The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public

The History of Disability Series

by Susan Schweik

The murky history behind municipal laws criminalizing disability

In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, municipal laws targeting "unsightly beggars" sprang up in cities across America. Seeming to criminalize disability and thus offering a visceral example of discrimination, these “ugly laws” have become a sort of shorthand for oppression in disability studies, law, and the arts.

In this watershed study of the ugly laws, Susan M. Schweik uncovers the murky history behind the laws, situating the varied legislation in its historical context and exploring in detail what the laws meant. Illustrating how the laws join the history of the disabled and the poor, Schweik not only gives the reader a deeper understanding of the ugly laws and the cities where they were generated, she locates the laws at a crucial intersection of evolving and unstable concepts of race, nation, sex, class, and gender. Moreover, she explores the history of resistance to the ordinances, using the often harrowing life stories of those most affected by their passage. Moving to the laws’ more recent history, Schweik analyzes the shifting cultural memory of the ugly laws, examining how they have been used―and misused―by academics, activists, artists, lawyers, and legislators.

Genres: Disability, History, Nonfiction, Disability Studies, Politics, Law, Academic

448 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

My book The Ugly Laws has just come out from NYU Press (May 2009). In it you can find everything you ever wanted to know about the U.S. laws prohibiting people who were "diseased, maimed, deformed so as to be unsightly or disgusting objects" from "exposing themselves to public view." You can also find information about the most famous disabled person you never heard of.

Reviews

[Alok Vaid-Menon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schweik’s “Ugly Laws” helps us understand aesthetics as a form of social control through a detailed + often difficult to comprehend) historical exploration of state-sanctioned ableism. “Ugly laws” refer to a series of anti-begging laws passed in US cities like SF in the 19th/20th centuries prohibiting people “deformed or mutilated in such a manner as to be a disgusting object” from “display[ing] themselves to public view.” Sometimes these laws explicitly forbade “extremely unattractive” people from being in public. These laws were part of efforts to “beautify” cities. Rather than addressing the root causes of why people became impoverished, unsightly begging was criminalized. These laws were part of a constellation of ableist laws like forced institutionalization + sterilization and linked to other “quality of life” laws like anti-cross dressing laws. They were justified in the name of social good: that physically disabled people were better off unseen because they were “embarrassing.” They victim-blamed people with physical deformity, suggesting that these people sought sympathy for their appearance (ugh). Ultimately, Schweik’s political use of “ugliness” was really helpful + reminds me of Mia Mingus's work: for them ugliness as ugliness is a political situation, not an objective aesthetic judgment. It shows how fragile white/cis/able supremacy is – that it must literally disappear “the Other” in order to be real/safe/natural. How ableism dismisses people with disabilities as “wrong,” but then requires disappearing them in order to feel “right.” Hmm. This book shows how aesthetics are part of systems of oppression (that continue today with lookism in hiring practices). Personally, it was helpful to think through the policing of gender non-conformity as part of this history of state-sanctioned ableism: regulating what a normal body can + should look like and punishing people who defy this universal conception of a body. How physical appearance is regarded as the ultimate truth/self in the Western imagination: how so many of us as GNC people are dismissed as “disordered,” “uncivilized” or “freaks of nature” simply for the crime of looking different.

I will say that sometimes it felt like the subject matter outshined the actual writing in the book itself -- that the power of the archive surpassed the power of analysis. The organization of the book made it difficult to get through and sustain interest -- at times it felt meandering. But nonetheless, this detailed and meticulous work is really helpful and important!

[Marilyn McEntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even for those who have paid attention to discrimination against the disabled, Susan Schweik’s thoughtful history of “ugly laws” delivers disturbing surprises. Her title comes from a 1975 work of legal scholarship and refers to ordinances that make punishable offenses of “exposure” of “unsightly” bodies or embarrassing public behaviors associated with mental illness. The legal history of such ordinances in the U.S. dates back to 1867. A San Francisco ordinance passed that year criminalized the “display” of certain “offensively” visible disabilities for purposes of begging. Such laws conflated disability, socioeconomic status, and race, so that persons who were visibly “different” were regarded as threats to the health and well-being of others.
An important feature of Schweik’s argument is how ugly laws emerged as a direct function of capitalism. Unsightliness was, she points out, “illegal only for people without means” (16). One
paradox created an embarrassing dilemma for the enforcers of ugly laws: wounded soldiers returning from the Civil War, and other sites of combat had to be handled with particular diplomacy. One need only recall more recent controversies over funding mental health care for vets to recognize how strong is the inclination to avoid recognizing the systemic issues that underlie some of the human misery we may find “distasteful.”
This book provides useful background for understanding current efforts to encode and enforce protections for the disabled and disadvantaged. Though the book’s moral appeal is mostly implicit, it is unmistakable. It might well lead us to pray as the poet Richard Wilbur did in his poem, “The Eye,” that we be led to see “in all bodies the beat of spirit,” and that “this eye not be folly’s loophole /But giver of due regard.”

[Sherry Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academics, we sometimes write too much. This book is an example of where less would be more. It is a good book on an important topic.

[Danine Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me two years to read this book. The information is fascinating but the writing is atrocious. I often found myself bored after a page or two and put the book away for months. I only forced myself to finish it because I wanted to move it off my "currently reading" list. The sad thing is, with better prose, "The Ugly Laws" could have been another "The Warmth of Other Suns".

[Audacia Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd like to give this book 5 stars for interesting ideas, and 1 star for the droll and somewhat confusing academic writing. So 3 stars it is.

The analysis of the relationship between "ugly laws" that criminalize poor people and people with disabilities for being in public and the rise of charities was nothing short of stunning intellectually. It was really intriguing/disturbing to see how these things all connect up. The author also hits hard on the distinction between "meaning well" and doing actual measurable good.

I used to read exclusively non-fiction, often with heavy academic leanings. But since starting to read a lot more fiction and memoir, I really want better (or any!) narratives in my non-fiction writing. This book is sorely lacking in that area.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for a sociology class and I loved it. The Ugly Laws should be mandatory reading. It's an eye opener!

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book, with an excellent look into the history of what has been termed "Ugly Laws"--or, anti-mendicancy laws that focused on punishing people with disabilities for being out in public and "showcasing" their disabilities for money. The author provided an excellent backdrop of what else was happening at the time, including setting the laws in relation to anti-immigration laws, racial laws, etc. The only critique I have of the book is that the author write in a very academic style, and got rather repetitive at times--though that's an editor problem more than an author one. Simply put, as an academic I get a bit annoyed with other academics who rely too heavily on academic jargon, and I think the editor could have done a better job at cleaning up repetitive paragraphs.

[Jae Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes me want to go back in time and slap people around.

Beautifully written. Be prepared to sigh in exasperation a great deal.

[AB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes repetitive, mostly compelling. Planted a seed in me that I'll always be grateful for.

[Stella Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.15

[kayley anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

surprise surprise Omaha tried to enforce one of these in 1974

[Mills College Library]

346.73013 S4132 2009

[Alex Milton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public by Susan Schweik focuses on the marginalization of disability throughout the United States in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Focusing on laws enacted in American cities including Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Columbus, and New Orleans, Schweik discusses the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and class in the public consciousness and criminalization of disability in the United States. She asserts that disabled people were stereotyped lacking gender, sexuality, race, leading to a assumption of whiteness, maleness, and heterosexuality in reporting. Laws framed at removing “unsightly beggars” from American streets sought to remove people who because of moral and aesthetic concerns. These laws targeted people suffering from physical and mental disabilities, with associations to poverty, negative appearance, and moral deviance. The Ugly Laws uses a collection of newspaper articles, local government reports, and legal documents as the to provide a comprehensive analysis of attacks on disability in the United States.

[Riley Sutherland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little overwhelming for me because all the literary theory, but great analysis of the intersection of urban space, poverty, disability, and memory. Will be reeling with ideas from this book for a while

[DavSchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrative could have been more concise. Very dry and jumped around through time and location.

[O.D.S. O.D.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

a deeply insightful account of the relationship between impairment and disability historically, giving huge emphasis on the intersection of disability and gender, race, immigration and class. not something i would recommend reading cover to cover as it is extensive and highly detailed, however has a lot to offer overall

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important topic, but very dry. This took me far longer to read than I thought it would.