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    Assignment 1

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    Candice
    In the late 19th century, there was significant social and governmental control over marginalized groups in Canada and the United States according to the theories of eugenics and social Darwinism. The eugenics movement aimed to encourage reproduction among white, Christian, able-bodied citizens and limit reproduction of groups deemed inferior through policies like compulsory sterilization. By the 1930s, over 30,000 individuals had been sterilized against their will in the US and Canada through laws targeting indigenous people, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. This demonstrated the extreme power governments had over individual bodies and reproductive rights during this era.

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    Assignment 1

    Uploaded by

    Candice
    23 views4 pages
    In the late 19th century, there was significant social and governmental control over marginalized groups in Canada and the United States according to the theories of eugenics and social Darwinism. The eugenics movement aimed to encourage reproduction among white, Christian, able-bodied citizens and limit reproduction of groups deemed inferior through policies like compulsory sterilization. By the 1930s, over 30,000 individuals had been sterilized against their will in the US and Canada through laws targeting indigenous people, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. This demonstrated the extreme power governments had over individual bodies and reproductive rights during this era.

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    In the late 19th century, there was significant social and governmental control over marginalized groups in Canada and the United States according to the theories of eugenics and social Darwinism. The eugenics movement aimed to encourage reproduction among white, Christian, able-bodied citizens and limit reproduction of groups deemed inferior through policies like compulsory sterilization. By the 1930s, over 30,000 individuals had been sterilized against their will in the US and Canada through laws targeting indigenous people, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. This demonstrated the extreme power governments had over individual bodies and reproductive rights during this era.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    23 views4 pages

    Assignment 1

    Uploaded by

    Candice
    In the late 19th century, there was significant social and governmental control over marginalized groups in Canada and the United States according to the theories of eugenics and social Darwinism. The eugenics movement aimed to encourage reproduction among white, Christian, able-bodied citizens and limit reproduction of groups deemed inferior through policies like compulsory sterilization. By the 1930s, over 30,000 individuals had been sterilized against their will in the US and Canada through laws targeting indigenous people, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. This demonstrated the extreme power governments had over individual bodies and reproductive rights during this era.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    Topic chosen: Systems of control over marginalized individuals/groups (e.g.

    , women's

    bodies, or Indigenous bodies, or people with disabilities)

    There was a horrible amount of governmental/social control over marginalized

    individuals, especially women, in the late 19th century. The rise of different movements in the

    1880s and 1890s were greatly concerned with the Survival of the Fittest theory - those who are

    physically, intellectually, financially, and morally inferior to the Eurocentric-Christian ideal are

    considered weak and unable to survive, therefore disposable by society. This idea was hugely

    supported by the Eugenics, the majority of social reformers at this time were advocates for the

    Eugenics Movement which fit into their white middle class Christian beliefs. The Eugenics

    Movement focused greatly on breeding a ‘quality’ generation - encouraged fertility and

    reproduction of the ‘idealized/’desirable groups (white, middle-class, Christian, able-bodied,

    intelligent, etc.), and monitored fertility and reproduction of the ‘inferior’/’burdensome’ groups

    (the poor, individuals of colour, disabled members, patients suffering psychiatric illness, non-

    Christians, etc.). It was thought that the ‘weak’ and ‘inferior’ population were to procreate, what

    they would end up doing is creating more ‘problems’ for society: prostitution, poverty, crimes,

    inconvinience (in reasons of different religious practices, cultures, economical needs, etc.). The

    big idea was to eliminate individuals who were seen as a societal burden, and create a generation

    of ‘fit’ people.

    In 19th-century Canada, the Eugenics Movement also thrived. Using the language

    of science (‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘fitness of future generations’), the Eugenics gained a lot

    of credibility. With the amount of immigration (particularly from Italy and Eastern Europe)

    coming into the country, white middle class social workers panicked that the immigrants may

    eventually outnumber themselves. Many of these middle class ’social reformers’ advocated for
    birth control for the undesirable population (immigrants, working class, indeginous people,

    physically and intellectually disabled people etc.). Margaret Sanger who was the

    inventor/advocate of birth control at the time, supported the Eugenics Movement in the United

    States. Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the US in Brooklyn, where there was a

    concentrated population of Italian and Easter European Jewish immigrants. Sanger believed that

    these working class immigrants were too poor to have children, and the societal burden on the

    middle class would be much lighter if the working class didn’t reproduce. In an age of sexual

    revolution and liberty, women lined up down the street to acquire information and gadgets for

    birth control, partially out of the desires to have control over their own bodies, as well as

    financial distress of family planning.

    On a much more ugly side, compulsory sterilization on marginalized individuals (women,

    especially) demonstrated ultimate power the state/government had over people’s bodies. By the

    1930s, 34 states passed sterilization legislation. Alberta passed the Alberta Sexual Sterilization

    Act in 1828, under which more than 3 thousand women were sterilized. British Columbia and

    Ontario passed similar acts, as well. Initially, in 1828, the act only allowed sterilization with a

    consent by the person or their legal guardian, but it was made to allow sterilization without any

    form of consent in 1937. Unsurprisingly, the act targeted particularly aboriginal people,

    indiginous people, and mentally defective youths. The majority of sterilization procedures took

    place in residential schools, mental institutions, prisons, and other facilities in which contained

    people that were deemed ‘undesirable’. These procedures were performed without the

    individual’s consent. This continued on for a couple of decades as common practices in many

    places. Society supported this crime because it was thought to have economic and scientific

    benefits. Another reason for compulsive sterilization to take place was to minimize the
    inconvenience that may be caused by inmates, students, patients and so on becoming pregnant

    after sexual assaults, or other complications that may come with menstruation and other

    reproduction-related issues. Particularly in the 1930s, partly due to the Great Depression,

    sterilization law was extremely popular in both Canada and the US. By 1939, more than 33

    thousand people, both male and female in the US were legally sterilized.

    The Eugenics Movement shows the government’s power on how people perceive their

    bodies by idealizing certain parts of the population and marginalizing others. Compulsory

    sterilization gives an extreme example of the government’s ultimate control over people’s

    physical bodies. In both cases, individuals are perceived and judged by third-party standards,

    caused to suffer societal marginalization and restraints. But there is a close-to-complete absence

    of one’s consent and mindful control of their own body, which is insanely inhumane by today’s

    standards.

    Bibliography

    Clark, Anna, ed. The History of Sexuality in Europe: A Sourcebook and Reader. New York:

    Routledge, 2011
    Peiss, Kathy, ed. Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality: Documents and Essays.

    Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

    Zingel, Avert. Indigenous Women Come Forward With Accounts of Forced Sterilization, Says

    Lawyer. CBC News, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/forced-sterilization-lawsuit-

    could-expand-1.5102981

    Province of Alberta. (1928). The Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta. Statutes of the Province of
    Alberta. Retrieved from: http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/law/page.aspx?id=2906151

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