All Us Deviants

I have been pointed to an excellent article in today’s New York Times by Stanley Fish. It is about what we mean by “normal” when it comes to people. The article focuses on issues such as groups of autistic and deaf people who are happy the way they are and do not want to be “cured” or even seen as “disabled”, but Fish touches on many of the wider issues as well, including mentioning that up until 1967 mixed race marriages were illegal in the USA. We find that appalling now. Not too many years in the future people will also find it appalling that same-sex marriages were once illegal. And what does Fish choose to illustrate that “different” does not mean “wrong” – why, the X-Men, of course.

(Thanks Donna).