Outline Some of the Ways in Which Both the Body and Disability May Be Socially Constructed

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Some sociologists argue that the body and disability are cause by the medical model; the medical model describes a disabled person as someone with physical or mental disabilities and says that the body is explained in terms of biology or genetics. However the body and disability can also be seen as socially constructed which suggests that they are created by society, it would suggest that disability is because of the introduction of industrialisation or people being stigmatised and would say that the body is due to the media or attitudes of society. An argument that shows disability can be seen as socially constructed is that the idea of the dependant disabled person is a recent historical event. For example before the industrial revolution disabled people were not seen a separate group with different needs from everybody else. But the introduction of physical work due to industrialisation, meant people with impairments could not do certain types of work. This shows that disability is socially constructed as before society changed and introduced more physical work people with impairments were not excluded from everyone else but due to societies change in jobs and work disability was seen as different, making disability socially constructed. Another significant reason in why disability is a social construction is due to disabled people being stigmatised. People with impairments are defined as nothing more than their disability making them seem different or separate from everyone else decreasing their master status. Goffman suggests that disability becomes people’s master status overruling everything else. This shows that societies views and opinions on disabled people is what has caused them to be seen as different from everybody else and that it makes people feel as if their disability is the only thing that people look at. This suggests that disability is

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