ABSTRACT
Undesirable or non-normative physical characteristics tend to attract stigma and generate a contaminated identity for their possessors. Whether the possessors of these conditions are “responsible” for their own condition is irrelevant. Many so-called normal people believe that if someone is disabled, perhaps they deserve their fate or ill treatment at the hands of normals. Erving Goffman referred to “abominations of the body” as a major form of stigma. Two such “abominations” stand out: violations of esthetic norms and physical incapacity. Esthetic norms or standards refer to the way we look; our appearance is judged by audiences and found normal or unacceptable. Persons who fail to meet an acceptable standard—people who are “ugly”—are seen as possessing a “spoiled” identity; they are “disqualified from full social acceptance.” Physical incapacity is made up of the inability to perform at life’s various essential tasks, such as walking, seeing, hearing, and so on. Given the achievement norms in our society, persons unable to perform everyday functions or tasks are deemed unworthy on certain dimensions—even deviant. Some forms of physical deviance are voluntary, for instance, body modification, especially extreme tattooing. A heavily tattooed person is frequently regarded as an untrustworthy, reprehensible person—a deviant. Obesity is also an example of a deviant or undesirable physical characteristic; it is regarded as both physical and behavioral. That is, the obese are denigrated for being unaesthetically fat and for behaving in such a shamelessly self-indulgent fashion—usually overeating and not being sufficiently active—that caused their obesity.
