Three-fifths (wo)man

Just spent the last 2 hours finishing Jeffery Deaver's The Twelfth Card. I came across something he wrote in the final page which I decided is definitely worth depriving my fatigued body and eyes of immediate slumber and forsaking my snug bed to imprint onto the virtual world.

"...nothing else - not politicians or fellow citizens or your haywire body - could make you a three-fifths man; it was solely your decision to view yourself as a complete or partial person and to live your life accordingly" (p.546 in Pocket Star Books edition)

Substitute 'politicians', 'fellow citizens' and 'haywire body' with 'people who mock and/or tease you', 'the mass media', 'society' and the likes to contextualise this quote and bring it closer to the heart.

Easier said than done, perhaps. But we've gotta try to start somewhere.