T W Shakespeare wrote:
> >In my opinion, there is one big difference between young gay/lesbian
> > people and young disabled people. Disabled people can't 'hide' their
> > identity as well gays/lesbians. In a way, they are /forced/ to 'come
> > out'.
>
> You are right - many, but by no means all, impairments are visible. But
> I was also distinguishing between someone's impairment identity and
> their disability identity. By 'coming out', I would mean claiming a
> disability identity - i.e. membership of a minority group etc.
True. Those are two different things. I should have made that distinction
myself. Also, Jim Davis' point about coming out (gay/lesbian people are
hurting themselves by not coming out) is entirely true. However, when I look
at my own experience, I wish I could have stayed a little longer 'inside'. But
my impairment is quite visible, so I'm talking about this particular case.
> >Disability is always present. You can minimise all you want, but you
> > are confronted with your >disability so many times a day, it seems
> > almost impossible to keep minimizing it. Have you >actually seen this in
> > the field?
>
> I experience it every day! Many of us with visible, congenital
> impairments are so used to the impairment, that we are not constantly
> aware of it. We have minimised it totally! In my experience, people
> with restricted growth, for example, do not constantly think of
> themselves as different, and it is a shock when you are presented with
> evidence of your difference (mirrors, photos, other people with the same
> condition). I suspect many other disabled people experience something
> similar.
I don't call that 'minimizing'. Throughout the day, I'm not aware of the fact
that I have, say, long hair. Only when I'm in the shower and I'm playing with
shampoo and stuff I am really aware of my long hair.
To me, too much minimizing is /deliberately/ not considering your impairment.
For example, when a young child in a wheelchair 'forgets' he can't go along
with his friends when they enter rough terrain and gets stuck halfway. You
could call it 'denying'.
> In my view, you cannot easily minimise impairment AND develop a disabled
> identity. As Helen Liggett says, the price of disability politics is
> that you are always speaking from the position of someone with an
> impairment...
I think we have a different view here. What I meant was that you have to live
life doing things you would have done without your impairment. That does not
mean you can't also participate in disabled politics.
For example, a few weeks ago I made the local paper because some bar denied me
access. Did I speak from the position of someone with an impairment? To
strangers it may have looked like it. But almost all strangers see me
as someone with an impairment, whether I have a disabled identity or not.
(To friends it was just a joke)
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Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?
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