John Hockenberry in his book, Moving Violations, reflects on the falsehood and hurtfulness of stereotypes. Ever since he became a paraplegic in an accident, people have always tried to categorize him based on his disability. They seem to think that his wheelchair defines him, and he frustratedly reveals what he knows to be true about stereotypes: "Each stereotype thrives in direct proportion to the distance from each class of persons it claims to describe. Get clse to teh real people adn these pretend images begin to break up..." (89). Hockenberry understands better than a lot of people the difficulty of breaching the physical appearance and really know someone. I find it hard to believe the questions that strangers ask regarding his physical and sexually disabilities, and also they ask "...what do I prefer to be called? Do they think I have an answer?... I am a gimp, crip, physically challenged, differently abled, paralyzed" (87). Hockenberry doesn't want to be called any of those. "If you need a name for me, call me John" (102). For most people, appearance serve as a barrier to getting to know the actual person. We all need to learn to let go of our stereotypes and ideas of how people are supposed to be in order to really understand them.
By the way, I know this post isn't about ethics, but this book hasn't been about ethics at all. I'm really sorry about that...
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4 comments:
That is really sad. I kind of understand what he means. People are always trying to think of "nice ways" of saying something, like a "nice way" of saying you have physical diabilities or mental problems, but even "nice ways" still say that you are different. I once had a friend with a learning disability, and she only confided in me after we had been friends for a while for fear that I would see her differently (and before anyone asked she moved away a while ago so NO you don't know her).
I would disagree that this book isn't about ethics! Mr. Hockenberry deals with decisions every day about how he will let people treat him. By acknowledging the unkindness of the labels and names that are given to handicapped people and standing up for his own humanity, he becomes a champion for the cause of every person who has a disability. This book seems very interesting and quite emotional. Just from reading these excerpts I feel a really strong sadness for John Hockenberry and how he has been labeled and probably made to feel like less of a human.
I agree with Gwen in saying that this book indeed has ethical decisions that any other of our books might have. Society 'discourages' the disabled and is not accommodated to those less fortunate. In being less accommodating we are forcing individuals like John into a dark corner. And for John to write about his accounts with society, he is blowing the whistle to say that this needs to change. Creating awareness is what many of the great like Oskar Schindler and Nelson Mandela have done to fight society's unethical ways.
Great post Narah :)
Being in the position that he's in, it would be difficult, at least for me, to deal with everything he deals with. Not the fact that he's in a wheelchair, but the fact that others see him and immediately think cripple. It's stereotypes like these that occur all of the time and will continue to occur...all of the time. The fact that stereotypes occur indicate that image is very important in this society. If you're wearing this you're... If you're not wearing this you must be... Dealing with this determines who strong an individual is, like John.
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