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The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability
... Medical models of disability focus on impairment understood as loss or limitation to an individual's psychological or physiological structure. Disability as a concept, in contrast, focuses more on the ability of individuals to fully participate in social life and the typical roles expected of citizens (Oliver 1996, Wendell 1996. Visual or hearing impairment, for example, may or may not be disabling if social structures do not prevent an individual from fully participating in activities constructed as normative. ...
... Furthermore, as Goffman (1963) and others have argued, stigma itself is disabling. Wendell (1996), for example, elaborated how stereotypes about people with disabilities lead others to assume the underlying impairment has a totalizing effect on an individual's ability to participate in the social world. In other words, individuals with impairments are assumed to be completely disabled and prevented from functioning in all contexts, rather than only in specific situations. ...
... The social construction of the normate begs the question 3 Here I use the phrase 'read as male' to indicate that an individual's gender identity may or may not correspond to how they are perceived in the social world. That said, as sociologists we typical for whom (Wendell 1996)? Decades of feminist scholarship have revealed how medical data has often excluded biologically female bodies from necessary research (Criado-Perez 2019). ...
More than any event in recent memory, the COVID pandemic compelled people worldwide to confront how decisions made at the top levels of institutions led to devastating consequences and exacerbated inequalities. People who typically experience a great deal of societal privilege were forced to reckon that the systematic failure of structure could impact them directly in previously unimagined ways. This article explores how COVID was both a gift and a curse for those who live at the intersection of invisible disabilities and other social identities. For individuals with class privilege and invisible disabilities, COVID required employers to accommodate work-from-home and flexible scheduling options on a scale previously unavailable to most workers. While this may have supported productivity for some individuals, those gains were not available to all. Given that we do not yet know how many survivors of COVID will experience long-term side effects, societies will continue to wrestle with supporting large numbers of workers who find themselves in the disabled category for the first time. This article examines how invisible disability intersects with existing social statuses in a way that holds up a mirror to society more broadly, forcing it to confront its able-bodied privilege.
... Instead, women must face the realities listed above along with the myths and stereotypes built on a history of oppressive ignorance. Susan Wendell (1996) writes about how society contributes to the disabling of people by misconstruing what it means to have a disability. This process of othering occurs in two ways: firstly, through omitting the real, lived experiences of people with disabilities from social discourse; and secondly, through stereotyping. ...
... UBC v. Berg is notable in terms of human rights jurisprudence for defining the term "public" and the phrase "customarily available to the public". Perhaps the root of the issue is a desire to keep disability in the private sphere of responsibility (Wendell, 1996). Maybe, at some level, it is about ensuring those with privilege continue to be able to determine who is afforded mobility and status and who is not. ...
... I am aware that in talking about women and disability and mental illness, I am using language that may universalize experiences and mask difference, something that must be acknowledged in a paper that is attempting to look at issues of intersection and respect for contextualization. I do this, however, to limit the scope of the discussion, not to discount the ways in which an individual"s experience is shaped by myriad factors (seeWendell, 1996). ...
According to the Supreme Court of Canada’s most recent equality law ruling in Withler v. Canada (Attorney General) (2011), considerations of context must be central to a discrimination analysis. As the jurisprudence evolves, discrimination cases in Canadian courts are becoming increasingly complex and some legal experts predict that we will see a rise in the number of disability rights claims. To date, very few cases involving women and mental health have made their way up to Canada’s highest court. This paper uses a gendered analysis of disability to examine three Supreme Court of Canada decisions: University of British Columbia v. Berg (1993), Winnipeg Child and Family Services (Northwest Area) v. G. (D.F.) (1997), and Gosselin v. Québec (Attorney General) (2002). The results indicate that in cases where gender and mental health intersect, the Court is unwilling or unable to deal with issues of intersectionality in order to recognize the gendered experience of mental illness. Yet, the Court continues to point to one of these cases, Gosselin, as an example of how to get the contextual analysis right. When it comes to women and mental health, it appears that equality and justice may continue to give way to decontextualization and stereotype.
... In The History of Sexuality (1978), he critiques the ways in which regimes of knowledge have regulated and normalised bodies, constructing hierarchies that determine who is deemed legitimate, deviant, or in need of discipline (Weeks, 2016). This is particularly relevant for understanding the experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals and persons with disabilities in academia, as both groups have historically been subjected to pathologisation, exclusion, and invisibilisation (Wendell, 1997). Universities, as sites of knowledge production, do not simply reflect broader societal norms but actively participate in the governing of identities, often through institutional policies that claim neutrality while perpetuating exclusionary practices. ...
... Research on disability and discrimination in higher education highlights how students with disabilities often experience a lack of institutional support, inadequate accommodations, and paternalistic attitudes that further add to their marginalisation (Ćavar & Opačić, 2023). Unlike LGBTQIA+ individuals, who face explicit hostility, GBV against individuals with disability is often rooted in infantilisation and the denial of their sexual agency, reinforcing stereotypes that render them invisible victims of harassment and violence (Wendell, 1997). Moreover, sexual violence against persons with disabilities is frequently dismissed or inadequately addressed due to misconceptions about their capacity for autonomy and consent (Mršević, 2013). ...
... Both groups face systemic exclusion, institutional inaction, and social stigma, yet the mechanisms of violence differ. LGBTQIA+ individuals encounter overt hostility, discrimination, and pressure to conform to heteronormative norms, whereas disabled individuals are often desexualised and infantilised, making their experiences of GBV less visible and more easily dismissed (Wendell, 1997). This aligns with the broader literature on ableism, which constructs disability as a site of dependency rather than agency, limiting institutional recognition of GBV against disabled persons (Mršević, 2013). ...
After four years of implementation of the UNIGEM (Universities and Gender Mainstreaming) project at 19 universities in the region, the follow-up study “Echoes of Change: Advancing Gender Equality in Higher Education in the Balkans” presents an analysis and synthesis of the results obtained. In light of this research, we remain optimistic, despite the growing influence of anti-gender narratives that spread disinformation and promote fear in the wider society regarding gender equality. On the one hand, measurable progress has been achieved: students, university staff and administrative staff have shown increased awareness of gender equality and gender-based violence; universities have adopted Gender Action Plans (GAPs) and other strategic documents; and gender-related content has been integrated into curricula.
... Prior to the emergence of FDS as a distinct field in the early 2000s, a series of texts written by disabled women used feminist theory and methods to respond to the intellectual and political work of disability rights organizers, especially that of British social modellists (Morris 1991(Morris , 1996Wendell 1996;Thomas 1999). The social model of disability, initially developed between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s, represented a seismic shift in how disability was conceptualized in the West; it posits that the oppression of disabled people is a result of the exclusions of social structures rather than the limits or failures of one's own body. ...
... While celebrating the transformative conceptual work of the social model, feminist theorists writing about disability in the 1990s grappled with how embodiment theory could enrich the social model's conceptualization of the relationship between impairment and disability (Morris 1991;Crow 1996;Wendell 1996;Thomas 1999). They also contested social modellists' claims that theorizing difference alongside disability-for example, by considering the unique relationship between gender and disability-would dilute and fragment the political goals of disability organizing and theorizing. ...
... Although the early scholarship I discuss here does not explicitly call itself feminist disability studies (a term originated in the early 2000s by American theorists), I contend that British feminist theorists like Jenny Morris (1991Morris ( , 1996, Liz Crow (1996), and Carol Thomas (1999), Canadian philosopher Susan Wendell (1996), and American theorist and activist Marta Russell (2019) shaped and informed many of the field's central theoretical boundaries and questions. Taken as a whole, these individual authors' works critique the universalizing and androcentric tendencies of the social model of disability. ...
Despite overlaps in their theoretical roots and objects of inquiry, feminist disability studies (FDS) have yet to be meaningfully integrated into social work’s eclectic theoretical fabric. In this article, I trace the history and evolution of FDS as an academic field. In doing so, I highlight some of the ways that FDS offers rich conceptualizations of phenomena relevant to social work scholarship, including disability and debility, social justice, the marketization of care, and coalitional care politics. This discussion emphasizes the value of adopting a nuanced conceptualization of care in social work to understand the inextricable linkages between the liberation of care workers and disabled people. In the second section, I examine some current frictions between social work and FDS, and identify generative possibilities of tending to these frictions rather than avoiding them. I present a vision for an expansive future of social work scholarship that mobilizes the conceptual contributions of FDS and begins to redress the ableism endemic in social work research and theory. I focus this discussion on two opportunities: the utility of adopting a gradient understanding of disability identity in social work scholarship, and the value of a coalitional approach to analysing and conceptualizing care.
... Theoretical framework: We used the theoretical foundations of the concept of disability from social and philosophical perspectives, based on the works of Susan Wendell (1996), Michael Oliver (1996) and Tom Shakespeare (2006. ...
... Furthermore, Wendell (1996) approaches the concept of disability as an issue of social justice. She argues that society must recognize and value human diversity, including people with disabilities, and ensure that everyone has equal access to resources and opportunities. ...
... She argues that society must recognize and value human diversity, including people with disabilities, and ensure that everyone has equal access to resources and opportunities. Wendell (1996) highlights the importance of a human rights-based approach to promoting inclusion and equality for people with disabilities. ...
Objective: This article addresses the specific problems of state protection for deaf women who are victims of domestic violence who, in addition to the frequent problems of the system, face linguistic and cultural barriers in accessing the State and the Judiciary. Theoretical framework: We used the theoretical foundations of the concept of disability from social and philosophical perspectives, based on the works of Susan Wendell (1996), Michael Oliver (1996) and Tom Shakespeare (2006). Method: According to the objectives, this research is classified as exploratory, aiming to deepen the content, based on a bibliographic survey on the subject, using books, magazines, newspapers and legislation. The research follows the monographic procedure, with application of the deductive method and, in relation to the results, is classified as qualitative. Results and discussion: We highlight the importance of Central de Atendimento à Mulher, Centros de Referência (CRAM) and Centros Especializados de Atendimento à Mulher em Situação de Violência (CEAM), especially for deaf women, due to their special communication needs, the challenges they face and the perspectives of these systems. Implications of the research: The integration of theoretical perspectives on gender and deafness was proposed, highlighted as a challenge to be overcome, promoting the understanding that the struggles of these movements are interconnected. Originality/value: We conclude that the path presented involves not only the critical analysis of legal devices, but also the integration of diverse theoretical perspectives, aiming to guarantee equity and full participation of deaf women in society and that state service spaces are essential to receive complaints, offer legal guidance and refer cases of gender violence.
... To date, the theory-building on emotional reactions to disability (1) remains somewhat limited as it mainly relies on reflections informed by sociological, philosophical, anthropological, and psychoanalytical theories: disabled scholars ruminate about the emotional foundation of discriminatory behaviour, they (or their disabled study participants) are experiencing (see e.g., Davis, 1995;Goodley, 2011Goodley, , 2012Marks, 1999;Murphy, 1995;Quayson, 2002;Shakespeare, 1994;Shildrick, 2007;Tervooren, 2003;Watermeyer & Swartz, 2016;Wendell, 1996) rather than explore subjective perspectives of persons who experience an emotional reaction to disability (notable exeptions see Schweik, 2009;Waldschmidt et al., 2009). ...
... Interacting with someone whose body evades their control, many ablebodyminded people will feel uncomfortable (Ancet, 2013;Dederich, 2015). The myth of being able to control our bodies incites shame and fear of deviations from that ideal (Wendell, 1996). Disabled people embody common projected fears of a "lack of control, inefficiency, dependency, pain, and limits associated with bodies that are physically impaired" (Lelwica, 2020, 58). ...
... In Sigmund Freud's (1905Freud's ( /2002 Which othering emotional reactions to disability do Disability Studies discuss based on abjection? The repertoire of emotions that is associated with a repressed commonality comprises of ambivalent emotions (Goodley, 2011;Hughes, 2012b;Shildrick, 2007)among them fear and anxiety (Hughes, 2012b;Kafer, 2013;Murphy, 1995;Waldschmidt et al., 2009), shame and embarrassment (LaCom, 2007;Lelwica, 2020;Wendell, 1996), aversion and disgust (Hughes, 2012a(Hughes, , 2012bSheppard, 2018;Shildrick, 2007) as well as desire (Goodley, 2012;Shildrick, 2007). 7 People with a larger body size similarly affront standards of self-control. ...
This paper traces the challenges of writing about an emotional othering of disabled people – between abjection and fetishization. These challenges can firstly be characterized as conceptual challenges. To date, theory-building in Disability Studies about emotional reactions to disability has mainly relied on disabled scholars’ ruminations on an emotional foundation for the discriminatory behaviour they experience. Further challenges arise within the ethical realm. When writing about an emotional othering, one risks reproducing the underlying violence. To navigate these challenges, I locate emotional reactions to disability in a social imaginary, which I further characterize as dis/ableist in the structural sense. After all, alleged reactions to disability reveal less about disabled people (as subjects or a collective) than about the respective socio-cultural context in which these reactions are acquired.
... Para exemplificar essa representação, podemos citar uma foto em que Anastasia Pagonis traja um vestido curto com uma fenda na barriga, está sentada no parapeito de uma sacada, uma das mãos segura o cabelo enquanto a outra está pousada no pescoço; a atleta olha para a câmera como se tivesse a intenção de seduzir a audiência. 3 Expandindo as ideias foucaultianas sobre as práticas disciplinares que produzem os "corpos dóceis", Wendell (1996) aponta a existência de processos que produzem um corpo que, através de seus gestos e aparência, é reconhecidamente feminino. Essas práticas visam produzir corpos de determinados tamanhos e configurações, e com um repertório de gestos, posturas e movimentos. ...
... Essas ideias de feminilidade, porém, estão extremamente atreladas às noções patriarcais, e até machistas, de gênero. Segundo Wendell (1996), a normalização dos corpos femininos e a busca por feminilidade são forçadas pelos outros, mas também internalizadas. Para a autora, a proximidade aos padrões de normalidade pode ser um dos aspectos centrais ou muito importantes da identidade do sujeito, assim como a busca por aceitação social é um aspecto que compõe o respeito próprio. ...
Resumo: Os estudos feministas da deficiência nos mostram que o esporte é uma arena marcada por corpos masculinos e sem deficiência. Dentro dessa arena, a mídia tem papel fundamental ao reforçar estereótipos de gênero e normatividade. Por outro lado, as atletas paralímpicas têm, cada vez mais, utilizado as mídias sociais para se autorrepresentarem e tomar o controle da narrativa sobre seus corpos, histórias e deficiências. Ao empregarmos a análise de conteúdo, buscamos explorar as formas de autorrepresentação feitas por duas atletas paralímpicas, uma brasileira e uma norte-americana, no Instagram, focando suas representações relacionadas à tríade: gênero, deficiência e esporte. Nossos resultados apontam que a brasileira se representa primeiro como atleta, reforça os padrões de feminilidade sem, no entanto, esconder sua deficiência, enquanto a norte-americana opta por focar sua identidade enquanto mulher.
... This worry is especially pertinent given the notorious history of disability studies-notorious in so often treating disability homogenously, either by leaving out "difficult" cases of disability from analysis, glossing over important differences between disabled people's lives (including, but not solely, along multiple axes of identity, social location, oppression, etc.), and so on. There is a lot to cite on this point, but I'd suggest especiallyWendell 1996 andBell 2006. ...
Responses to commentaries by Carlson, Dryden, Hall, and Kittay.
... Critical disability studies scholar Lennard Davis (2013) argues that disability is a social construct mediated by institutional and ideological frameworks and a medical condition. Similarly, Susan Wendell (1996) contends that minority voices are often excluded from public narratives of illness, reinforcing the notion that certain illnesses are invisible. Ramprasad's memoir interrupts this discussion by highlighting the lived experience of an Indian woman, balancing the consequences of both the diasporic status and mental anguish. ...
The article critiques the structural barriers and inaccessibility in health care followed by the torments of the psychiatric system through the critical anatomy of the biomedical, social, cultural, and political contemptuousness associated with mental disorders in India. By adopting the qualitative approach and critical discourse analysis, the article studies Gayathri Ramprasad’s memoir Shadows in the Sun to explore the representation of a depressed mind in the process— from the onset of the symptoms till recovery, followed by finding a way to live with and manage depression by hiding behind the façade of normalcy, in a milieu that is oblivious and nescient on the issues of mental illness. By emphasizing personal experiences with depression, the study argues that Ramprasad writes this illness narrative by presenting the numerous shades of a depressed mind that is consistently episodic— from a mind with a disorder to feeling normal, to losing in oblivion, to finding a cure in the holistic wellness engaging mind, body, and soul. The study poses depression as a political and cultural epiphenomenon as much as it is a biological anomaly by foregrounding how depression leads to disability and discrimination, including the relationship between depression and gender.
... Für diese Frage bin ich einer oder einem Gutachter*in dieses Artikel dankbar, leider kann diese Frage aufgrund von Platzgründen hier nicht weiter erörtert und muss auf einen anderen Artikel vertröstet werden. 19 Ein guter Überblick findet sich in Barnes (2009);Hänel (2022); Reynolds (2019); Wendell (1996). 20 Siehe auch Reynolds (2017Reynolds ( , 2022 sowie Peña-Guzmán und Reynolds (2019). ...
Zusammenfassung
Ausgehend von standpunkttheoretischen Überlegungen soll gezeigt werden, dass behinderte und chronisch kranke Personen notwendige Erkenntnisse über Gestaltungsfehler von Institutionen des Gesundheitswesen haben können; einerseits, indem sie aufgrund ihrer Abhängigkeit von diesen Institutionen Probleme wahrnehmen, die von anderen übersehen werden und, andererseits, weil sie bereits Handlungsstrategien der Navigation dieser Institutionen entwickelt haben, die zur Fehlerbehebung herangezogen werden können. Dabei liegt ein Fokus auf sogenannten dominanten Intelligibilitätsrahmen, die dazu führen, dass Institutionen des Gesundheitssystems schon in ihrer Gestaltung problematische Züge annehmen können. Wohingegen sich die bisherige Forschung auf sogenannte interpersonale Probleme innerhalb von Institutionen (zum Beispiel aufgrund von problematischen Vorurteilen oder Unwissen von Akteuer*innen innerhalb der Institutionen) fokussiert, soll hier das folgende Problem beleuchtet werden: Trotz der Tatsache, dass die in Gesundheitsinstitutionen beschäftigten Akteur*innen einen moralischen Anspruch an ihr Handeln anlegen (diese berufsethischen Wertevorstellungen spiegeln sich zumindest teilweise in den Berufsordnungen der jeweiligen Landesärztekammern oder Gelöbnissen wie der Genfer Deklaration des Weltärztebundes und werden populärwissenschaftlich durch Hippokratischen Eid beschrieben), lassen sich gerade auch im Gesundheitswesen problematische epistemische Praktiken auffinden, die – so die These des Artikels – bereits im Design der jeweiligen Institution angelegt sind und nicht in den spezifischen Handlungen der dort Beschäftigten.
... The terms "disability," "disabled person," and "person with a disability" are all problematic as they come with layer upon layer of discourse, assumptions, and standard narratives (Davis, 2016;Garland-Thomson, 2005McRuer, 2013;Wendell, 1989Wendell, , 1996. As a means of resisting ableism, I choose not to use these terms but rather to use precise, nonpathologizing language (Garland-Thomson 2005). ...
This paper explores how ableist assumptions can unintentionally create barriers to participation in research by those of non-normative bodies or minds. In traditional epistemology, bodies are considered “universal” rather than “specific,” and the universal body is coded as fully able-bodied and independent with brain and body adhering to normative standards of the White heterosexual English-speaking male. In this article, I present a story of “enabling participation” for those of diverse body capacity in my work with young women living with chronic illness.[1]Specifically, I explore the accommodations and adaptions I made to my research design to account for the non-normative form and function of my participants’ bodies and my own. Using the method of participant action research, the research participants became research co-collaborators as we collectively developed resources based on insider knowledge. Through sharing the story of my research, I invite other researchers to consider ways of enabling participation for a diverse array of bodies and minds in their own research.
... Pieri (2022) describes 'the contradiction of vulnerability' as a lost opportunity to 'integrate the embodied knowledge acquired by disabled and chronically ill people' since 'disability maintained its status as a special form of vulnerability' (108). Disabled bodies denote a leaky unruly corporeality that provokes the normative construction of a disciplined and well contained able body/mind (Soldatic and Meekosha 2012;Wendell 1996). The decisions of the MOESY and the discussions behind them clearly reflect the contradiction of vulnerability and the adoption of the normative understanding of corporeality and vulnerability. ...
This paper examines the impact of ableism on education policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on parental experiences in Cyprus. Through qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data, four themes emerge: fragile rights, a fragile education, unruly bodies at/as risk, and parents’ advocacy. Findings highlight the pervasive influence of ableism in emergency policy measures, resulting in non-inclusive measures that neglected disabled children’s needs. Parents describe how lockdown measures deprived disabled children of accommodations and exacerbated educational inequalities. They explain how policy decisions reflected a lack of belief in inclusive education and reinforced regressive practices. Disabled children were stigmatised as both vulnerable and contaminatory, leading to discriminatory policies. Parents’ advocacy efforts challenged ableist decisions and emphasised the importance of inclusive education. This study underscores the necessity of forming coalitions to combat ableism and safeguard the rights of disabled children within education communities in the post-pandemic era.
... As Charlton (1998, p. 27) notes, 'shame and other manifestations of this process are devastating, for they prevent people with disabilities from knowing their real selves'. To have an unruly corporeality is one of great shame, signifying to the public a rejected body (Wendell 1996) and a corporeality that is in fact of 'no social value' (Siebers 2008, p.162). ...
p>There has been a growing global statistical panic surrounding ‘disability’ over recent years. This disability anxiety has been couched around a discourse of unsustainability as governments use a particular set of disability statistics to argue that they can no longer afford disability welfare that is, one of fiscal doom and gloom, “looming in the horizon”(Woodward, 2009, p. 197). Such concerns have been occurring across most OECD countries, and these statistical discourses of disability fiscal panic have become normalised with the onset of austerity measures since the financial crash in late 2007. Global policy institutionssuch as the OECD, World Bank and the IMF have situated disability within economic discourses of global restructuring (Grover & Soldatic, 2013). Disability is thus now central to eco-nomic debates pertaining to the future ‘health’ of the nation that dominates debates of welfare retraction that aim to move people off welfare and into the world of work (Soldatic, 2013).</p
... 279) Bell's (2006) critiques draw attention to seminal disability studies writings such as those by Michael Oliver (1990) that focus on disability rights but do not discuss the discrimination associated with one's race and ethnicity. Notably, there are feminist disability scholars such as Garland-Thomson (1994, 1997, Linton (1998) and Wendell (1996) that draw attention to the intersections of gender and disability. To her credit, Garland-Thomson's (1997) notion of the 'normate'the unspoken but understood idealized body -is white, yet in the broader scope of the field, issues related to race and ethnicity as elemental to its understanding and portraying of intersectionality were few and far between. ...
... The definition of disability as a social construction is based on the idea that disability is the product of specific cultural circumstances (Wendell, 1996). Namely, people with disability are not always treated by society in the same way. ...
A general consensus of related researches on disability the last fifteen years is that disability ought
to be understood as a social construction. Disability requires to be approached as a product of the
obstacles that society itself places on the individuals with disability. In other words, disability should
be examined within a broader social environment since it is defined in social terms. It seems that the
identity of disability is not a definitive personal feature but it is a concept constructed by society since
it is society that determines the limitations that render the individuals disabled and denies them the
right to fully participate in social life. As a result, the identity of disability is shaped by the citizens’
views on disability which are formed and differentiated according to their social and cultural context.
During a financial crisis, the social and cultural context is being redefined and changed. The question
that rises is how the change of the financial status of Greek citizens, due to the financial crisis that
they face, influences the identity of disability.
With the aforementioned in mind, a research was conducted exploring whether the financial status
of Greek citizens has influenced their attitudes towards disability. More specifically, the present
research was conducted in the prefecture of Ioannina, Greece. The findings revealed that the higher
the citizens’ incomes are the more positive their attitudes towards disability are. In particular, it was
noted that citizens with lower incomes compared to those with higher incomes are against the
inclusion of students with and without disability. Furthermore, citizens with lower income perceive
that people with disability and people without disability cannot be equally happy. Therefore, a
negative image of disability has been documented - an identity of disability which requires to be
reconstructed without any delay.
... Shakespeare não foi o único, dentre os teóricos dos estudos da deficiência, a propor uma abordagem que reconsiderasse o corpo. Carol Thomas (2002;2007) e Susan Wendell (1996) foram teóricas feministas a trazerem análises de que a retórica do modelo social, no intuito de enfatizar os aspectos materiais das barreiras restritivas, ignorou a dimensão corporal de forma significativa, provocando um "esquecimento" ou "apagamento" do corpo. Entre as contribuições delas ao debate, foi defendida a importância do cuidado e exigiram uma discussão sobre os gravemente deficientes --aqueles cuja gravidade do impedimento jamais serão independentes e produtivos para a vida social, não importando quais ajustes arquitetônicos ou de transporte sejam promovidos 58 . ...
Com este ensaio, coloco em perspectiva aportes dos estudos da deficiência que buscaram descrevê-la como desigualdade, a fim de aproximá-la de conceitos de Pierre Bourdieu. Uma das principais afirmações do chamado modelo social ou modelo britânico da deficiência foi explicá-la como opressão pelas barreiras do capitalismo ao corpo com impedimentos (alterações ou lesões) corporais. Quais os limites desse axioma ao descrever a deficiência como desigualdade? Ele é capaz de explicitar as raízes da desigualdade por deficiência? A partir de uma ancoragem na sociologia do corpo, busco analisar como os conceitos de corpo, habitus, hexis corporal e campo em Bourdieu superam dicotomias essencializadoras dos estudos da deficiência em torno dos pólos impedimento/deficiência, para estabelecer uma aproximação entre o conceito de habitus à interação social. Por fim, coloco em escrutínio o alcance e a validade de modelos propostos no eixo eurocentrista-estadunidense para o contexto do Sul Global, em cenários de capitalismo periférico.
... No Brasil, estamos ainda começando a conversa: de um lado, estão os estudos da deficiência com uma característica marcadamente interseccional para feminismos diversos; de outro, estão os estudos feministas que reproduzem modelos biomédicos ou essencializadores sobre os corpos atípicos (Debora DINIZ, 2003;2007;DINIZ;Ivone GEBARA, 2022;Raquel GUIMARÃES, 2010;Adriano NUERNBERG, 2012;Gisele MOZZI, 2018;Marivete GESSER;Maria Juracy TONELI, 2012). Autoras como Rosemarie Garland- Thomson (2002;2005), Adrienne Asch (2004), Jenny Morris (1992; e Susan Wendell (1996), entre outras, apontaram como a questão da deficiência e dos corpos atípicos é transformadora para as lentes feministas. Todavia, entre nós, ainda não foram propostos dossiês e seções temáticas desde o marco analítico, existencial e político da deficiência e dos corpos atípicos em periódicos do campo dos estudos feministas e de gênero, como a Revista Estudos Feministas e a Cadernos Pagu. ...
... Ableism is, according to Campbell (2001, p. 44), 'a network of beliefs, processes and practices that produce a particular kind of self and body (the corporeal standard) that is projected as perfect, species-typical and therefore essential and fully human'. Wendell (1996) notes that what is 'normal' functioning is at least partly socially constructed and dependent on the society in which one lives. Adaptations are, then, concessions from the 'ideal' and therefore almost by definition 'inferior' (cf. ...
The UK government has called for employers to make work adaptations in response to changes in health individuals may experience as they age. However, government assumptions place too much emphasis on the voluntary actions of employers and managers, without placing the management of health in a wider context. Drawing on insights from Thompson’s disconnected capitalism thesis, we explore whether financial/competitive pressures facing many private and public sector organisations today, alongside other factors, contribute to organisations not considering or implementing work adaptations. In this context, it is suggested that older workers may also hide health issues because of anxiety, or ‘ontological precarity’, regarding working longer. Qualitative case studies compare the delivery of work adaptations in three organisations: ‘Local Government’, ‘Hospitality’, and ‘Trains’. Work adaptations were only widely available in Trains; this was for a range of reasons, including the fact that Trains was relatively insulated from financial pressures and able to deliver job and financial security for older workers. As many older workers will continue to be employed by organisations similar to Local Government and Hospitality, we argue that policy makers cannot rely solely on employers to make adaptations.
... herself. This appears to contradict Wendell's (1996) experience of being able to accept her own status as a person with chronic illness but struggling to obtain the same acceptance of her status from others. P3 described the extra effort she would normally have to make to hide her emotions and facial expressions, but that she did not have to do so much due to wearing a mask at work. ...
Although chronic illness is increasingly widespread among teachers, how chronic illness impacts teachers remains largely under-investigated (Brown & Leigh, 2018). This qualitative study of four English teachers with chronic illness in Japan investigates their methods for attempting to bypass barriers created at work by their illnesses and the steps they take to ameliorate their situation. The data suggested that teachers employed a range of job crafting techniques (Berg, et al., 2013), such as altering or choosing not to do certain tasks, changing their interactions with others at work, and adjusting their thinking about work, tasks, and colleagues. These techniques helped the teachers reduce the impact of their illnesses. The findings of this study can act as a guide for teachers with chronic illness, in addition to raising awareness of teachers with chronic illness among the field of English language teaching in Japan.
Accents Asia, 18(1), 25-43.
... A pergunta é se a definição prévia de funcionalidade em termos biomédicos implicaria, ao menos em alguns casos, decisões ad hoc. (WENDELL, 1996;WASSERMAN, 1998). ...
Será investigada a relação possível entre discriminação contra deficientes e protocolos de alocação de recursos escassos na pandemia de COVID-19. O problema específico diz respeito à acusação de discriminação contra o deficiente no uso do ECOG no protocolo da AMIB. O ponto de partida será uma breve descrição fenomenológica sobre os limites do ECOG em comparação a outros métodos de avaliação. Em seguida, discute-se a concepção biomédica de deficiência e as dificuldades que esta implica para os modelos de justiça. Então se destaca os problemas nos próprios conceitos de funcionalidade e recursos, além da relação entre funcionalidade e fragilidade. A partir disso torna-se possível considerar a relação entre discriminação estatística justificada e igualdade formal de oportunidades. Isso implicará a análise da relação entre justiça relacional e distributiva, sobre como o deficiente é entendido como um mau usuário ex ante de recursos de saúde. Conclui-se esclarecendo como a injustiça epistêmica é uma questão central.
... Much of this discussion underpins how we believe we should think about ageism, and this is where the individual/ medical model attributes all problems that individuals experience to their impairment: disability is seen as a personal misfortune or tragedy (Oliver, 1996). This model relates to the medical fix to disability and believes that disabled people "have something wrong with them" that needs "to be fixed" (Wendell, 1996;Oliver, 1996). The social model, on the other hand, separates the facet of impairment from being disabled and therefore ascribes that people with an impairment are disabled by society (Shakespeare, 2018). ...
... I ask myself if my experience of pain has served to shape my own general sense of ambivalence to challenging circumstances, as evidenced in a pilot study and previous research, rather than a sense of ambivalence having shaped my experience of pain. In Wendell's (1996) words, we learn "how to live with the suffering body, with that which cannot be noticed without pain, and that which cannot be celebrated without ambivalence" (1996, p.179). My original research explored the work of Lomas (2017) a second wave, positive psychologist, who believes that the cultivation of ambivalent emotions, in the face of life's challenges, can help develop resilience. ...
The creative, non-fiction approach of 'lyric essay' is used to flesh out my heuristic experience. My essay builds on some earlier heuristic research conducted about my experience, over a lifetime, of musculoskeletal pain. That research questioned whether suffering is a conscious choice, even if pain is inevitable. This lyric essay-utilizing a mosaic of critical review, description, metaphor and montage-is a phenomenological reflection on my process of writing the pain which strives to better convey a palpable sense of my embodied experience of pain and bodily alienation. Following a literature review and an exploration of the nature of lyric essays, a personal narrative and critical discussion evaluates how my experience of the writing process, and the use of lyric essays, may contribute to the field of psychotherapy. As a raw, impromptu, reflective account of pain across the life span, the essay contains a detailed snapshot of my lived experience. It contrasts how a child relates to negative experiences, and how an adult, trained in psychotherapy, might choose to process her emotions. The approach of lyric essays is offered as an in-depth way to explore therapists' own experience and that of their clients.
Ana Castillo’s novel Peeling My Love Like an Onion tells the story of Carmen Santos, a disabled flamenco Chicana dancer and singer, who suffers from an ethnic identity crisis and the internal and external problems of mainstream cultural marginalization during her career. The changing nature of Flamingo dance enables Carmen to overcome both mental and physical barriers, break the internal boundaries between normal and abnormal in the white-dominated American society, and realize the reconstruction of the adaptive and mobile identity of the Chicana people. This paper explores how Carmen uses disability to deconstruct the normal, uses flamenco to challenge the ideal body of traditional dancers, and uses her perseverance to challenge the normative concept of identity and gender, highlighting a mobile and independent identity that is different from the traditional disability identity.
Locating the growing scholarships on ‘gendered aging bodies’ within feminist disability perspectives, this paper attempts to engage in conversations around feminist gerontology and feminist disability studies. I undertook long term ethnographic fieldwork in Kerala in 2015–2016 in order to explore the intersecting worlds of gendered aging bodies which may otherwise, more or less, be seen as a gender-less existence told through a linear narrative process. In the course of this field research we occupied spaces of varying scales that represented the hierarchies reflective of Kerala society. In the strictest terms, it would be deemed a multi-sited ethnography covering contexts such as state and non-state institutions for elder care and shelter, government and private healthcare establishments, nursing care, individual households, tribal hamlets, trans and queer communities, urban middle-class colonies, policy documents and so on. Conducted in an exploratory mode, the research would only partially understand the complexities of each scale, their hierarchical positions and interconnections, and each retrospective discussion threw up a fresh perspective on aging bodies in the context of Kerala. The idea of inscribing vulnerability on aging bodies merely by virtue of ‘logical’, ‘inevitable’, linear ending is what this paper attempts to critique.
This chapter draws together the behaviours that define and explain the ableist intrusions that shape the lives of many disabled women. In gathering their narratives, this study has shown that they undertake significant safety work to avoid unwanted touching in public space. Further, this chapter underlines the evident connection between stereotypes of disability and gender and the way that strangers feel entitled to intrude on disabled women’s bodies. This chapter also situates this study as a bridge between disability studies and feminist criminology and points towards the importance of scholarship in this area.
In this article, I theorise the relationships between the crip killjoy, joy and refusal. I argue why I think violence is an inherent part of crip, and there is killjoy work in finding ways to accept violence (as a neutral position). I argue that the crip killjoy does discomforting work, making everyone uncomfortable, but that there is a joy in discomfort and violence – influenced by queer notions of jouissance. I then argue that this rejection – and the finding of joy in rejection – is a necessity in building queer-crip futures.
Der Beitrag beleuchtet, auf welche Weise Stadt behindern kann – und zwar über infrastrukturelle Barrieren hinaus. Dazu schlagen wir vor, Stadt aus Perspektive der Disability Studies zu denken und empirisch als Teilhabeforschung anzugehen. Beide Blickwinkel lenken den Gegenstand weg von der individuellen Ebene und stellen förderliche und hinderliche Faktoren für die volle Ausübung von Teilhabe in den Vordergrund. Der Beitrag bündelt diese Sichtweisen und trägt gesellschaftliche Implikationen sowie offene Felder zur weiteren Bearbeitung vor.
This chapter critically examines the prevailing understanding of grouphood within the context of genocide law, highlighting the challenges and shortcomings of current interpretations. A thorough critique of the increasingly popular perpetrator-based subjectivity in constructing the four groups, particularly among legal scholars, is offered. By revisiting the concept of grouphood from historical, teleological, and victimological perspectives, the chapter aims to illuminate its original conceptualization by the drafters, its interpretation by international lawyers at the time, and its evolution in State practice prior to the 1990s. Through a contextual analysis of the first significant international criminal trial on genocide, the case against Jean-Paul Akayesu at the ICTR, core criticisms of the so-called ‘objective’ interpretation of the four groups are reassessed, the ‘permanent and stable’ formula is reconstructed, and the notion of involuntariness in defining protected grouphood is explored.
This article aims at exploring the complex intersection of gender, disability, and class in Jhamak Ghimire's Jeevan Kada Ki Phool, an autobiographical work originally written in the Nepali language. Basedon the theoretical framework of intersectionality developed by black feminist Kimberly Crenshaw, the study examines how these overlapping identities contribute to a unique and intensified experience of oppression. I use free transliteration and translation while citing from the work. The analysis reveals that Ghimire's marginalization does not occur due to these factors operating in isolation, but rather the simultaneous effects of her gender, physical disability, lower economic status, and societal expectations that operate together. By examining the interconnection of these forms of oppression, the article focuses on the multifaceted challenges that Ghimire coped with, and the deep impact they had in various ways on her life. The study also reveals the resilience that she displays to combat such deep-rooted systems of marginalization.
The significance of our physical bodies is an important topic in contemporary philosophy and theology. Reflection on the body often assumes, even if only implicitly, idealizations that obscure important facts about what it means for humans to be 'enfleshed.' This Element explores a number of ways that reflection on bodies in their concrete particularities is important. It begins with a consideration of why certain forms of idealization are philosophically problematic. It then explores how a number of features of bodies can reveal important truths about human nature, embodiment, and dependence. Careful reflection on the body raises important questions related to community and interdependence. The Element concludes by exploring the ethical demands we face given human embodiment. Among other results, this Element exposes the reader to a wide diversity of human embodiment and the nature of human dependence, encouraging meaningful theological reflection on aspects of the human condition.
Prominent theorists such as Tobin Siebers, Ato Quayson, and Martha Stoddard Holmes have proposed that disability may not only elicit different affects, such as fear, admiration, or disgust, but have also envisioned different ways in which the relationship between affect and disability is becoming a central concern in considering how disability is ultimately lived through and experienced in social life. This paper supplements the conceptualization of the affect–disability relationship with the conceptual apparatuses of affordances and genre, to offer an account of the actionable. The actionable is proposed as a form of socio-cultural negotiation of the body and the environment out of which opportunities for action—or affordances— arise. Thomas Stoffregen has proposed affordances as being relational-emergent in nature, meaning that affordances refer to the possibilities for action within a particular constellation of elements, while simultaneously not being reducible to the properties of the individual elements. This paper proposes that affect, understood as the bodily capacities to act and be acted upon, may be understood as evoking affordances—opportunities to act or be acted upon. Additionally, the notions of impairment and disability suggest that capacities and the possibilities of action may vary across different bodies. I connect this to the work by Lauren Berlant on genre, who suggests that modes of responsivity to being affected are rooted in generic thinking. Genres act as structuring and historical forms that embed affect in appropriate modes of responsivity within genre conventions. Affordances are subsequently linked to what is deemed a fitting action within a genre. By invoking Berlant’s work, this paper proposes that the actionable opportunities afforded by bodies are preemptively inscribed in genre conventions, and that the concept of the actionable enables an analysis of which actions are deemed appropriate within genres. Because impaired and disabled bodies have a variety of capacities, these bodies may therefore also hold the capacity to disrupt generic expectations and therefore further emphasize the normativity of the presupposed appropriateness of actions.
The biological aspect of human embodiment frequently constitutes the primary basis for personal assessment, with an emphasis on rationality, free choice, material well-being, and happiness as fundamental attributes of worth. This perspective is also evident in cultural practices of body modification, which reflect societal standards and identity expression. The promotion of standards of bodily appearance that are often considered unrealistic within contemporary culture has the effect of creating a social environment in which those who do not conform to these standards are rejected and stigmatized. This can include individuals with disabilities, the elderly, or those with chronic illnesses and different bodily appearances. In the majority of cases, the so-called ‘body capital’ culture views the disabled body through the lens of a person’s physical appearance, which is, to a certain extent, associated with a biological dysfunction or reflects a kind of physical disability or vulnerable corporeality. This paper seeks to examine perspectives on the body through the lenses of major discourses surrounding disability, biblical anthropology, and disability theology. These perspectives advocate for the intrinsic dignity and value of the disabled body, challenging contemporary norms and projections upon the body, by underscoring the biographical, interdependent, and spiritual dimensions of human embodiment. This approach stands as an alternative to the reductionist view of the body, which prioritizes physical attributes over a comprehensive understanding of complete personhood.
The conceptualization of disability is not merely a descriptive issue but also a normative one, as the way disability is viewed can fundamentally shift the focus of what constitutes ethically appropriate support for disabled people. This paper reviews the historical debates surrounding models of disability over the past several decades, arguing that each model is a product of conceptual engineering, developed in response to normative needs related to disability. Given the persistent conflicts between these models, we propose a "pluralistic approach to disability" as a solution to the deadlock between them. It is argued that the conceptualization of disability does not require adopting a single stance among conflicting models; rather, by employing a pluralistic approach as part of strategic conceptual engineering, it becomes possible to more effectively address the diverse normative demands surrounding disability.
Conformity is the tendency to modify one’s behaviour to match the behaviour of others. Lisciandra et al. (2013) introduced the concept of conformorality to refer to the susceptibility of moral judgements to conformity. While it is often suggested that conformorality is generally bad, recent interdisciplinary work indicates that conformorality can also promote epistemically and morally positive outcomes under certain conditions. In the literature, little attention has been paid to the geometry of urban spaces. Here we combine results from the philosophy and psychology of conformity with general insights from urban studies to distinguish three ways in which the geometry of urban spaces might relate to conformorality, namely: urban spaces can exemplify, afford, or constitute conformorality. This paper’s analysis contributes a more nuanced understanding of the different faces of conformorality, as well as their bearing on urban planning and city living.
Vulnerability is a central concern in J. M. Coetzee’s fiction. However, the connections between vulnerability and insecurity on the boundaries between ‘normal’ and ‘deviant’ masculinity remain underexplored. This chapter analyses the implications of disability for identifying the external parameters of male identity against a set of social and cultural norms in Coetzee’s novel Slow Man (2005). The protagonist Paul Rayment recognises his male identity as highly embodied and associates his disability with a loss of masculinity, seeing himself as incomplete, formless and lacking the plenitude of heterosexual masculinity. Drawing on the concept of liminality and intersections between masculinities studies and feminist theory, I interpret Rayment’s painful coming-to-terms with his disability as a liminal quest for authenticity. My argument develops across three sections—‘Separation’, ‘The Ritual’ and ‘Reaggregation’—that mirror the transitional stages in an initiation rite. This liminal dimension of masculinity is materialised in the presence of different women, one of whom is Elizabeth Costello, the eponymous protagonist of Coetzee’s earlier novel. I suggest that the main role of women in Slow Man is to take part in a process that Nick Hodgin and Amit Thakkar describe as ‘scar formation’ in their introduction to Scars and Wounds (2017), a role which has also escaped critical attention. The result is that in Slow Man Coetzee does not struggle to articulate new disability-inclusive norms, but rather distances himself from the obsolete codes used to define a normative model and engages not so much with what masculinity is as with what masculinity is not.
This article uses Stephen King’s 1990, uncut release of his famous 1978 horror novel The Stand to reveal the ways the contemporary horror genre implements the language of pandemics and contagious disease to promote ableist ideas about disability. The horror novel villainizes an antagonist as a central function of its plot. When the antagonist is an airborne disease that inflicts disability and death upon its victims, the novel can be a site of production for what I term “disability panic,” a fear and disgust at the possibility of becoming disabled, and a contempt for those who already are. This article argues that The Stand calls attention to how stereotypes and misconceptions around illness-induced disability form in times of crisis. This article merges genre studies in horror, disability language, and rhetoric of disease in literature to uncover how King reveals that the language of the horror novel can contribute to a cultural fear and hatred of disability. This novel, though written decades ago, mimics the language of corona virus disease 2019 in current popular media. This article demonstrates how fear of airborne disease in a horror novel can increase fear of real-life pandemics and contribute to ableist views of those suffering from illness-related disability.
A review of An Archaeology of Disability, an exhibition at the Canellopoulos Museum, Athens, Greece, curated by David Gissen, Jennifer Stager, and Mantha Zarmakoupi, 28 June–30 October 2023. This innovative museum exhibit used the ancient Greek past to reimagine a future for disability and accessibility in the public sphere.
El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo realizar un análisis comparativo entre la novela gráfica María y yo, escrita por María y Miguel Gallardo, y su posterior trasvase al medio audiovisual a cargo de Félix Fernández de Castro. Desde una perspectiva multidisciplinar y mediante el estudio de los distintos procesos de adaptación se pretende reflexionar acerca de la tarea divulgativa y didáctica que ambas obras llevan a cabo sobre las personas diagnosticadas con TEA (Trastorno del Espectro Autista). Por otro lado, se ahondará en el carácter autobiográfico de la narración y en el importante papel que desempeña la medicina gráfica en la representación de las realidades neurodivergentes, esas que quedan excluidas del discurso hegemónico.
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