Hi All,
I don't see anything childish in the behaviour of those getting angry over
something they beleive in. Maybe the fact that angry behaviour is more
evident in the disability community is because it still is not taken
seriously in identity politics, nor do the people who make up that community
have the same educational access as those who claim gay, women, black
identities. It really still is an identity that is little understood, nor
seen as a positive identity to locate to. Locating anger and pain at the
centre of identity groups sounds a very middle class answer to the real
frustrations that many disabled people meet in everyday life; an 'identity'
that endures much more pain and suffering than other identities - often in
silence and is very complex. That kind of scholarly answer sounds very much
the same as the old school of medics locating disability anger as bitterness
at ones fate - it is something to be explained away and analysed away by
those who hold some kind of overseeing knowledge and insight. To use the
word childish is a patronising term full of putdowns, especially in the
disability community. The only childish scholars are the middle class ones
who get annoyed at having to delete emails - as their time is so important
to accommodate the differences between people -and those who panic when they
see their 'normal' values challenged, thus threatening their comfortable
lifestyles, view of the world, and ways of debating from comfortable
positions of power, which many other identities have reached while ignoring
the disabled amongst them.
Glenn.
Dr Glenn Smith,
Research Fellow,
London.
-----Original Message-----
From: Maria Barile
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 24/08/04 15:55
Subject: Re: Why are some disability studies scholar so childish?
Richard,
your question can be turned into empirical work, care to research it?
Maria
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Meldrum" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 10:11 AM
Subject: Why are some disability studies scholar so childish?
> Hello All,
>
> I am relatively new to the area of disability studies, but I am amazed
at
how
> childish some scholars are in this area. Whether in my home
institution
or in
> the international community, I've never seen such behavior from
professors,
> post-docs, and students. To be clear, I am not referring to the
entire
> disability studies community, though an argument can be made that the
> childishness of this small group reflects poorly on the whole. I
realize
that
> there are childish scholars in most (all?) academic fields, yet it
seems
more
> pronounced in this one.
>
> The question occurs to me, why is this behavior so pronounced in
disability
> studies? Perhaps this same level of behavior exists in other
"identity
> fields" (e.g., women's studies, black studies, queer studies, etc.).
If
that
> is the case, then perhaps I am pointing out something about the genus
and
not
> the species. One plausible explanation I've heard is that disability
studies
> attracts a number of people who are angry at the treatment they haave
received
> in society. Some scholars (e.g., Patricia Wolfe, Rose Galvin, Stephen
French
> Gilson, Elizabeth Depoy, etc.) have written on the hazards of locating
anger
> and pain at the center of an identity group. So is anger and pain to
blame
> for childish behavior among some disability studies scholars?
>
> Richard
>
> Richard Meldrum, LCSW
> Ph.D. Candidate in Disability Studies
> Graduate Research Assistant with Advocacy and Empowerment
> For Minorities with Disabilities
> Department of Disability and Human Development
> College of Applied Health Sciences
> 1640 West Roosevelt Road
> Chicago, IL 60608-6904
> [log in to unmask]
>
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