1 link 4 September 2014

[sasha_feather]

Paper Knife: Accessing the Future Guest Post: How Not to do Disability SF

I invited Kathryn and Djibril over to Paper Knife, to talk about a few of the stories that they feel get portrayals of disability spectacularly wrong.

content note: discussion of eugenics; apologism in comments.

Comments

[davidgillon]

One of the comments is mine, I think the apologism is in the other one, but if anyone wants to debate what I said, feel free.

[sasha_feather]

Yes, I meant the second comment, where the person seems to be saying that eugenic beliefs were acceptable pre-WWII by nearly everyone... I don't know much history but this doesn't seem all that plausible to me? It's a content note because it could be upsetting to some people; obviously mileage varies.

[davidgillon]

Unfortunately they're mostly right on that point. Eugenics had very wide penetration pre-WWII, probably most strongly among the intellectual classes, and eugenics-based compulsory sterilisation was implemented to some degree in most modern/Western countries. Even people like Marie Stopes and Beatrice and Sidney Webb, founders of Fabianism, were in favour. The US implementation tends to get the most attention - there's a famous Supreme Court trial 'Buck vs Bell' with a horrendous ruling in favour, but even Sweden, of all places, had a system in place - and that wasn't stopped until the mid-70s.

OTOH I wouldn't have chosen to defend anyone who advocated eugenics. I'm not sure 'marginally less morally reprehensible' is a distinction worth fighting over!

[jesse_the_k]

When it comes to the spread of scientific ideas in popular culture, It's hard to pin down what "wide acceptance" actually means. Darwin's ideas are poorly understood by generally well-read non-scientists like, well, me, even now. Doesn't stop me from wholeheartedly accepting the notions of natural selection and adaptation.

From 1900 to 1945, there certainly were strenuous efforts by people in power to promulgate eugenic ideas and their implementation in daily life. US eugenics thought and policy were models for Nazi Germany's murder of people with disabilities, which later expanded to systematic ethnic extermination.

A useful resource on US eugenics is the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Eugenics was not just the concern of scientists and policy makers: state fairs all over the Midwest held "Fitter Family" and "Better Baby" contests to promulgate ideal types to the US heartland.

[sasha_feather]

For those following along, jesse_the_k and I had a lively conversation about this topic over lunch.

My objection is basically, to the argument "they were a product of their time." This argument has been dubunked to me by historians and activists of my acquaintance. Even if the prevailing view influenced most people, outliers and activists existed, and so of course did victims and their families. I feel that saying "that's just the way it was" erasing their points of view from the picture. It's like someone looking back at our time from the future, and saying that the ableism, racism, etc of our day has wide acceptance. Well, it does, but that doesn't excuse such prejudice, and it seems like it makes it harder to fight against, because it normalizes it.

Lovecraft and the "just of a man of his time" defense:
http://nicolecushing.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/lovecraft-racism-the-man-of-his-time-defense/

Accessing the Future

[davidgillon]

Probably worth mentioning the Access the Future anthology of disability SF (which the link at the top was promoting) hit its base goal yesterday, so will definitely be appearing, their next goal is to raise enough to pay pro rates rather than semi-pro, in 12 days. They've announced a bunch of extra goodies to lure in your support:

Accessing the Future

And another interview with the people behind it:

Accessing the Future Interview