The DNA Mystique: Nelkin And Lindee

1. In the article entitled, “The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon,” authors Dorothy Nelkin and Susan Lindee argue that the gene has influence as a social symbol outside of its biological domain, becoming something like a “magical force”. Nelkin and Lindee describe the gene as, “powerful, deterministic, and central to an understanding of both everyday behavior and the “secret of life””. The popular media has helped to shape the general public’s view of the gene as an all powerful device with the capacity to determine one’s entire behavior. Throughout the article, this claim is supported by mainly primary sources, including anecdotes about the fruit fly Drosophila, the Human Genome Project, and newspaper articles. One example given …show more content…
Crane Wilbur’s film “Tomorrow’s Children” extends the original argument made by Nelkin and Lindee. Like their article, the film raises important questions that go along with genetic essentialism and exemplifies the damage this discriminatory ideology can have on those involved. “Tomorrow’s Children” gives a further example of just some of the adverse effects the concept of genetic essentialism can have on society and its citizens. In the film, protagonist Alice is deemed as lesser by both the legal system and the general public because of her family’s “defective genes”. Because her parents were drunkards, it was automatically assumed that they possessed the gene for alcoholism and that this alone could explain their inappropriate behavior. Furthermore, it was the common belief that her brothers were in jail because it was predetermined by their genes. Therefore, it is assumed that since Alice shares her family’s poor genetic material she is destined to exhibit the same bad behaviors as displayed by her family. The film takes this example to the extreme, arguing that it is necessary to go as far as to sterilize Alice to avoid her passing on her and her family’s genes to her children. This example takes Nelkin and Lindee’s argument one step further by giving such an extreme example of the possible consequences of acting on the concept of genetic essentialism. “Tomorrow’s Children” was released at a time when the vast majority of people believed that ones’ genes could solely determine behavioral traits like alcoholism or laziness. The public’s reaction to this film demonstrates how even as early as 1934 the popular media has had a great impact on the social interpretations of the gene and its influence on one’s