Moral Stigma Management Among the Transabled

Some forms of deviance are so different that they challenge even those who customarily think of themselves as nonjudgmental. The Internet has enabled even extreme groups of people to find others like themselves who can help each other find legitimacy and acceptance. Daviss research on people with body integrity identity disorder (BIID) documents the stigma cast upon those who see themselves as having a disjuncture between how they see themselves and how they appear externally. Although they are able bodied, they want and/or need to live in a body that is physically impaired. This chapter touches on the ways people deal with this disjuncture and how they manage the stigma of wanting or claiming a deviant physical status that they do not physically have. To what do you attribute the extreme reactions voiced by readers of the blog Transabled.org to the transabled people who post on it? How would you assess their claims? To what extent are they trying to manage the impressions others have about them by downplaying or concealing the sexual dimension of their disorder? By lying or omitting significant other details of their conditions? How would you assess these peoples claims to legitimacy in terms of the three Ss of stigma attribution? How do people in our society generally feel about physical versus mental disabilities? Voluntary versus involuntary physical impairment? The claims transabled people have for assistance as individuals with special needs? Should we as a society feel responsible for accommodating them? How do you feel about this condition compared with other mindbody disjunctures, such as gender identity disorder or body dysmorphic disorder? Do you find the stigma management claims of the transabled effective? Why or why not? What are the most successful aspects of their claims, and what are the least successful? How do those claims relate to the claims made in the accounts of rapists and shoplifters presented in Chapters 27 and 28?