JDA Lecture

This lecture—as well as the readings—broached several subjects which, honestly, I’d never even considered. I think this fact reflects the inability of people who don’t have to face these issues to really understand the damage inflicted. For instance, I’ve never realized the obstacles that a “trans”-gender person must face on a daily basis. Clearly, I have heard of the violence and bigotry that goes on, though I rarely think about the emphasis but on gender labeling. I found this aspect of the dialogue extremely interesting. Matt talked about the birth of a child and how the very first thing said about that person is either “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl.” This is so ingrained into our society that it never even crossed my mind as odd. Just like I’ve never considered the existence of a boys’ bathroom” and a “girls’ bathroom” odd. It’s so easy for me—a relatively feminine, straight female—to never give a second thought to either of these things. For Eli and Matt, however, they could be issues that have plagued their thoughts since childhood. I think that this hugely pertains to “understanding human behavior.” It would be impossible to understand how Matt and Eli look at these problems vs. how I look at these problems without considering our involvement with the actual problems. Because I am not forced to give myself what I deem an insufficient label, I don’t think I can fully understand how Matt and Eli feel when they are forced to do just that.

This desire of society to designate everyone as either male or female was one of a few examples the two speakers gave of “whose bodies we value and whose we leave out?” Another example was the relatively new issue of genetic testing. Eli mentioned that since the emergence of genetic testing, women are now encouraged to test their babies during pregnancy. As a result, a mother can know before the birth whether or not her child has the propensity to develop Down’s Syndrome. Not only that, but if the child DOES have this propensity, many doctors will actually encourage the mother to have the fetus aborted. As a result, approximately 90% of fetuses who have to propensity to develop Down’s Syndrome are aborted. If this is not a statement about what society deems valuable and invaluable, I don’t know what is.

I think that we could have some really interesting discussions on this topic of society’s habit of putting value on bodies. How has it changed? It seems that we’re putting more value on African American bodies…they have civil rights, our new president is black. But has the internalized racism of American people really dissipated? This is quite possibly one of the root issues that influences understanding human behavior, or more specifically understanding why humans treat other humans the way they do.