#poverty stigma

[autisticadvocacy]

The Politically Charged History of the Term 'Able-Bodied'

For 400 years, people have been trying to separate the "deserving" from the "undeserving" poor.

Let’s unpack the political history of the term “able bodied”, and how it is used to divide poor folks.

[danny4xb]

There is a strain of thought – invariably comfortably-off thought, it must be said – that sneers at conspicuous consumption when it’s the working-class that’s doing the consuming. There is some truth in Marx’s suggestion that, for some at any rate, “The worker is only permitted to have enough for him to live, and he is only permitted to live in order to have”. This is a view – does it need to be said – that increasingly covers our increasingly transactional approach to education but it also manifests itself in other areas of life too. The poor cannot be genuinely poor if they enjoy material comfort. Scoff at these people just about managing with their iPhones! Sneer at those on the margins of society who nonetheless have flat-screen televisions! Heaven forbid, too, that after a long week’s work for a wage packet that’s much the same it was a decade ago a man – or even a woman! – might want a night of Netflix and some cans. Never mind too, that if those on low incomes are, say, also attending football matches overseas it might be because they’ve been saving for these trips for six months or even longer. Pleasure, I guess, is not for the likes of them. They must scrimp but they may not enjoy the rewards of their scrimping, lest they be thought reckless or depraved

Alex Massie