Judy Stone argued that one of the misconceptions about Darwin’s theory of evolution is the idea that humans evolved via gradation rather than a branched process. This follows the thinking that Plato and Aristotle began with their theories of classification and placing species in types. Now, modern popular culture has continued the trend with depictions of the walking ape to man image. This image symbolizes that human beings, who can walk, are tall, muscular, in-shape, are the “ideal” being that time and evolution have perfected. Stone argues that evolution does not have an ultimate goal.
However, Stone believes that this popularized misconception is dangerous because it places people in categories. Mainly, this way of viewing variations allows for racial bias to persist in society. I also argue that it allows for all other forms of discrimination, such as gender, sexuality, intellectual dis/ability to persist. Stone said that for evolution to exist, variation must occur within populations. Therefore, we should not look at these variations as wrong, but rather as acceptable differences that are naturally occurring. If we change this narrative to become inclusive, rather than exclusive, we, as a society, will prosper due to the diversity present. However, this means that we must view people who look or think differently as an asset rather than a less developed person.
For example, people with intellectual learning dis/abilities are not dumber than the “normative” person, but rather they think, process, and decode differently. And many people who are diagnosed tend to excel in certain areas, however they are usually stifled because society sees them as different. This is reinforced by “the gene” that scientists claim to find that singularly causes these variations. However, Stone argues that variable traits are caused by more than just one gene, and usually the causes of these variations are very complex and multiple in nature.
These misconceptions further promote the social construction of dis/abilities. We tend to look at intellectual variations through the normative, ableist perspective. This means that we believe that there is something to “fix” in people who are not the same as us, such as those diagnosed with autism, dyslexia, etc. Our image of the standing, muscular usually male is our construction of the “perfect” human. And because the image follows a step-by-step improvement pattern, the message being sent is that people who are not able to stand, or who are not skinny, strong, and what society sees as attractive, we decide that person is less perfect. We assign labels to people who are different than us to further the typological thinking that began with Aristotle and Plato. The variation that made them less “perfect” allows people to call their variations wrong, instead of different. Although, some of these diseases are caused by genetics, we root the person’s ability to learn, work, and contribute to society in science, as well.