In the following four quotes I’ve chosen from the essay “On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs zooms into the theme of social perception and pressures on those that do not fit a preconceived ideal in terms of functionality and appearance, particularly in women who experience a physically debilitating condition.
Mairs notes that “society is no readier to accept crippledness than to accept death, war, sex, sweat, or wrinkles” (227). This is a very direct, succinct, and even humorous way to point out how difficult it is for people to accept those things that, even though unpleasant or unnecessary, are a reality of life, no matter how much we may try to pretend they are not there. In this way, Mairs normalizes crippledness as a part of life that anyone could be experiencing, like any other factor related to existence that is outside of our control.
“In recent years researchers and the organizations that fund research have started to pay MS some attention even though it isn’t fatal; perhaps they have begun to see that life is something other than a quantitative phenomenon, that one may be very much alive for a very long time in a life that isn’t worth living” (237).Mairs sheds light on the idea that the medical field, specifically research, has solely prioritized numbers – being either life or death and monetary gains or losses, disregarding the quality of a patient’s life.
The complexity of the social issue presented here has been increasingly problematic to the daily life of every patient. The soaring costs of medications and doctor’s visits being one of today’s most socially prominent issues. However, aside from the financial burden placed on patient, their quality of life has also been overlooked by society as well. Even though a medication or treatment has kept alive millions of people, the toll their individual ailment or disease takes on them and their family has been brushed underneath the rug. The question now is whether or not the medical field wants to look beyond the numbers and prioritize quality over quantity.
