Hi All
Sharon makes a strong case about the relevance of this issue to
disability studies - I would also add in relation to Shelly's point about
the institution of marriage that many hetrosexual couples are aginst
the institution (please note I mean the beurocratic process here and
not the emotional connection). Myself and my partner have
encountered many problems with banks, pensions and insurance
companies becasue we don't have the right ceritificate and
therefore the correct status for different perks and rights that that
brings. I should add that we have had more trouble with instituions
in England than Scotland. One of the least annoing things was that
we both had loyalty cards to the same supermarket before we met
but becasue our names were different they would not merge the two
cards into one. The most obvious thing that comes to mid is
application forms which only have the box married or single.
We have encountered many structures that downgraded the status
of our relationship, many disabling strutures. We have also met
many individuals who have treated us with suspicion becasue we
don't fit inot their already fixed boxes or becasue we have dared to
question their practices.
This topic has been very relevant to this mail base on two counts; it
raises an issue we have discussed previously - what is 'disabled'
and it rasies the issue of how to deal with injurious remarks and
practices.
John
Dr John M Davis
Research Unit in Health and Behavioural Change
The University of Edinburgh
Medical School
Teviot Place
Edinburgh
EH8 9AG
tele 0131 651 1206
fax 0131 650 6902
email [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|