David Gillon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
davidgillon) wrote2015-10-21 08:03 pm
davidgillon) wrote2015-10-21 08:03 pm
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Linkspam: Disability, whether to 'pass' or 'perform'?
Passing for Normal: The Austerity Politics of Visibility and Invisibility for Disabled People*
Fascinating academic paper by a friend of mine looking at the contradictory pressures of stigma and 'legitimacy' that drive disabled people towards either concealing or 'performing' their disability.
I think the way Naomi links the pressure towards 'legitimacy' into the wider aspects of the 'surveillance society' is really thought-provoking, as is 'the socially acceptable right of non-disabled people to invade the privacy of disabled people', while considering the DLA form as a mandatory, self-enforced version of the panopticon, oh my! Definitely worth a read if you're interested in disability politics, or just stuck between 'passing' and 'performing'.
* Site does require registration via FB or Google, but it's the first time I've seen a registration that lets you control what information is passed.
Fascinating academic paper by a friend of mine looking at the contradictory pressures of stigma and 'legitimacy' that drive disabled people towards either concealing or 'performing' their disability.
I think the way Naomi links the pressure towards 'legitimacy' into the wider aspects of the 'surveillance society' is really thought-provoking, as is 'the socially acceptable right of non-disabled people to invade the privacy of disabled people', while considering the DLA form as a mandatory, self-enforced version of the panopticon, oh my! Definitely worth a read if you're interested in disability politics, or just stuck between 'passing' and 'performing'.
* Site does require registration via FB or Google, but it's the first time I've seen a registration that lets you control what information is passed.
Re: "Oh my!" is right
The same woman, the same day: "You know, lugging all that extra body weight around must be exhausting and contribute to your fatigue"
"I don't have the energy to do exercise to lose weight. When I was walking 400m/day I completely stopped being able to shower, do laundry, load the dishwasher"
"Yes, but if you lost weight, you'd have more energy"
She was in my house and I just could not get her to shut up and get her out the front door.
These days I would just say "You need to leave now."
Re: "Oh my!" is right
The intersection of disability and weight seems to bring out the worst in people. No one seems to wonder, even for a moment, whether someone's weight might be a consequence of disability or medication, or even just irrelevant!
Worse, doctors are as prone to it as non-medics, if not worse. I'm lucky in not being particularly overweight by the Sacred Dogma of BMI, but I've heard horrendous stories from others.