In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Carnivals: Submit Now, Read Soon

Cara

Ms. Crip Chick (excellent blogger, btw) is hosting the 37th Disability Blog Carnival. Submissions are due on May 4th:

Here are some topic ideas!:
• What is disability identity? If you are disabled, do you feel disability is a part of you and your experience?
• What is disability culture to you? How do you put it out there or live it every day?
• Does disability intersect with your other identities (i.e. queer person, person of color, person of faith, etc.)?
• Is pride, community, or the Disability Rights Movement important to you? Why or why not?
• How do you feel about the word disabled? Is it a political term with power to you or do you despise it?
• Do you see disability outside of a rights framework (i.e. is disability something that is more than advocacy to you?)
• If you identify with the autistic acceptance movement, the deaf community, or other groups, how do you feel about disability? Many people do not want to associate with the disability community— how do you feel about this?
• Have you felt alienated from the disability community because of racism, exclusion because of your disability, the media or other factors? How has this affected your identity as a disabled person?

And some topic ideas for allies:
• Why is disability important to your work or politics?
• How do you feel about the Disability Rights Movement and what would you say to activists who downplay this movement or even disability as an important social justice issue?
• How do you see disability intersecting with feminism, reproductive justice, and other forms of oppression?
• What do you see in your role as an ally?

I think I’ve made it clear that I was disappointed with this thread on reproductive justice for disabled women. But I was also very impressed by the many who showed up to debate and defend against the ignorance and ugliness. I thought that some of you might be interested in contributing — and that for everyone who participated in the thread, this will be good and necessary reading when its done.

Speaking of carnivals that are particularly relevant as of late, Angry Black Woman is still accepting submissions to The Carnival of Allies. Submissions to this carnival are also due on May 4th, and I hope to see a lot of bloggers both big and small participating.

I call a Carnival. The Carnival of Allies. Where self-identified allies write to other people like themselves about why this or that oppression and prejudice is wrong. Why they are allies. Why the usual excuses are not good enough. I figure allies probably know full well all the many and various arguments people throw up to make prejudice and oppression okay. Things that someone on the other side of the fence may not hear. Address those things and more besides.

And when I say allies, I’m talking about any and every type. PoC can be (and should be) allies to other PoC, or to LGBTQ people if they are straight, or any number of other combinations. If you feel like you’re an ally and have something to say about that, you should submit to this carnival.

Like with the Disability Carnival, even if you don’t contribute because you don’t blog, don’t get the time or don’t feel educated/qualified enough to participate, I strongly hope that you will take the time to read the finished product. It’s going to be important stuff.

23 thoughts on Carnivals: Submit Now, Read Soon

  1. This is probably ignorant, but how is a ‘disability’ defined. I have a learning disability and bipolar disorder – but is that a disability the same way being confined to a wheelchair or autism is?

  2. Interesting question, C, and hopefully others will come along who can give you a more informed answer than I can.

    My answer is that disability is defined in many ways by many different people, the impact that disability has on one’s life varies, and I imagine that it would be up to you to decide how you identify. But I believe that many, including those in the disability rights movement, would classify learning disabilities and bipolar disorder as disabilities, even though many with them do not. I also think that anything you would have to write on that subject would fit very comfortably into this carnival.

  4. There are a variety of viewpoints… I consider my anxiety and my fibromyalgia disabling when not treated (and the latter still seriously impairing even when). I don’t know if I consider the anxiety “a disability” — I’m still picking through that one. I consider my endometriosis disabling half of the month when I’m not being treated. My asthma isn’t disabling at all; it only shows up when I exert myself a little too hard.

    The line is going to be subjective but in general, it’s a disability when it affects your life in a serious way. If it prevents you from working or going to school, or prevents you from having a social life, or prevents you from taking care of yourself. (Problematic wording here, again, bc in most cases it isn’t the condition that’s doing the preventing, it’s the society — also I don’t like “taking care of yourself” bc of the connotation but I’m sort of writing on a quick whim here.)

    It’s certainly something to consider yourself. Read up… definitely check over the carnival when it’s posted, but try just starting at mscripchick’s blog, as she has links to some great writing and organizations. I’m a newbie myself to all of this 🙂 But I can guarantee you one thing — it will shed a lot of light on your body, your mind and your spirit — and on how you relate with them from here on out.

  5. I can’t edit — but I offered the asthma example for contrast. Not every medical “difference” is necessarily a disability. Even Social Security says, no one condition qualifies for disability payments by itself; it’s how it affects you and your life.

    There’s an old standby example… think of a world in which eyeglasses/contacts were only available for the very rich. A LOT of people have less than perfect eyesight. What would become of them? They would be effectively disabled. — the condition itself (in that case, poor eyesight) is not the disability. It’s how much access to society you are afforded when you have that condition.And it varies person to person.

  6. Amanda, I’ve actually never heard the eyeglasses/contacts example, but I think it’s a great one — particularly for people like myself who need them! If I didn’t have glasses or contacts, I wouldn’t be able to leave the damn house. I probably wouldn’t even be able to write this right now. Anyway, thanks for the analogy.

  7. cara, thanks for posting!

    C— bipolar and emotional/behaviorial disabilities are considered disabilities by most people that i know. same with learning disabilities, a lot of the orgs i’m involved w/ are led by people with adhd, learning disabilities, etc.

  8. the legal definition of disability is as follows:

    A person with a disability is someone who
    – has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities;
    – has a record of having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; or
    – is regarded as having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

    (paraphrase of 42 U.S.C. sec. 12102)

    What that means on a practical basis, or even just for you personally … well, that might be an interesting topic for the carnival!

  10. I’m sorry if I used inappropriate language, I can see how the phrase could have been jarring and I’ll keep that in mind for these discussions in future.

  11. Amandaw, I don’t know if I would use “If it prevents you from working or going to school, or prevents you from having a social life, or prevents you from taking care of yourself” as the only criteria.

    I have Asperger’s Syndrome, and a chronic (unrelenting) pain condition. Even together, they are not enough to *totally keep* me from working or taking care of myself.

    But the way society is structured makes it significantly harder for me, as an Aspie, to work in the typical corporate environment, and I’ve lost jobs as a result. The chronic pain condition affects me in many rather subtle ways, none of which result in a total inability to work, care for myself, or have a social life.

    But I still think of myself as disabled, b/c my life is nonetheless negatively impacted.

  12. Jill, thanks for posting this. When I read comments on disability issues on feminist blogs, I really can’t stand it. I get so angry at the level of ignorance and selfishness I see. It’s so offensive. Yet the commenters who leave such harmful comments keep saying they are good people who don’t mean any harm.

    It’s so strange. When I read the comments on the BFP flap, my first thought was, why is everyone getting so upset here? Don’t they know that white feminists aren’t trying to hurt anyone?

    Duh. Sometimes I’m slow. But I’m getting it. We all understand our own life situations just fine, but we make some awful blunders when we attempt to speak for those in different situations. I am sensitive to disability issues, to the way people with disabilities get dehumanized and left out, and I feel that everyone is so blind. Others understand issues that women of color deal with, and to them, I’m so blind. I’ve learned a lot over the past few days, mostly that I need to listen more.

    Thanks for posting on these issues. Thanks to everyone who has been posting on these issues. Especially the angry ones who knocked me off my game and made me get it, just a little.

  13. FYI- The appropriate way to refer to a person who uses a wheelchair- or has any disability, condition etc. that you’d like to describe is, “person first”- so it’s not an autistic person- rather it’s a person who has autism. It’s not a disabled person- rather a person with a disability. etc. etc. ( I like to say a person is “wheelchair mobile”- it’s my own term and after 15 years working with people who have severe/profound disabilities I have found that parents and other educators like it too)
    Amandaw- you said,”it’s how much access to society you are afforded” talking about how disability impacts people. As a teacher certified in severe/profound special education, I am an EXPERT in how access to society is denied to a group of people and how it truly harms them. Fot example, I LOATHE the Special (segregated) Olympics. How many other forms of organized segregation would be given such financial & social support!?!?! When a person who is typically developed wears the special olympics shirt- they are looked at as a saint. Sadly, there isn’t a t-shirt for the coach who allows the young person who has Downs Syndrome to play on the neighborhood team- which gives access to peers & society! The S.O. is WRONG & people feel so damn proud to be a part of it! Like all segregated activities, if the people who S.O. is aimed at are included in their communities, they will have access to what all the other people have access to. Research in education also tells us that people who have significant cognitive impaiments participating with their peers in their communities as the best way for them to learn and use imprtant skills.
    Well, that’s just my 2 cents on a topic that I clearly feel strongly about. I don’t know what it is to have a disability, but as a support person and teacher I’d like to see people in this population allowed access to what the others in their communities have access to. Additionally, I’d like to end segregated activities.

  14. Cool! Hopefully I’ll have something for both.

    I’m a “self diagnosed”/”suspected” aspie (asperger syndrome), and I’m going for testing in a few weeks. I’ve always internally debated whether or not I should call myself “disabled” because it’s not “official”.

  16. GallingGalla — point taken — maybe “prevent” was the wrong word? I was trying to throw out examples. If a condition is cutting in to your ability to live your life as you want to, that is when it becomes a disability, would be one way to word a basic definition. Like I’ve said, I still consider fms a disability, even though I *am* able to work now (part-time, and taking unholy amounts of medication).

    It was especially hard for me to start to grasp since fibro, like many other invisible conditions, is a bit squishy. It’s easy to understand if you have a broken leg that you can’t run — our society has defined the acceptable boundaries of pain such that that’s obvious. Whereas I spent years teaching myself not to continue overworking myself even though I was feeling fucking awful. It’s hard to understand because I can keep going, right this moment, but then if I do, I am going to suffer for it later. But–! my mind would protest. But I can do it right now! That means I can do it, period. Because that’s what “normal” people do, so that must be what I do, because I look normal, so nothing can really be “wrong” with me. Etc.

    And I’d end up in one hell of a flare, and then the minute I started to see the light I’d throw myself back into things again, full steam…

    It’s hard to break.

    Anyway, tangent.

    It takes a lot of consideration, to figure out how you identify yourself. Considering exactly how this condition affects your life, from the way you get up in the morning to the way you conduct yourself around other people. Considering what you think that word, disability, means, in the first place. What it means when you use it around other people, and what you think it should mean. Etc…

    I’ve sort of lost my point by now, but I was riffing in the first place. Certainly I don’t subscribe to the idea that if you aren’t completely immobile, therefore you can’t be physically “disabled” (and corollary for mental). I did try to communicate that in my comment — that “disability” is simply a condition of the body/brain (as much as we can separate the two, anyway) that means that your access to society is impeded in some significant way. Does that make more sense, or am I just digging?

  17. Amandaw, yes, that’s pretty much my thought process, although, I will say that I’m pretty new at this, having been diagnosed with Asperger’s only about 4 months ago, and until recently, trying to push through the pain and not fully deal with the effect on my life. As I’ve said elsewhere, finding out that I’ve got Asperger’s does not mean that my ableism suddenly got erased.

  18. I’m an agoraphobe (fear of crowds and open spaces technically, but in truth it’s a fear of loosing control and having panic attacks.) It impacts my life in wide and interesting ways. Back around Christmas I panicked in a restaurant and had to pay my bill while standing on the sidewalk because I could not go back inside. (Thankfully the waiter was cool about gathering up my purse and jacket.) I don’t know what set me off, because this is a restaurant I go to frequently and I’ve been back since with no problems. Just the other day I had a panic attack and had to call in sick to work. I couldn’t leave the house, but the next day I was out and about without a problem.

    Between the unpredictable panic attacks and being unable to trust people to the extent needed to maintain relationships, I would say agoraphobia, along with bouts of depression, impact my life to a significant degree. I don’t consider myself disabled though…mostly because I’m a control freak and refuse to let other people label me. 🙂

  20. EKSwitaj:
    I apologize if I was wrong- I just go by what is most accepted in my field. Perhaps b/c I am working with people who have much lower functioning levels than you and the people who wrote those blogs seem to, the language is used differently. Because you can so eloquently explain how/ why you are and are not identified by your disability I respect what you wish to be called- an autistic person. The students I have- if they have autism- are non verbal- unable to comunicate effectivly using alternate methods, and spend a large portion of their days engaging in self-stim (yes, I know we all do on some level- but this is the more stereo-typical stim you see in bad movies). The students I have who use wheelchairs are typically multi-handicapped, some have dual-sensory impairment etc. I have heard my students referred to (by people who know their names no less) as “the purple wheelchair” “the autistic one who chews himself” etc. so I use person-first language to really underline that these are people- not the sum of what makes them different or the equipment they use. Maybe there are different levels of what is acceptable for different levels of disability? Maybe if a person can’t express how they would like to be referred to- we should err on the side of being “PC” and talk about the people they are? If a person can’t express how they self-identify how does one refer to them or their disability? I don’t know. I just hope to do what is most right or at least the least wrong.

  21. T., I think it’s important to call into question where the “PC” terms are coming from before deciding that that is where we should err in referring to someone who cannot or is not yet able to express their personal preferences. Are caretakers better qualified to decide that then people who are taken to have higher functioning forms of the same disability? (Incidentally, assuming that someone is “high functioning” on the basis of their written eloquence is highly problematic.)

    The examples you give are fundamentally different, too. Referring to someone metonymically by the tool they use is inherently dehumanizing. However, calling someone an autistic person is no more dehumanizing than to refer to me as a short, blonde, white, freckled person or an expatriate or a US citizen or a college graduate. And the only reason to think so is the assumption that there is something inherently wrong with being autistic. I guess what I’m trying to get at is that it’s more important to think about the attitudes that underlie language use than to create a set of rules.

  22. EKSwitaj,
    First, I didn’t say you or others were “high fuctioning” because of your writing- I said that my students were much lower functioning. My students are 15-21 years old, and are unable to use the bathroom, eat, communicate, ambulate independently, get dressed, or WRITE at all. I don’t assume that anyone is necessarily high functioning- I have known people who could write or read or do many things, but their daily functioning was still severely impacted. So, yes I guess you’re right, that would be problematic, but it isn’t wat I was saying.
    Also, I never implied that there was anything inherently wrong with being autistic, using a wheelchair, communicating with pictures, having a texture/touch schedule- but I am not the one that I use person-first terms for. I use it for the people who only see a set of disabilities and not a person. I don’t think that it seperates the person from their disability. And if it does, it is not meant to suggest that the experiences and totallity of being an autistic person don’t add to or change each person- I think it says that there is an PERSON who has a disability. Because my students need support in all areas of their lives, I see how they can become dehumanized by those who do not know them or do not know any better. I see people talk about them right in front of them, refer to them by nasty terms where they can hear it because all people see is a disability and not a person. No matter how people identify in terms of their disabilty they are still PEOPLE- deserving of respect. And no, I don’t think I am more qualified to decide how to refer to my students, but I do feel like I have a duty to humanize my students with my speech to people who are so ignorant that they need to be reminded that they are not furniture.

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