Jacqueline Thornley- Outside Reading #3

For another research paper I’m writing about the American Eugenics movement which took place in the 1920s-1940s. During that time thousands of Americans were forcefully sterilized as they were deemed “unfit to reproduce.” What makes this movement especially shocking is that it was propagandized by the government. Distributing everything from flyers to advertisements in magazines, the government worked to influence the public to believe that mentally disabled, homosexual, and other citizens with arbitrary differences were polluting the American gene pool and thus should be sterilized. What amazes me is that this tragedy in our history was spawned from pure myth and story. That is real power. Anyone who thinks rationality has replaced myth in potency should rethink their position.