Comments for HIST 3307 Blog for Spring 2013

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Shelby Runge

Shelby Runge — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:05:19 +0000

1. What do you see as the common threads between anxieties over prosthetics, passing, and technology?
As far as common thread between anxieties over prosthetics, passing and technology go, I feel like the anxiety comes from the way society views disabilities. Everyone is placed into a certain group and seen a certain way based on the disability they had. Having a hidden disability was better than having a visible disability because you would be confronted about it as much. For Brueggemann, her goal was to pass as a “normal” human being. When someone can fit into society, they aren’t seen as disabled compared to someone who clearly has a missing limb or is in a wheelchair. Schwartz states, “Disabled bodies draw attention to the shifting boundaries of how people define themselves” (pg. 88). Technology has made passing much easier, today. Things like prosthetics or cochlear implants have made this possible.

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Monica Tavera

Monica Tavera — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:32:24 +0000

I believe the common threads between anxieties over prosthesis, passing and technology are the people themselves wanting to be accepted for who they really are. In Brueggemann’s article she was “shamed…in having myself, my deafness, so thoroughly unmasked”, because she had not accepted her own Deafness and had not come to terms with it within herself. She was always afraid of “being off-topic, three steps behind, completely out of sync with the others”. And that fear is what kept her from fully engaging in conversations that she could of completely control. In reading the article by Edward I believe the Deaf people wanted the rest of the world to know that they could still lead productive complete lives and be deaf. They were more concerned that they were never asked what they thought would be best for themselves and what they really wanted.

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Whitney Moen

Whitney Moen — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:32:23 +0000

I think the common thread among the readings and the idea of technology, passing, and prosthetics was the anxiety experienced. In the Swartz and Watermeyer article there seemed to be a debate over whether or not the prosthetic could make the disabled Pistorious more able than the non-disabled competitors. In Brueggemann there was a huge concern for her to be able to pass. The anxiety when someone discovered her disability was so strong that she wanted to flee. I think Lynn (older hearing impaired woman) really represented her desire to be able to present herself with confidence to the world. While the younger Lynne was someone who struggled to fit into either world, hearing or deaf. It made me think of the cartoons where you see the main character struggling between the evil symbol on the one shoulder and the innocent on the other. It seemed to really represent her internal struggle with hearing/deaf/passing, etc.

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Rebekah Karth

Rebekah Karth — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:29:50 +0000

The commonalities between the readings as far as passing go look at culture, and the idea that being different makes others uncomfortable, in some cases, such as in Edwards (p. 412) the idea is that technology is more about making Deaf people passable than actually helping, in the article about Pistorius (Swartz and Watermeyer, p. 189) the idea of using technology to be inclusive and how makes some uncomfortable at the idea of people being part human/part machine.

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Lalanya Dow

Lalanya Dow — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:23:44 +0000

In Brenda Brueggemann’s article, I think it was common that people were afrarid of tgheir disabilities. That is why it took so long for Brenda to reveal her story. Not fully understanding someone was a huge obstacle for her. Although she was very educated and could sign, it was a difficult process for her like during high school. The common thread for her would be the technology,like when she would go to the movies.

Schwart’s article says that people with disabilities are already dehumanized. The common thread here is that prosthetics are an attempt to make people look more normal,so there is a commonality for these people to try and fit in within a certain group already. There is always going to be anxiety for people who feel like they need to belong within a certain group. We see that today with people who do not have disabilities….it’s like kids who are middle class trying to fit in with kids that are upper class.

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Juan Soto

Juan Soto — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:13:37 +0000

Technology has advanced in such a way that many people are now able to overcome certain disabilities so as to allow them to perfrom nearly normal acts. Prosthetic limbs can mimic human anatomy to the point of actually axceeding certain norms. Pistorius fought with the right to run against abled bodies because his blades gave him an “unfair” advantage. In trying to fit in, some people have turned away from their communities in order to belong. As society becomes more progressive and as technology and the medical race to fix the broken, more people will take advantage of the aids created to help them regain what is lost or what was never there.

The desire of some to remain excluded from the mainstream and to wear this exclusion as a sort of badge of honor, shows just how the climate has changed over the past century regarding disability. For those wanting to fix or repair there are many options nowadays. Pilots were always disqualified through their vision disabilities. Now they can achieve what was previously thought impossible through laser eye surgery. Modern prosthetics can nearly mimic normal joint function and response to a user’s movements giving them a close to normal gait. The issue now becomes whether the person would like to show off his/her uniqueness or hide it behind flesh-colored material over the metal and plastic.

Ultimately it is a decision upon the user and his perspective about his current state. “Do I remain going on my new path, or do I scratch and claw and bite to get back what it is I lost/don’t have?”

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Daisy Kleine

Daisy Kleine — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:05:05 +0000

I found that a reoccurring thread that has been woven through different feelings and emotions of most disabilities (especially with the deaf community and those who require prosthetics in these readings) is the idea of exclusive humanness. To be disabled was to lack something making that person unable to be “fully human.” In the article Cyborg Anxiety, Swartz and Watermeyer state that “policies of inclusion threaten the order of established categories and remove the comfort of clear boundaries.” Anxiety is a thread felt by both those rendered disabled and those deemed normal. I completely understand Miles in his comment about how much anxiety is felt within those that are disabled because of expectations of others and the pressures that PWD place upon themselves to fit in. Yet I feel that people without disabilities have a different type of anxiety. As expressed in Cyborg Anxiety with Oscar Pistorius, to integrate is one thing but, with the technological advances would the PWD gain an unfair advantage from their prosthetic?…. Obviously there is much debate but it is a valid question. It is in my opinion that PWD and their prosthetics could be made to equal a “missing part,” but what happens when that new part in turn makes you more than human? Superhuman if you will… For example, Miles stated that he himself was a cyborg because of a pacemaker. This is completely understandable. Because he uses a machine in place of something else that is not flesh he is labeled a cyborg which is (part human, part machine). His machine is helping him live like my heart (or whatever my equal part) would allow me to do the same. But when we had our guest speaker the other day, he mentioned something about a prosthetic hand that can rotate in a full 360 and withstand a very high temperature. My hands cannot do that.
I guess you could say this is a muddy point for me… Will PWD choose to use prosthetics that fulfill their “exclusive humanness” Or would the idea of being possibly “superhuman” be too tempting if technology one day allows for that?

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Nichole Cusano

Nichole Cusano — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:47:56 +0000

I common thread that I noticed was the meaning that those took on the deaf individuals. I think that it was a sign of saying that by accepting and using these items it means that they are admitting that they are disabled and inherently less than people that are hearing. I do not think that deaf individuals see that they are disabled because they are able to function and the culture has taught them to be able to depend on each other, instead of the technology. In the article by Swartz and Watermeyer, I found it interesting to see how fearful the able bodied individuals are that “cyborg” might be better fit than they are. However in Brueggemann, the article was very passionate in the way that it defined culture groups from the Deaf community. For them the technology seemed to violate the cultural norms that they had created. By labeling on Hearing or Deaf by the spouses ability to hear was enough to know that with technology assistance they would no longer be accepted either. The anxieties seems to have more to do with cultural norms and the stress these changes put on the ideas that have only recently seem excepted and practiced.

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Melissa Hall

Melissa Hall — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:38:12 +0000

I think the most common thread was that people could not tell if someone was considered normal. With all the technology and other things out there that help people pass as looking normal nobody can tell if they really are or not. People choose if they want to use these devices or not so they can feel better about themselves.

Comment on May 2: Prosthetics, cyborgs, and passing by Erin S. Lynch

Erin S. Lynch — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:27:34 +0000

Like heterosexuality, able-bodiedness has historically been what Robert McRuer calls a “nonidentity” while, simultaneously, it is also the perceived ideal identity. Over the last century Americans of a variety of backgrounds have attempted to attain this “desired” nonidentity status. Light skinned African Americans passing as Caucasian, Native Americans rejecting their heritage and attending boarding schools, second generation children of immigrants concealing accents and native languages, women in the workplace denying their femininity and female identities—all of this has been used and done in an effort to integrate into and compete in a heterosexual-male-able-bodied-WASP-oriented America. Twentieth century deaf Americans faced this same identity dilemma.

Edwards wrote that, “many hearing observers celebrated the influx of hearing aids into deaf classrooms, believing they would enable the deaf to be integrated into hearing society” (404). This same idea is seen in oralism, as discussed and lived by Brueggemann. These authors consider the concept and consequences of passing as “normal”. Shedding the identity of the other, becoming and remaining both hidden and integrated is at the heart of the issue. It is the lie that becomes the lived reality; the lie that makes everyone else comfortable at the expense of one’s own dignity and identity.

Today’s Deaf community rejects these ideas. This is a group that now refuses to integrate. Their obstinate position on remaining a closed society within a larger culture baffled many outsiders. Their deafness defines them, and any and everyone who is hearing is other. They do not want to be mainstreamed into public hearing institutions of education, nor do they want to be defined as disabled. Like other groups with their own civil rights movements, they have come to reclaim their core identities, to celebrate them for what they are, and to refuse to conform any longer to the notion of the strictly heterosexual-male-able-bodied-WASP-oriented America.