantages are often granted on the basis of demographic features such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or generation, although other criteria (such as ability, height, or attractiveness) may confer such advantages. There lie subtle distinctions between advantages that are earned but reasonably acquirable and advantages that are earned but reasonably unacquirable. For example, education confers social advantages, but not privilege; however, the access to education is a reasonably unacquirable advantage and would be considered a privilege. The ambiguity of privilege, though,
1. (a) Privilege is defined as a favor or right granted to some people, but not to everyone.
Privilege is having one’s body accepted by the public and having opportunities given regardless of qualifications or backgrounds. Privilege can also be accepting certain behaviors only because a man exhibited those actions. Posters, cinema, and the music industry are just some of the media today that reinforces gender privilege.
The first thought that crosses the mind of an able-bodied individual upon seeing a disabled person will undoubtedly pertain to their disability. This is for the most part because that is the first thing that a person would notice, as it could be perceived from a distance. However, due to the way that disability is portrayed in the media, and in our minds, your analysis of a disabled person rarely proceeds beyond that initial observation. This is the underlying problem behind why disabled people feel so under appreciated and discriminated against. Society compartmentalizes, and in doing so places the disabled in an entirely different category than fully able human beings. This is the underlying theme in the essays “Disability” by Nancy Mairs, “Why the Able-Bodied Just Don’t Get it” by Andre Dubus, and “Should I Have Been Killed at Birth?” by Harriet Johnson.
Money can give people a lot opportunities and privilege. Financially privileged people have no trouble getting materialistic things such as big houses, expensive cars, and jewelry. Being privileged can also provide better scholastic education as well as respect. On the other hand, a lack of money, as a person might guess, limits opportunity and lower a person’s status on the privilege pole. In order for an underprivileged person to have all of those things, they have to work hard to get to get the luxuries of nice houses, cars, and jewelry. As far as education goes, the underprivileged might not go to the best schools but they get an education that will prove to be more valuable in life; they learn to earn respect, appreciate what they have and how to survive with just the necessities and what’s really important in life. So when a person looks at each group and tries to decided with one gets the most out of life, they will see that underprivileged individuals get so much more out of life than a person who came up in affluence and privilege.
Every day in America, a woman loses a job to a man, a homosexual high school student suffers from harassment, and someone with a physical or mental disability is looked down upon. People with disabilities make up the world’s largest and most disadvantaged minority, with about 56.7 million people living with disabilities in the United States today (Barlow). In every region of the country, people with disabilities often live on the margins of society, deprived from some of life’s fundamental experiences. They have little hope of inclusion within education, getting a job, or having their own home (Cox). Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed in life, but discrimination is limiting opportunities and treating people badly because of their disability. Whether born from ignorance, fear, misunderstanding, or hate, society’s attitudes limit people from experiencing and appreciating the full potential a person with a disability can achieve. This treatment is unfair, unnecessary, and against the law (Purdie). Discrimination against people with disabilities is one of the greatest social injustices in the country today. Essential changes are needed in society’s basic outlook in order for people with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to succeed in life.
Absolute Privilege, where it is appropriate, is a finished answer and bar to any activity adversary defamation. It doesn't make a difference whether the words are genuine or false or they are talked or composed malignantly, yet that a writer might be reporting what is said on an event that is ensured by total benefit it doesn't take after that his/her report is also secured. (Veronica Frydel - my journey through university degree, n.d)