Anyway, the "Right of access to the disabled body" (including the access of the surveillant, judgmental, gaze) that she writes about here, is one of things that nudged the penny into dropping on the idea that disability is treated as a form of monstrousness, in every way except calling it that by name.
Lydia Zeldenrust, in her Master's Thesis "When a Knight Meets a Dragon Maiden" (also available from Academia.edu) cited Jacques Derrida on how Western philosophy classifies "Degrees of Animality":
1) Animalized Animal: such as cockroaches, rats, and cattle, that we're legally allowed, and, in some cases actually encouraged, to kill, without any sanction from the law or our own consciences.
2) Humanized Animal: in our modern world, this would be our pets -- clearly nonhuman creatures that we accept into our human families. For these, there are more sanctions and protections, and though killing them doesn't have the same level of penalty as killing humans, the idea does raise our squick reaction. The medieval world didn't have pets, as such, but, their stories include animals that are sent to give the questing knight a message, and those are treated as special, and given "do not kill" status.
3) Animalized Human: these are clearly, physically, human, but are categorized, for various reasons, as not quite as human as the person making the categories, and, therefore, the category-maker has the same right of access to the animalized human as he (usually male) does to the animalized animal. These would include humans sold into slavery, prisoners of war, criminal prisoners... and the disabled. That's why people feel free to ask me how I go to the bathroom while we're waiting for the elevator, or to pet me on the head, etc..
4) Humanized Human: The top of the heap, the ones who are fully living up to their "God-given" potential: The knight in shining armor, the beautiful princess who kisses the frog (a temporarily animalized human) and restores him to full humanity, the physician in the long white coat who promises cures, and the politicians who decide which of us is deserving and undeserving.
I note that, in this world view, the humanized animal is often treated better and with more kindness and empathy than the animalized human. I think that's 'cause they've moved up a rung, on the ladder toward God, and we're seen as having moved down a rung, away from God.
Of course, I blow raspberries at this whole system; I find it highly suspicious that God's "endorsement" of the best of humanity falls to those who just happen to have the most power and privilege to begin with.
Boy -- you can tell I wrote this under the influence of a double coffee, can't you?
Some early-morning, highly caffinated, thoughts
Lydia Zeldenrust, in her Master's Thesis "When a Knight Meets a Dragon Maiden" (also available from Academia.edu) cited Jacques Derrida on how Western philosophy classifies "Degrees of Animality":
1) Animalized Animal: such as cockroaches, rats, and cattle, that we're legally allowed, and, in some cases actually encouraged, to kill, without any sanction from the law or our own consciences.
2) Humanized Animal: in our modern world, this would be our pets -- clearly nonhuman creatures that we accept into our human families. For these, there are more sanctions and protections, and though killing them doesn't have the same level of penalty as killing humans, the idea does raise our squick reaction. The medieval world didn't have pets, as such, but, their stories include animals that are sent to give the questing knight a message, and those are treated as special, and given "do not kill" status.
3) Animalized Human: these are clearly, physically, human, but are categorized, for various reasons, as not quite as human as the person making the categories, and, therefore, the category-maker has the same right of access to the animalized human as he (usually male) does to the animalized animal. These would include humans sold into slavery, prisoners of war, criminal prisoners... and the disabled. That's why people feel free to ask me how I go to the bathroom while we're waiting for the elevator, or to pet me on the head, etc..
4) Humanized Human: The top of the heap, the ones who are fully living up to their "God-given" potential: The knight in shining armor, the beautiful princess who kisses the frog (a temporarily animalized human) and restores him to full humanity, the physician in the long white coat who promises cures, and the politicians who decide which of us is deserving and undeserving.
I note that, in this world view, the humanized animal is often treated better and with more kindness and empathy than the animalized human. I think that's 'cause they've moved up a rung, on the ladder toward God, and we're seen as having moved down a rung, away from God.
Of course, I blow raspberries at this whole system; I find it highly suspicious that God's "endorsement" of the best of humanity falls to those who just happen to have the most power and privilege to begin with.
Boy -- you can tell I wrote this under the influence of a double coffee, can't you?