intersectionality

Relationships Throughout & In Disability Final Project

Limbo3 Comments

https://show.zohopublic.com/publish/kn44jb40693a580b64adaac601cdc4a93af8d

Author statement:

I would like to begin with a small statement about my background and how that not only influenced this whole project but my approach to it as well. I’m currently a psychology major with an interest in pursuing a career in mental health like a therapist. With that, viewers are going to notice vocabulary and emphases that will be obviously geared towards psychology or inspired by it. The reasoning behind this, besides my own bias here, is I truly do believe that people can learn a lot about others if they have the psycho-social skills to do so and that begins with simply having empathy as well as an open mind. I titled it in the project itself, but education really can be empathy. I humbly admit and recognize that even the field of psychology falls short when it comes to disability in many ways. One of the ways I noticed quickly can be language used. I am guilty in taking part in the ignorance at times, so this project was not only a way to educate myself better along the way but hold myself accountable in order to reject ableism instead of continuously upholding it.

Why I chose this focus comes down to a few reasons. I enjoy making connections with people so relationships in general are important to me so naturally I like learning about them, mainly how to strengthen them. Throughout my time taking a course on Disability Studies, one of the things that caught my attention the most would have to be the idea that rhetoric is made up of relationship and therefor relies on them. I believe we create rhetoric and work with it in unique ways. I learned many different forms of communication during this class and project that helped people grow in relationships. People can be very flexible and always open. If anyone is to take anything away from my piece, I hope that it is to embrace your own humility and care for others around you not just physically but emotionally (yes, even if you happen to not have a direct relationship with them). The cliche is true, you do not know someone’s story or what they can do and to limit someone off of brash societal expectations upholds the very systems that destroys their social mobility by restricting access.

With kindness and gratitude, please enjoy this explorative piece.

The Necessity of #DisabledAndCute

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“Nurturing Black Disabled Joy” by Keah Brown

Summary:

This piece begins with the author Keah Brown explaining how the book she wrote “The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me” elicited far more negatives reactions than it was due, as a book about hope, inclusion, equal rights, and joy. She states that most of the people who sent her hate mail were people who were mad that the story was about someone whom they felt they couldn’t relate to as white people, even if they too were disabled. Brown details that media typically portrays disabled people as white men instead of people with intersectional identities and the hashtag she created, #DisabledAndCute, was a way for her to show her joy as someone who is a black, disabled woman. She says that she doesn’t expect herself or anyone else to always be happy, but knows that finding “small pockets of joy” as often as possible.

Quotes:

“When I created #DisabledAndCute in 2017, I did so to capture a moment, a moment of trust in myself to keep choosing joy every single day” (Wong, 118).

“I was once a very self-deprecating and angry person who scoffed at the idea of happiness and believed that I would die before I ever saw a day where I felt excited at the prospect of being alive” (Wong, 119).

Reflection:

I had never heard of the hashtag #DisabledAndCute until I read this piece and so I looked it up online and really enjoyed reading more Keah Brown’s intentions with the hashtag. I read a quote where she explains that oftentimes when disabled people are called cute, it is from nondisabled people who are infantilizing people with disabilities, whether they mean to or not. By calling herself cute, she is working to take ownership of how people with disabilities are represented, because its giving a platform for people to represent themselves rather than other people doing it. A quote from this reading I really appreciated was her words on how she used to be a very self-deprecating and angry person but realized one day that that sort of mentality and outlook on life wasn’t worth it and started redirecting her negative thoughts into productive and positive ones. I liked this because I think its very true that in order to stop utilizing a negative mentality, a person has to use that energy towards something else or else they can never break out of the cycle.

Major Project Feelings & Frustrations

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Reminder: 

My project is centered around the idea of relationships in/across disability. To explore this, to educate myself and others I am using mainly anecdotal pieces for perspective. Through this journey I hope to re-direct people’s minds when they think of disability or how they treat a loved one.I’m going to have main sections that will have subsections of information I find relevant for each, some might be longer than others for personal interest sake. The main sections will be Family Relationships, Romantic, Friendships, and a section on Sex/Sexuality (relationship with self). I would like to include mental and physical disabilities since I’m interested in both. Subsections might include a chosen theoretical approach to look at the subject from, important concepts not talked about enough, and why it matters to know the information or what it means. I intend to do a slideshow presentation with different complimentary embedded media forms (I.e., pictures, videos, music).  

Progress: 

So far, I have some resources I’m considering using for information and stories to cite. Additionally, I might try to find scholarly articles with certain statistics but I don’t want this to be heavy research-based and like a story-telling approach more.  

Sexuality/Sex: 

Vice’s Sexual Healing: Inside the World of Medically Assisted Sex 

Robert McRuer’s Sex and Disability  

Alex Taylor’s blog piece titled Disability and Dating: ‘Why do people think I’m my boyfriends’s carer’ 

https://www.easterseals.com/who-we-are/history/  Easterseals Blog 

Romantic: 

Alex Taylor’s blog piece titled Disability and Dating: ‘Why do people think I’m my boyfriends’s carer’ 

https://www.easterseals.com/who-we-are/history/  Easterseals Blog 

*For both Family & Friendship I am trying to decide between a few YouTube videos/interviews to take from but haven’t made a final decision yet* 

Worries/Questions- 

One main concern is how I go about sharing the information and what I share. I want to be able to recognize my status of privilege here, and that I am not “studying” a group of people/ a community I am not a part of. With that in mind, I thought taking from certain approaches or a main one (DS and rhetorical lens as we’ve been learning about) would help reduce that impression and everything stays respectful and educational. I want this to feel insightful and interesting enough to answer certain questions while posing others. I’m having a hard time with resources that I think are solid but I also find it interesting the results I’m getting as they are telling themselves. I’m debating reflecting on it in the presentation, how ignorant some related searches were or how hurtful titles were. I believe the media will be the easiest part to incorporate and the most fun for this though which is exciting.  

Exploring Different Bodyminds in Different Contexts

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Navigating Disability Studies So Far: 

The field of disability studies is one that embraces intersectionality. Given the vast reach the field has and its roots in theory-based work, I cannot promise a precise definition, but I believe that it does not require one. One small example being the tie between disability studies and queer studies. Author Tim Dean summarizes it best in the claim that “What the field of queer studies shares most fundamentally with disability studies is a critique of the effects of normalization on embodiment, desire, and access” (Dean 144). It seems to hold core concepts and values that are apparent to anyone, that is what I would like to focus on. Disability studies is first and foremost representative of all communities, of all identities. This idea brings us to what is known as intersectionality. Since disability studies typically recognize the disability community as a rich culture itself, it is sure to include and explore identities within whether it be race, sexuality, gender and more. That is to say that the discipline highlights different bodyminds from different backgrounds. Secondly, I find representation being another key component tied into intersectionality. What I enjoy most about the study in my early introduction to it is the inclusion of mental health as well. While some may want to argue that a mental health survivor is/isn’t disabled, the discipline and those in it are not concerned with that. Terms and definitions can be extremely helpful when they are not being used to identify others in the upkeep of normalization and seclusion. The discipline represents a space for empowerment and encouragement through the critiques described by Dean. This unique study lends itself well to challenging the status quo and engaging audiences regardless of their knowledge on the subject.  

What Is Still to be Explored: 

There are still numerous unanswered questions I have about this subject, which is expected considering my novice status. I think where my interests lie is learning in more detail how ableism functions, how it’s upheld both implicitly and explicitly. While it has been mentioned and described, I think it just left me wanting to learn more. In addition to that, I want to know what solutions are being tried out or exist in response to ableism and the harm it creates. I think a history type lesson might help here. I would love to be taught about the past, present, and future of disability studies given I still don’t exactly understand how it came about. For anyone else learning about it, I think that approach answers why it is important that disability studies exists in the first place.  

Disability in Relationships 

Relationships in this context includes romantic, sexual, friendships, and family. Reading the novel Disability Visibility gave some insight on relationships in the disability community but it’s worth acknowledging that the community can appear family-like as well. S.e. Smith in their chapter titled “The Beauty of Spaces Created for and by Disabled People” reminds us that “Members of many marginalized groups have this shared experiential touchstone, this sense of unexpected and vivid belonging and an ardent desire to be able to pass this experience along.” (Smith 272). Community and all the smaller social circles that make up a community or culture can be an entire topic itself. However, through every piece I got to read I couldn’t help but feel that there is important relationships established or made here to begin with. Smith is right, being a part of the LGBTQ+ community this feeling is an important one. What one example like this tells me is there are quite literal friendships formed in communities as well as more casual ones built on unspoken, mutual understanding. I don’t believe it is an understanding of “We have the same experiences physically” but more so a powerful moment where someone is seeing another’s humanity and granting them emotional safety possibly for the first time.  

 Family can have different associations for everyone. For example, the idea of chosen family over biological is not foreign to me and one that saved me mentally in the long run. What I liked about my learning journey for disability studies so far, is the possibility of this ringing true for some disabled community members as well. Family experiences are going to range for anyone but two stories in particular stuck with me when it came to family. In “When You Are Waiting to Be Healed” June Eric-Udorie discusses how her disability was viewed by her family as they came from a religious background. June says “At home, conversations about my nystagmus were sparse, except when discussed as a thing God would “deliver me” from.” (Udorie 55). What I gathered from this piece was that June might have felt further pressure from family to conform to a new body that was not possible. While I want to make clear these are others’ experiences and not my own, I recognize that from the story there comes greater pain when normalization is encouraged by loved ones. There’s an interesting push and pull. I believe the family did love their daughter but did not show it in the correct way. June already recalls accounts of being confused by messages of religion, I can’t imagine how hard it was when your support system enables part of that even accidentally. From how she chose to end her story, I think one of the strongest relationships she had was with God and realizing she did not need any saving or “delivering” from anything. In contrast, in the short narrative “Imposter Syndrome and Parenting with a Disability” by Jessica Slice the topic relies on how strong her relationship is with her son and understanding motherhood through a lens that is never discussed. When closing on what makes her a good mom and create such a healthy bond with her son, Slice says “I like to imagine that soon he will find comfort in the fact that I’m so often around, steady and patient, ready to listen.” (Slice 132). My favorite part of Slice’s story is the emphasis on her emotional bonding skills with her son. I think many people in the world can be there physically for their kid, I get that closeness is important. Where many parents fall short is losing the emotional tie because they do not actively/reflectively listen. When that kid grows up and becomes an adult it might be even harder to discuss real issues or sensitive thoughts.  

Rhetoric Fueling Disability Studies 

This topic is a challenging one and one I still would like to do more work with. Most people have a certain image or short description ready in their head when they see the word rhetoric. Initially, I did too, and I assumed I was mostly right. While rhetoric may include the traditional persuasive aspects we come to know in essays and political debates, there is so much more to it. A better question then is how does it work within and for disability studies?   

Rhetoric reaches across verbal and written communication as everything can be rhetorical. A way I tend to view it is rhetoric as energies. Everything has rhetorical energy. Rhetorical energy can come from a person or an object in which people interact with. Not only objects, but our environments in general. I believe there is usually a mutual transfer of this energy from rhetor to audience, rhetor to environment or rhetor to object too. Acknowledging that rhetoric exists inside and outside the world of verbal and written forms opens a lot of doors for those who are disabled. When majority of society leans toward one or two forms of communication in specific outlines for each, people are bound to fail. The normalization mentioned previously is apparent here as it creates a binary of passing and failing. In their book Fading Scars: My Queer Disability History O’Toole makes a point in line with this concept of strict rhetoric stating “Not only are disabled students presumed incompetent, but also students who speak English as a second language” (O’Toole 22). I think the way that schools typically have this issue simultaneously displays how people in general ignore the power of rhetoric in our environments. The same way a politician can give a speech on why disability rights and inclusion matter while sharing rhetorical energy with the audience is the same way a set of stairs can with its own “audience.” If a university is all uphill with only stairs and gates that sends a message. It is not intended for people with a disability because the people who designed it gave them no thought. Whether it is implicit or explicit in its expression, there will always be a rhetorical energy found in the things we create or interact with. O’Toole highlights this when they discuss the exclusion of the disabled community in media and history. They write “We are ignored, overlooked, mislabeled, discounted, omitted, and sometimes intentionally not discussed.” (O’Toole 39). The act of saying nothing can hold the most rhetorical power since it says a lot. Not saying anything can cause a world of violence on a small scale like individual cases to a larger scale like dangerous policies being enacted (or taken away for that matter).  

Bodyminds in a Medical-Focused World 

One of my favorite topics in disability studies so far has to be the inclusion of realizing medical-based ideologies often conflict with the people in which the medical community treats. I’ve personally been more invested in psychological healing like therapy more so than learning about biology treatments and the medical field. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that doctors sometimes fail to be there emotionally for a patient or use proper language of inclusion. Of course, they are trained on ethical and moral issues, but that does not mean they make no mistakes. A medical model of disability is aimed at resolution of the body to reach, once again, a standard of normalization. I bring back s.e. Smith into the conversation as they clearly explain the context we choose to frame those with a disability and the spaces we give them to exist. Smith writes “For disabled people, those spaces are often hospitals, group therapy sessions, and other clinical settings.” (Smith 272). How the majority frames any minority actively has long term effects on how they live and usually the quality of life they live. Specific language used in disability communities is not acknowledged by the medical community whatsoever. We rarely see or talk about disability as a cultural experience and the introduction to disability studies is the first time I have viewed it as such. O’Toole claims “That information is rarely known by nondisabled medical professionals, who are almost always disconnected from the broader disability communities.” (O’Toole 17). The burden of change rests not solely on the medical community but on all of us. When someone is exposed to disability circles, real social settings for their community their quality of life is changed because for once they do not have to justify their existence. I think it is up to everyone outside of disability circles and communities to recognize that different bodyminds are not left for doctors to discuss. The conversation does not start and end in medical settings.  

Work Cited: 

Adams, R., Serlin, D., & Serlin, D. (2015). Keywords for Disability Studies (Keywords). Chapter author: Tim Dean. “Queer”. New York: NYU Press. 

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From The Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong, Vintage, June30th, 2020.  

O’Toole, Corbett Joan.  “Celebrating Crip Bodyminds”, Fading Scars: My Queer Disability History, 1st ed., Autonomous Press, June 9th, 2015. 

Back to the root: Identity

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Section 1: Impersonal — Larger Context

Disability is becoming a broader term by the minute. The line between the disabled bodymind and the abled bodymind is blurrier every day. Disability studies seems to be working to create the disability lens, the outlook I hold responsible for this confusion. The Disability lens is a way to look at, to break down the everyday world with respect to how it interacts with disability. It is my belief that the construction of “lens” is the purpose of disability studies. One cannot add to the “lens”, expand the “lens” without some introspection and investigation into the disabled experience. Many would also stress the importance of knowing how to apply this “lens”. I think we apply lenses instinctually as we learn about the new lens. Discussion about the system of society and the variable Disability give insight on how the lens works. No one person will uniformly use the disability lens, but there are overlapping methods. The most blatant application is using language, a mode of communication unique to communities and cultures.  Most traditional or formal language surrounding disability have a medical origin which often perpetuates an ableist culture.  The medical disability lexicon had and has very little input from the people living with disability, causing that lexicon to be unable to accurately express disabled experience well. Many disabled communities have turned to create new terminology which better facilitates use of the disability lens.  As put by Simi Linton, “This new language conveys different meanings, and, significantly, the shifts serve as metacommunications about the social, political, intellectual, and ideological transformations that have taken place” (9). Ultimately Disability Studies is about deconstructing the default experience in society in favor of spotlighting a periphery experience.  This benefits all participants in society as the process undertaken through disability studies leads to a critique of “normal” which very few people benefit from.

Section 2: Interpersonal — Narrowing the Focus

Moving forward, I want to spend a bit more time focusing on coping methods. I need to clarify this a bit. When I say coping methods, I am particularly referring to the search for community or the avoidance of community. Most people seem to search for community as a way to alleviate stress or discomfort, a way to feel safe. But what about community inspires this sense of safety? Are there instances in which community is actually harmful? Does it deviate in any meaningful way from society at large or is everyone just similar in experience? Is that a meaningful deviation? I would find some exploration into interpersonal communications and identity enlightening as a person who has always struggled to feel support from or attachment to people. It boggles my mind how people can just seemingly join a community and feel strength.

I also hope that we can as a group, the other authors on this blog and I, can reach a tentative definition of disability. With a less nebulous sense of disability, we could probably refine how apply the disability lens. Honestly, maybe further constructing and exploring the disability will help us come up with an agreed upon definition of disability. I think that it would also be able to add more cultural views to the discourse. We are heavily focusing on the US and Canada limiting our view of larger ableist trends and ways to fight ableist narratives. Gaining a solid idea of what disability truly is will help us break down tropes in representation.

I apologize to my fellow authors if this is aggressive. However, I think we speak with a considerable amount of trust that our points are being understood. This is highly unlikely. There have been several instances in which all of us are missing the others’ point. To remedy this, I would like to bring a bit more focus to the larger context behind issues we discuss. I think this will help us establish a base line. I have noticed that the times when points do land are instances when an author gives context to their reasoning and conclusions. I do not think we are examining why these behavior patterns and viewpoints exist nearly enough. How can we understand what is happening without examining all sides and angles? The short answer is we cannot. I am aware I am promoting the inclusion of systems thinking in future discussions, but I believe we will be able to gain more meaningful outcomes from our discussions. I also acknowledge that not all of us may have bac ground knowledge in systems thinking.

Section 3: Personal — My Highlights.

Desirability:     

The world can be classified into two categories what is desired and what is not. This is the framework for concepts such as attraction, beauty, and acceptance. If something is deemed desirable in some aspect it is more easily accepted, considered beautiful and sought after. This is the crux of ableism. An able bodymind is desired because it is convenient, requiring little effort to navigate culture, social situations, and the physical world. This is only the case because an able bodymind is considered the default and something the majority possess. I believe we downplay the amount of people who identify having a disability. According to the CDC, approximately one in for adults in the US report to having at least one disability. Another consideration is disability is higher in minority populations due to socioeconomic factors which already classify those minorities as undesirable in some way. This leads to  It is important to note that this just the portion of the population that will report having a disability. Many times, if a disability is maskable or not blatantly detrimental, the person with this condition will not identify the condition as a disability. This does not mean that it is not impacting their life. But why would they hide or ignore something that is impacting them in such a horrible way? The answer is complex dealing with older social structure such as “Aesthetic values were often used to define in those “lives worth not living”…”(29, Keywords), stigmas surrounding mental health and identity confusion. Aesthetics are based upon desirability and are not limited to the physical. There is such a concept as an aesthetic mindset or school of thought.

Imposter Syndrome:

Have you met the standard to be considered part of this community? Will you be able to? Imposter is an almost fatal disease. It is a fight every day to overcome and often it stops people from reaching out for help. It has mental and physical ramifications. Yet it is rarely acknowledged. We only hear stories where the imposter syndrome is overcome. I have burgeoning theory that imposter syndrome is the outcome when a counter community begins to closely mirror the original norm. The outcome of a standard that excludes individuals it should in theory encompass. A person can feel like they are not disabled enough, like they do not deserve to be leading their research on subatomic particles because they do not look the part of a Physicist, or even that they are not a true parent. This is the case of Jessica Slice, a mother with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which impairs her movement from time to time. “When people talk about Parenting … I can chime in, but a part of me feels like an imposter” (129) she states, and later continues to explain that the cause of this feeling is her inability to move as well as her son. It is a set of capacities she had been told a mother should have that was preventing her from fully identifying as a parent. This example illustrates the main issue with imposter syndrome, if you struggle to feel the sense of validation from an identity is it really your identity or an identity forced upon you?

Intersecting Identity:

Firstly, lets breakdown a working definition of identity. Taking the definition given by Julia Rodas in Keywords for Disability Studies, “Identity is the idea of the self which is understood within and against social context…” (103). In almost all chapters form Disability Visibility multiple identities have been brought up next to disability. Nearly every author focuses on an identity outside of their disability. This is a discussion that is not well developed in the sense it has not been centrally focused upon. However, intersectionality has made a cameo in every discussion we, the authors, have engaged with so far. This leads me to believe it is a necessity to consider. Every person consists of multiple versions of themselves, highlighting certain aspects over others, that they use interact with the world around them. Is it too much of an assumption to say that the true person is an amalgamation of these different selves, different identities? As O’Toole observes, “Each of [O’Toole’s public identity related] circles intersect in [their] life but rarely do these circles interact with each other. Each of these circles contain people who are parts of many other circles such as Black people, working people, etc” (38), identities tend to be kept separate. I believe that this may be due to conflicting interests and consolidating a war to individual battles.  It is hard to focus on fighting against racial prejudice, homophobia, and/or ableism all at once, while making progress. However, there is a time where we need to focus on how a person’s identities combine and shape that person’s experiences.

Works used:

Disability Visibility:

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From The Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong, Vintage, June30th, 2020.

Keywords:

Adams, Rachel, David Serlin, and David H Serlin. Keywords for Disability Studies. Keywords. New York: NYU Press, 2015.

O’Toole, Corbett Joan.  “Celebrating Crip Bodyminds”, Fading Scars: My Queer Disability History, 1st ed., Autonomous Press, June 9th, 2015, pp.13-53

“Normal” is Bull Shit

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What is Disability Studies? And what questions do I have?  

Disability studies is broad, specific, academic, anecdotal, and intersectional; it transcends time. It aims to answer, what is it like to be disabled now? How it was being disabled in the past? How can we improve the world for disabled people moving forward? It is a study of people, places, things, and ideas. Disability studies does not exist in a vacuum; it cannot be seen through a narrow lens, but rather views the world holistically, centering disabled stories and lives. This field is far reaching. Disability studies is a study of race, sexuality, orientation, class, disability, privilege, rhetoric, design, language, limits and beyond. It offers a wider perspective of thinking and progressively looks to embrace and empower intersectional thinking.  

Disability theory is not an algorithmic equation. It cannot be memorized and regurgitated. It is a way of thinking and it’s for everyone. It is story-telling, listening, and amplifying. The way I have thought about it, it’s like putting glasses on your brain. Disability studies sees the world differently than churches, medical labs, and politics; and it acts accordingly.  

An interesting dilemma I am struck by is that I am learning about disability studies in a very ableist place. Higher education perpetrates all the “ism”s, both tangibly and intangibly.  

Disability studies seems to pose more questions than answers.

How, then, can we continue to open the floor for disabled voices in the classroom? How can teaching styles, floorplans, even temperatures be deconstructed to create a space suitable for the masses – including but not limited to disabled folks? How can we question our motives to ensure we aren’t studying out of pity or saviorism? How can we have open-ears but continue to be critical? How can we ensure our actions are not bandaid solutions? How can we actionably move toward a better world for disabled folks that gets at the core of mistreatment? How can we approach disability studies with a wide-reaching theory, while recognizing that disability is not a monolith? 

These questions are posed not to accuse, but to query. I think in the spirit of disability studies, I am called to push forward the spaces I take up. 

Critical thinking, based on our positionality is a huge part of disability studies. It challenges our learned understanding of “normal”. These learned understandings often come from a place of ableism, hierarchy, and individualism, and they must be broken down and unlearned. Because “normal” is bull shit. Disability studies supplies language, action, and conceptual reframing for learners to deconstruct ideas of “normal”. If there is no “normal,” which several authors have claimed thus far, how can we recognize difference? Eliminating “normal” can be misconstrued and create monoliths of understanding, which I am still grappling with. O’Toole, author of Celebrating Crip Bodyminds writes on the complexities normal and how we can balance deconstruction with recognition: 

“Acknowledging that there is no ‘normal’ doesn’t mean that everyone 
experiences disability as a political and social identity. Acknowledging that there is no 
‘normal’ creates a society where difference can be recognized without being diffused or ignored. It does not take away the culture of disability, only adds an opportunity and awareness for us to be more integrated into society as a whole” (O’Toole pg. 12) 

O’Toole mentions integration, which sparks yet another question. Integration can, in cases, lump folks in a way that does not appropriately observe difference. How, then can we acknowledge/recognize without diffuse/ignore?  

The questions keep on coming.

Sex, Beauty, and Disability  

Sex, attraction, and physical beauty are heavy concepts that carry personal and structural weight. Sex and beauty are vulnerable for nondisabled folks who don’t experience marginalization, so bringing in disability is a whole new can of worms. Sex and beauty are often tied closely with white supremacy, consumerism, and unrealistic standards. The rhetoric of the world tells us that disability equals abnormality and abnormality equals ugly. These structures are inherently false, but rampant. Margaret Shildrick wrote on sex and disability in Keywords of Disability Studies. They write about why disabled folks are sexually fetishized or erased, “… we might conclude that it is because sexuality is always a site of deep-seated anxieties about normative forms of embodied being” (Shildrick pg. 165). Shildrick emphasizes that the mistreatment of disabled people comes from projected insecurities. I would argue that those insecurities come from a greater structural standard. Woven throughout Disability Visibility are stories of beauty and sex within the disability community. Stories of lives shared between disabled lovers are portrayed in Sins Invalid as well, a documentary of a performance team in San Francisco. These two learning tools use creative story-telling to enlighten viewers of the multifaceted experiences of disabled people regarding beauty and sex.
 

Rhetoric of space and Crip Space   

As explained in Dolmage’s Disability Studies and Rhetoric, there are myths created about disability that stem from inaccurate rhetoric; rhetoric in the literary sense, rhetoric of space, rhetoric of politics, and rhetoric of economy and culture. The world has given us a language, a physical space, and a general understanding that is built on ableism.

The concept of “crip space” was introduced in Disability Visibility in the chapter The Beauty of Spaces Made for and by Disabled People. Crip spaces are environments that are constructed in a way that not only includes disabled bodyminds, but is centered around them. The concept of crip space is very rhetorical by nature. Spaces produce an ability or inability to exist for disabled people. If an office is on the top floor of a building that only has stair access, a wheelchair user cannot physically exist in that space. If a classroom is taught at the speed of a neurotypical person, that classroom has lost its value for someone who is mentally disabled. No one used their worlds to explicitly tell disabled folks they don’t belong in those spaces, but the spatial rhetoric produced a space in which disabled people cannot exist. s.e. smith argues, “this is precisely why they are needed: as long as claiming our own ground is treated as an act of hostility, we need our ground. We need the sense of community for disabled people created in crip space” (s.e. smith pg. 274).

Healing 

After skimming through my journal, I am struck with the reoccurring topic of healing. This came up several times at the beginning of the quarter. Medical, charitable, social, and cultural scopes of disability have different ideas of what healing looks like. I think the idea of “healing” requires some sort of sickness (something that must be cured). In understanding disability studies, the sickness (what must be cured) is ableism. When You’re Waiting to be Healed is a story that portrays this concept well. It is about a girl growing up in a religious family with Nystagmus. Her family prayed for her eyes to be healed from the “cursed abnormality”. She writes, “I was praying a lot, asking God to heal me so that I could have some sort of normality” (Eric-Udorie pg. 55). She was desperate for her eyes to be healed because the world around her told her that she was the problem. I would argue that disability studies sees our hierarchal culture as the problem.  

RAB: Disability and Queer

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“Queer” by Tim Dean, selected from Keywords for Disability Studies edited by Rachel Adams, Benjamin Reiss, and David Serlin

Summary: 

This piece introduces the historical connections between queer studies and disability studies by first discussing the word queer. Originally, queer was used as a derogatory term to stigmatize not only members of the LGBTQ+ community but those in the disabled community too. Now it is decently well-known as a reclaimed term for empowerment. Dean points out that both queer studies and disability studies challenge the effects of normalization in society when it comes to identity and access. When I say identity, this can include sexual orientation, gender expression, physical appearances, personality itself and much more personal attributes. One example given comes from early activist groups and their slogans. Queer Nation began the chant “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.” And it was common for disability rights organizations to chant “Not dead yet.”  

Then, the term heteronormativity comes into play. Queer itself, is not supposed to challenge or simply be different from heterosexuality, as it challenges heteronormativity. The way Dean explains heteronormativity relates to heterosexuality because it’s based off covert expectations that makes sense of the world. The term is linked to another concept created by Adrienne Rich (lesbian feminist) known as compulsory heterosexuality. Dean claims that compulsory heterosexuality depends on compulsory able-bodiedness. Heteronormativity assumes that a body engaging in sex is healthy and able-bodied to fit the idea of “normal.” Lastly, the concept of “crip theory” is introduced because of its influence from queer and disability studies. Instead of focusing on physical aspects and capabilities of bodies and environments around them this field goes one step further. It wants to take a deeper look at abstract social expectations of what the human body should look like and how someone should behave or perform daily due to heteronormativity.  

Quotes: 

“Indeed, able-bodiedness appears to be even more compulsory than heterosexuality because the former requires the latter” (pg. 144) 

“Queer approaches to thinking about disability and sexuality argue that neither the human body nor its capacities are biologically determined” (pg. 144) 

“In other words, normalization does not exclusively bolster the interests of the so-called normal, since it also puts them at risk” (pg. 144) 

Reflection: 

One thing that I focused on was the idea of normalization. I like how this author framed it, and the references he provided when discussing it piece by piece. While I can’t be positive I fully grasp it from this reading, including Goffman’s take helped. If I’m following correctly, normalization could be a framework that anyone is capable of straying from. That goes to say that anyone is capable of later in life becoming disabled, therefor being stripped of their “normal” social status. I would also argue that while I view a standard normal as being the straight white able-bodied male (and doubtful that will change soon) I think norms can sometimes exist on a continuum. We create new norms and once those are established if you don’t fall in line or can’t make the cut, you are not normal anymore. Normalization is an identity vacuum that exists to continuously eradicate accessibility, education, and mutes every minority.  

Secondly, something this piece reminded me of is the power of taking back hurtful language. Growing up, I vividly remember learning as a young child that “queer” meant weird. It meant different, gross, and was not a word to be associated with. Being a member of the LGBTQ+ community and being able to then grow up and see us take back these terms for empowerment meant a lot. I never knew queer studies and disability studies had this historical, powerful link in that way. Typically, I always emphasize how crucial vocabulary can be, and this author solidified that more for me. It’s not just how we speak about identities but how we don’t speak about them as well. Having learned some bits and pieces of queer history it’s saddening interconnections to other communities like this do not get mentioned or credit.  

RAB: O’Toole’s Insight on Celebrating Crip Bodyminds

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Celebrating Crip Bodyminds
By: Cobett Joan O’Toole

An objective summary of the reading:

O’Toole begins by summarizing their book, explaining their first-hand experience being disabled, and years of studying disability studies. They give anecdotal evidence of just how complex disability is, through a story about a group of women, unable to commit to the term “disabled”. Then they explain the importance of disabled communities and why disabled circles are so important. O’Toole emphasizes the idea that disability is not a monolith, yet it is a communal experience.

O’Toole explains the terms and labels they use throughout their writing and give the reader a literary ground to stand on. Additionally, they provide cultural context, discussing how nondisabled society has determined what “normal” is and how disabled folks navigate this false ideology. From there, O’Toole dives into the misconceptions nondisabled folks have, emphasizing on the erasure or idealization of disabled people.

Later, O’Toole goes back to the language of disability, both in their own life and an academic setting. They give tools and tricks for identifying people based on their intersectional identities.

3 or more quotations (with page numbers):

The page numbers included are the pages from the dox. document!

“Being disabled is a cultural experience which shares many commonalities, even with others with very different disabilities” (pg. 7)

“Normal” is an artificial construct built upon the white, middle-class, male, nondisabled bodymind” (pg. 10) “Nobody is normal” (pg.12).
“Acknowledging that there is no ‘normal’ doesn’t mean that everyone experiences disability as a political and social identity. Acknowledging that there is no ‘normal’ creates a society where difference can be recognized without being diffused or ignored. It does not take away the culture of disability, only adds an opportunity and awareness for us to be more integrated into society as a whole” (pg. 12)

“What do you call a disabled person?” I don’t know the ‘right’ answer, but may I suggest calling him by his name, Bob? But I digress.” (pg.39)

“Was I going to use the academic language? Was I going to use the language of service professionals? Was I going to use the disabled peoples’ self- and community-identifiers? How should the time (late 20th century) and place (United States, more specifically Berkeley, California) shape the language choices?” (pg.37)

“So while I am widely known as being queer in disability, I was much quieter about being queer when negotiating school services for my disabled daughter. I was no less queer, but the school environment was significantly less friendly to queer parents than to non-queer parents. So I prioritized my daughter’s need for services over my own need to educate them about queer and disabled parents.” (pg. 41) Codeswitching and intersectionality

Thoughts:

Something that stuck with me was the way the author wrote. It was a beautiful combination of rightfully unapologetic and understanding of the readers’ potential ignorance. I was struck by some of the language I didn’t know, as someone who is part of the disabled community. Primarily, I had never heard the term “consumer” for a mental disability. I’m eager to learn more about disability studies and the language used both within and outside of the disabled community. I have always found language to be so important, when identifying people; I value language that leaves a baseline for humanness, while making space for differences to be seen and valued. I included a quote about calling a disabled man “Bob” because that’s his name and I found that so grounding!

Identifiers span cross identities, both chosen and culturally given. I admired how the author explained their experience with intersectionality. In the final quote I included, they explain an instance when they code-switched to protect themselves and their daughter. No human fits into a box, we are all combinations of privilege, lack thereof, and positionality. It is so humanizing to recognize these combinations and have the language for them. Language also leaves space for like-bodyminded folks to feel supported and not alone. #intersectionalityordie