Physical Characteristics as Deviance

Societies have long considered physical characteristics as predictive of or attesting to the character, abilities, and morals of the individuals possessing or exhibiting them. Some physical characteristics, such [Page 511]as physical beauty or great strength, have been seen as positive and indicative in greater or lesser degree that an individual who holds these traits is to be accorded respect and honor. There are also physical characteristics that, in some cultures, have been seen to indicate that the person should be viewed as deviant; those so judged may be treated with disparagement, denial, and dishonor.

In this entry, the word deviant is used to refer to physical characteristics or individuals who are perceived as different from what is regarded as normal and whose difference or differences are evaluated negatively in a particular cultural context. Importantly, then, it is incorrect to speak of physical characteristics or individuals as being essentially and always deviant. Rather, “deviant” is a label conferred on certain physical characteristics and individuals in specific societies at a specific time.

Deviant physical characteristics include, but are not limited to, vision disabilities; a motor disability that marks the person as different or requires that the person use an assistive device; an absent limb or part of a limb; greater than average fatigability; epilepsy; Down syndrome; cerebral palsy; stammering or stuttering; stature very much under or over the average; or having one's body covered with tattoos or decorated with piercings and plugs.

This list of conditions suggests that some conditions can be thought of as affecting a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, whereas others are conditions that affect a person's ability to get and keep a job; some are physical characteristics that limit the individual's ability to undertake certain occupations; a person with very low visual acuity, for instance, would not be qualified to pilot a jetliner. Of course, many people with deviant physical characteristics function quite well in their daily and work lives. Beethoven, for example, continued to compose and score music after becoming deaf; Helen Keller, deaf and blind from childhood, learned to read and write Braille and became a successful author. Similarly, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had poliomyelitis, is widely regarded as among the greatest U.S. presidents. Steven Hawking, a Nobel Prize–winning physicist, has a degenerative neurological disorder that impairs his ability to speak and move on his own.

The ability of persons with “deviant” physical characteristics to perform their jobs well raises another set of issues. Interestingly, regardless of whether those with deviant physical characteristics can function well in their daily and work lives, some mainstream individuals question whether such individuals should have a job at all, believing that they rob “normal” people of available jobs.

An individual may have more than one of these characteristics, increasing the degree of deviance he or she is thought to have and suggesting to some that he or she is even more incapable of performing daily living and work activities and is thus in need of societal support. Regardless of the many changes that have been wrought by recent social changes in disability activism and advocacy and in legislation, some still view those with deviant physical characteristics as individuals who are at best dependent on society to meet their needs.

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