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Article ID: CBB025352436

Disability Futures, Scientific Ableism, and the Making of Modern Epidemics (2024)

Linker, Beth (Author)

Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 39
Pages: 261-279

DOI: 10.1086/730418

URI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/730418

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Human body Professions and professionalization Disabilities; disability; accessibility Epidemics Ableism Disability studies 20th century

While disability historians have problematized the end of epidemics, this essay focuses instead on the crucial role that disability has played in the making of modern epidemics. Taking the so-called poor posture epidemic of the twentieth century as a case study, this essay explains how officials used the logic of anticipatory disability to create widespread fear and concern about the health ramifications of excessive slouching. I argue that the creation of the poor posture epidemic rested on a system of scientific ableism wherein the professional class created and promoted classificatory tools, measurements, and new ways of seeing in order to crudely distinguish disabled (including potentially disabled) bodies from nondisabled bodies. The antislouching crusade was pitched as a kind of disability awareness campaign, but the ultimate goal was disability eradication.

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Article Mara Mills; Jaipreet Virdi; Sarah F. Rose (2024) Disability, Epistemology, Sciencing. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 1-24). unapi

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