"Marked"
In both pieces that we read this week, both seemed to have one underlying message. Both pieces discussed society's tendency to "mark" people just because they are different. In "Disability" by Nancy Mairs, she discusses society's tendency to treat and view people with disabilities differently. Mairs even calls herself a "cripple" to exemplify society's tendency to mark her.
In the piece, "There is no Unmarked Woman", Tannen explores the judgments women face. She goes on to describe how men can often times get away with being under-dressed or excused for their actions, while women are often times marked and immediately labeled if they were trying to pull the same things. To further prove her point, Tannen includes an anecdote of when a TV host asked a man in the audience if she thought Tannen's book was male-bashing. He answered yes but agreed that everything she was saying about men and women were true. This incident displays how some men view women and how they are so eager to deny any claims that accuse of them discriminating women. In other words, they refuse to believe that they are behaving unfairly or that their actions are actually hurting women.
This same denial displayed by some men is also used by the abled while viewing disabled people. Although disabled people are quite similar to abled people, they are treated differently. Disabled people are often defined by their disability. However, Mairs disputes this widespread thinking by writing, "Physical disability looms pretty large in one's life. But it doesn't devour one wholly. I'm not, for instance, Ms. MS..."(Mairs 14). Disabled people are marked for their disability even though they are the same as abled people and advertisers "deny the existence of [disabled people] absolutely" (Mairs 14).
Both the denial of discrimination against disability and gender is something that needs to change in society. We need to start viewing disability and the different styles of women as natural things that will always be part of our everyday lives. "This denial of disability imperils even you who are able-bodied, and not just by shrinking your insight into the physically and emotionally complex world you live in" (Mairs 15). In society, there is a division between the disabled and the abled. Then the abled are further divided into women and men in which men are almost always left "unmarked". Most of the population is constantly "marked" for their style, personality or persona.
In the piece, "There is no Unmarked Woman", Tannen explores the judgments women face. She goes on to describe how men can often times get away with being under-dressed or excused for their actions, while women are often times marked and immediately labeled if they were trying to pull the same things. To further prove her point, Tannen includes an anecdote of when a TV host asked a man in the audience if she thought Tannen's book was male-bashing. He answered yes but agreed that everything she was saying about men and women were true. This incident displays how some men view women and how they are so eager to deny any claims that accuse of them discriminating women. In other words, they refuse to believe that they are behaving unfairly or that their actions are actually hurting women.
This same denial displayed by some men is also used by the abled while viewing disabled people. Although disabled people are quite similar to abled people, they are treated differently. Disabled people are often defined by their disability. However, Mairs disputes this widespread thinking by writing, "Physical disability looms pretty large in one's life. But it doesn't devour one wholly. I'm not, for instance, Ms. MS..."(Mairs 14). Disabled people are marked for their disability even though they are the same as abled people and advertisers "deny the existence of [disabled people] absolutely" (Mairs 14).
Both the denial of discrimination against disability and gender is something that needs to change in society. We need to start viewing disability and the different styles of women as natural things that will always be part of our everyday lives. "This denial of disability imperils even you who are able-bodied, and not just by shrinking your insight into the physically and emotionally complex world you live in" (Mairs 15). In society, there is a division between the disabled and the abled. Then the abled are further divided into women and men in which men are almost always left "unmarked". Most of the population is constantly "marked" for their style, personality or persona.
I really liked how you connected both pieces that we read this week. Your post got me thinking about how both pieces both touched on how society seems to exemplify and concentrate on the differences we have. Nancy Mair's piece talked about how society almost alienates disabled people, concentrating on their disability, even though people who are disabled are quite similar to everyone else. Tannen focused on how women are marked, and being marked is essentially having something that is different about you.
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