NotNormativelyHuman 173
Setting a medical norm, especially one to which relevant numbers of
peoplecannotorwillnotcomply(Dumit47),triggersasetofresponses
among those who are found in violation. These responses will range
from denial to a wholesale reshuffling of lifestyles. The steadily
increasing number of Americans taking prescription drugs (8 to 15
percent annually)^20 is evidence of the cultural agency of medical
norms—and also of the economic repercussions of such norms (about
whichIwillhavemoretosaylater).
Adding to that is the fact—noted by Joseph Dumit—that the
continuingsettingofnew,evermorestringentmedicalnormsisnotonly
representative (of improved medical knowledge) but also an act of
representation: it generates new narratives of appearance, of risk
appearance (Ulrich Beck) by spotlighting people whose medical status
has not been apparent to themselves and who are now publicly marked
asbeingatrisk(Dumit47).Asthisexampleshows,norms(regardlessof
their empirical foundation) perform important social and cultural work;
they producedescriptive reifications. How this is done and what the
effects are can be further illustrated by a brief look at a socio-cultural
normonthemacrolevel.
My example here are changes in the understanding of "normal
aging" which will be discussed at more length later on in this chapter.
Well into the 20thcentury, getting old was perceived as part of the
natural order of things in this world. Seniors were expected to—and
did—withdraw from the everyday hustle and bustle of life. Retirement
from careers, from sexuality, and, by extension, from the public world
shared with others was regarded as the essence of "normal aging"
(Woodward, "Against Wisdom" 186-88). Today's "best agers" on the
other hand are expected to actively pursue the "new frontiers in the
future of ageing" (Baltes and Smith 123), by un-retiring and involving
themselvesintheircommunities,throughvolunteerwork,evenpolitical
activism. This norm is realized by at least one in four U.S.-Americans
(^20) Much of the money spent by U.S. Americans on DTC (direct-to-consumer)
medication goes to analgetics, palliative drugs against pain. This makes the
assumption plausible that the experience even of minor pain is progressively
considered as unacceptable. For the opposite view cf. Gadamer,Schmerz). My
thankstoArianeSchröderforalertingmetothis.