‘How dare you pretend to be disabled?’ The discounting of transabled people and their claims in disability movements and studies

Although the contours of the ‘disabled person’ category are questioned by anti-ableist activists, they remain rigid regarding transabled people (who want to become disabled). For anti-ableist activists, transabled people do not count as disabled. They are perceived to: be falsely disabled; steal resources from disabled people; and be disrespectful by denying, fetishizing, or appropriating marginalized realities. By combining critical discourse analysis, genealogy, and deconstruction, I examine these negative discourses to encourage alliances between anti-ableist activists and transabled people. Ideas developed in disability and trans studies reveal the limits of these discourses anchored in ableist and cisnormative* assumptions.     

农村单身汉社会形象再解释

通过对新闻报道、文学作品、影音作品、网友评论等资料的分析发现,目前媒介工具对农村单身汉的社会形象建构呈现极端化趋势。“犯罪、懒惰、无知、贫穷、孤苦、越轨”等负面评价成为该群体的主要特征。同时,学术界的部分研究结论也加深了农村单身汉负面社会形象的建构。然而本研究认为,农村单身汉与普通人在村落的社会形象与社会地位并无差异,未婚不会导致其被社会排斥,个体特质才是决定性因素。大众传媒与学术界塑造的标签化负面刻板印象极不利于农村单身汉的社会生存与发展。因此,对该群体应去标签化、去特殊化,对其给予客观评价,促进农村单身汉社会形象再构建。     

移民文化适应过程中的"污名化"现象研究

移民在文化适应中常常会被迁入地居民赋予“污名化”称谓,这种行为对移民的文化适应产生消极影响。产生“污名化”的原因既是移民文化与本土文化两种不同民间文化差异的结果,又是迁入地居民对移民群体文化排斥的外在表现,同时也是迁入地居民为提高自尊而产生心理认同感的反映。“污名化”是特定阶段的称谓,会随着移民与迁入地居民交往与联系的加强而逐渐弱化并最终消失。     

“Involved in something (involucrado en algo)”: Denial and stigmatization in Mexico’s “war on drugs”

This article responds empirically to the question posed by Stan Cohen about “why, when faced by knowledge of others’ suffering and pain—particularly the suffering and pain resulting from what are called ‘human rights violations’—does ‘reaction’ so often take the form of denial, avoidance, passivity, indifference, rationalisation or collusion?”. Our context is Mexico's “war on drugs.” Since 2006 this “war” has claimed the lives of around 240,000 Mexican citizens and disappeared around 60,000 others. Perpetrators include organized criminal gangs and state security services. Violence is pervasive and widely reported. Most people are at risk. Our study is based on qualitative interviews and focus groups involving 68 “ordinary Mexicans” living in five different Mexican cities which have varying levels of violence. It investigates participant proximity to the victims and the psychological defense mechanisms they deploy to cope with proximity to the violence. We found that 62 of our participants knew, directly or indirectly, one or more people who had been affected. We also found one dominant rationalization (defense mechanism) for the violence: that the victims were “involved in something” (drugs or organized crime) and therefore “deserved their fate.” This echoes prevailing state discourses about the violence. We argue that the discourse of “involved” is a discourse of denial that plays three prominent roles in a highly violent society in which almost no-one is immune: it masks state violence, stigmatizes the victims, and sanctions bystander passivity. As such, we show how official and individual denial converge, live, and reproduce, and play a powerful role in the perpetuation of violence.     

HIV/AIDS stigma in Chinese Internet forums: a content analysis approach

This study examines the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) on three popular Chinese Internet forums. A corpus of 275 entries discussing AIDS and PLHA was coded, based on a scheme of five stigmatizing behaviors. A high percentage of postings showed at least one and often several stigmatizing behaviors. These findings suggest that participants openly revealed their fears and biases about AIDS and PLHA online. In addition, when sexual behaviors were identified in the entries, a higher likelihood to stigmatize, a greater absence of empathy, and more intense negative emotions were shown. Further investigation of the five variables of stigmatization shows that labeling, negative attribution, and responsibility were the most frequent stigmatizing behaviors in these messages. Implications of this tendency to feel free to stigmatize HIV/AIDS and PLHA in online forums are discussed. The study also provides suggestions to health practitioners and policy makers for how to address online AIDS stigmatizing behavior.     

"一带一路"背景下中国边疆形象构建的历史基础与文化战略意义

自古以来，“边疆”作为中国对外交流的关口，具有不可取代的战略意义。古时，在“一点四方”统治观念下，“边疆”具有区别于王朝国家核心区的文化地理内涵，通过“边疆”走向欧洲、非洲的丝绸、瓷器、茶叶开启了西方人对东方国度乌托邦式的想象。近代，随着王朝国家的衰落和西方启蒙运动自我批判的觉醒，“边疆”又成为“东方地狱”中一抹神秘的色彩，一块未经发掘的处女地。20世纪90年代，自中国将“和平崛起“作为对外交流的叙述话语以来，“边疆”又被西方冠以落后、分裂、暴力的形象，意图通过充满意识形态的“人权”倡导和模糊的民族国家概念来肢解中华民族。中国边疆何以在不同的历史时期具有“性格迥异”的面孔？新时期，“一带一路”倡议的提出为边疆形象的塑造和传播提供了更加丰富的场域和资本。而边疆形象的合理建构也对“一带一路”倡议的整体布局、中国国际话语权的提升、中国形象的正确定位、与邻国的政治经济交往以及边疆地区自身的发展稳定具有重要的战略意义。     

Disability stigmatization as a barrier to employment equity for legally-blind Canadians

Canada has expressed a strong commitment to the rights of its citizens against discrimination, including those with disabilities. A question remains whether Canadians with disabilities are able to practice these rights. Our mixed-methods study sheds light on the situation of one important sub-group of people with disabilities – those who are legally blind. Our survey results show that the labour-force participation rate for this population is very low compared with those without disabilities, and also lower than the rate for persons with other disabilities. Legally-blind working-age Canadians have significantly higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, and perceive major barriers to employment. In-person interviews reveal the negative impact of one major barrier – disability stigmatization – on accessing meaningful employment and other societal assets. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest policy directions.     

Evolved Disease-Avoidance Processes and Contemporary Anti-Social Behavior: Prejudicial Attitudes and Avoidance of People with Physical Disabilities

Drawing on evolutionary psychological logic, we describe a model that links evolved mechanisms of disease-avoidance to contemporary prejudices against individuals with physical disabilities. Because contagious diseases were often accompanied by anomalous physical features, humans plausibly evolved psychological mechanisms that respond heuristically to the perception of these features, triggering specific emotions (disgust, anxiety), cognitions (negative attitudes), and behaviors (avoidance). This disease-avoidance system is over-inclusive: Anomalous features that are not due to disease (e.g., limb amputation due to accident) may also activate it, contributing to prejudicial attitudes and behaviors directed toward people with disabilities. This model implies novel hypotheses about contemporary variables that may amplify or reduce disability-based prejudice. We discuss past research within this context. We also present new evidence linking chronic and temporary concerns about disease to implicit negative attitudes toward and behavioral avoidance of disabled others. Discussion focuses on the conceptual and practical implications of this evolutionary approach.     

Minority parents’ coping efforts to improve their children’s academic achievement: the Tanodas in Hungary

ABSTRACT

Our paper is based on a study carried out among students of Hungarian tanodas – second chance educational institutions in Hungary – and their parents. The findings of the interview research did not support deficit models and suggest that schooling is a vital issue for both Roma/Gypsy families and their children. All families have limited resources and opportunities to achieve desired goals, and despite their strong intent and determination, they often seem to lack a clear vision of the steps to be taken. Our results show that children have to cope with negligence, stigmatization, exclusion, discrimination, etc. Turning to tanodas for help has become a sort of coping strategy in and of itself. We could identify, as common parental strategies, the ‘squeezing out’ of the maximum available scarce opportunities, building on social networks, and monitoring their children’s studies. Students’ coping mechanisms regarding identity-threats were more varied and ranged from confrontation via proxy control and social support, to disengaging from school and taking on a negative identity or, the opposite, taking up positive roles.