Abnormal Bodies are a Thing People Have

Today I was at work and my boss started talking about how her daughter had a herniated navel. I had never heard of a herniated navel before, but I imagined it was some kind of a large painful and soft lump on the stomach. her young daughter was incredibly self-conscious about it.

"does it hurt?"
"no"
"Is it harmful to her health?"
"not really, we tried to have it fixed with surgery when she was two but the surgery failed."
"So it's just an aesthetic problem?"
"Yes, it just sticks out a bit."

As the conversation progressed I realized my boss was trying to say that her daughter had what we had called an 'outie' as children.

"I thought she was the only person in the world who had it" she said, half-jokingly.

"Oh no, it's just a thing some people have, like attached ear lobes." and for the rest of the day I was silently preoccupied with this interesting problem.

Why was it that some human variations, like being able to roll your tongue, having a bent-back or straight thumb or having brown hair or green eyes are seen as just 'things people have' while other differences are measured as aesthetically displeasing, morally significant or even medically unacceptable (despite not actually being unhealthy)? Why is it that some human variations are just 'variations' while others are better or worse or at the very least invitations for others to judge? This reminded me of all kind of human differences I had seen and the different responses and assumptions people had made to them.

Some people have no hands and little tiny thumb-stumps. It's just a thing people have.

Some people weigh 400 pounds. It's just a thing people have.

Some people have a large birthmark on their face. It's just a thing people have.

Some people need a hole in their stomach to eat. It's just a thing people have.

Some people have purple hair. It's just a thing people have.

Would it be possible to live in a world where people's bodily differences were acknowledged without being judged as abnormal or unacceptable? What if we began looking at stigmatized body differences as normal human variation? Is there anything stopping us from doing that? I think the world would be a better place if we could look at the differences in bodies around us as just 'things people have'.