American Eugenics: Race, Queer Anatomy, and the Science of Nationalism

328 Pages·2003·1.69 MB·English

by  Nancy Ordover

American Eugenics
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American Eugenics
Race, Queer Anatomy, and the
Science of Nationalism
Nancy Ordover
University ofMinnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Excerpts from the Margaret Sanger Papers are reprinted by permission ofthe
Sophia Smith Collection,Smith College,Northampton,Massachusetts,and from
Alexander C.Sanger,literary executor ofthe Margaret Sanger estate.
Copyright 2003 by Nancy Ordover
All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored in a
retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic,
mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior written
permission ofthe publisher.
Published by the University ofMinnesota Press
111Third Avenue South,Suite 290
Minneapolis,MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ordover,Nancy.
American eugenics :race,queer anatomy,and the science of
nationalism / Nancy Ordover.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8166-3558-7 — ISBN0-8166-3559-5
1. Eugenics—United States—History—20th century. I. Title.
HQ755.5.U5 073 2003
363.9'2—dc21 2002011518
Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper
The University ofMinnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my parents,Rochelle and Jordan,who made everything possible
for me,and in memory ofmy grandparents,Avrum,Yitta,Mindl,
and Wolf
“my lifetime listens to yours”
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
I
National Hygiene:Twentieth-Century Immigration and the
Eugenics Lobby
ImagiNation 3
Calculating Hysteria 9
The Immigrant Within 32
The Pioneer Fund:Scientific Racism and the Eugenic
Endowment 45
“Indiscriminate Kindness”and “Maudlin Sentimentalism”:
Fighting the “Philanthropic”Impulse 51
The Abiding Panic 54
II
Queer Anatomy:One Hundred Years ofDiagnosis,Dissection,and
Political Strategy
Science as Savior 59
Delineating Deviance:Moral Imperatives,Hereditarian Hypotheses,
and the Letter ofthe Law 70
Biological Apologists:Appeals and Miscalculations 83
Gender,Race,and the Strategy ofMetaphor 88
Homosexuality and the Bio/Psych Merge:An Additive Model of
Causation Theories 102
AIDS,Backlash,and the Myth ofLiberatory Biologism 119
III
Sterilization and Beyond:The Liberal Appeal ofthe Technofix
Liberal Loopholes 127
Buck v.Belland Before 133
Margaret Sanger and the Eugenic Compact 137
Physical Fallout:Racism,Eugenics,and Liberal Accomplices
after World War II 159
New Technologies,Old Politics:Norplant and Beyond 179
Disability and Eugenics:The Constant Consensus 195
Quinacrine,the Next Wave 202
Conclusion 206
Notes 217
Index 275
Acknowledgments
These thank-yous are what I’ve most looked forward to writing.Yet ifI
were to enumerate all the ways I’ve been fed and inspired and stupefied
by other people’s patience and generosity and work and commitment,
this volume would be twice as long.
That this work was undertaken and completed at all has to do more
with the merits of my friends and family than my own.They gave me
more support than I knew how to ask for:intellectual,emotional,tech-
nical,postal,and nutritional.Many thanks to my comrades,whose own
labors in the world kept mine going:Thomas Kane Landry,Henry Ser-
rano,Eileen Ordover,Chana Pollack,Jill Pierce,Shawn O’Toole,Rachel
Pfeffer,Annie Kastor,Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz,Gail Kielson,Amarpal
Dhaliwal,Iris Garcia,Natasha Banta McDermott,Amalia Cabezas,Heidi
Dorow, Herb Green, and René Poitevin. Amalia Aboitiz and Judith
Romero caught me more times than I can count.
In addition to being good and true friends, Rachel Levitsky, Dana
Greene,and Rachel Rosenbloom remained on call as sensitive readers
and emergency researchers.Seb Katz,Francis “Bugs”Dooling,and Aaron
Ze’ev Ordover Sary were just plain fun to be with.
Most of these individuals shared my sense of rage and urgency and
irony,many laughed at my jokes,and a select few could be depended on
for physical comedy.These are the things that keep a person going.
I am extremely grateful to Michael Omi,Caren Kaplan,and Evelyn
Nakano Glenn for years of encouragement, guidance, and unflagging
belief in the importance of this project.Bill Walker,erstwhile archivist
ix