Gender Conformity and Ableism

 

   I think two forces that have had major destructive impacts on my life are Gender Conformity and Ableism. Ableism is a big part of mental health stigma, but they are not the same. 

    Ableism is the belief that people who are nuerotypical (don't have things like autism, Down's Syndrome, retardation, mental illness, etc) and physically normal (not in wheelchairs, etc), are superior to those who are different. This goes back to Asperger, Nazism, and medicalized perfection. See the Nazis wanted perfect people too, all blue and blonde haired and strong and perfect. Only America takes it in a different direction. Instead of overtly trying to genetically perfect the population, we use other means. We stigmatize people who are different ("We're going to have to ship him out of state", jail threats, put downs, denial of accommodations) we use means to "thin out the herd". 

    We're not that much different from Nazis in some ways. The Nazis performed human experimentation to try to find ways to perfect humans. They gave amphetamines to soldiers, performed unethical medical experiments on Jews, they had a vision. I try to tolerate people who are different and find things to appreciate in them. Because I know what it's like to be medically perfected and examined from every angle to find faults. 

    Gender conformity is slightly different in that it's about the idea that men and women have distinctly different roles in society due to their biological differences. Some common ideas are that women should not work and that men are supposed to be strong and silent and all about their careers. It's very black and white thinking applied to genetic differences. Like Ableism, it fails to take into the account that humans are imperfect living organisms that do not conform to schematics. We were not designed, we were formed or created as imperfect beings to live in harmony, not to destroy one another.