Dear Richard,
I'd just like to respond to your suggestion that disability studies
scholars are childish.
Firstly, I'm a bit concerned that you would cite me as having "written on
the hazards of locating anger and pain at the center of an identity group"
when my entire research within the field of disability studies has been
intended to support the affiliation of people who have a shared experience
of internalised oppression. When I wrote of the paradox of disability
culture I simply wanted to raise the point that, if we are ever entirely
successful in our battle against oppression (including that which we fight
against those who would infantilise us), then we will no longer
be "disabled" in a social model sense and will need to be able to let go
of the oppressive aspects of our affiliation.
Secondly, it sounds very harsh to claim that scholars within our field are
childish. It's true that I've not had any direct contact with other
disability scholars because my disability has kept me housebound and all
my interactions with and observations of other scholars within the field
have been through their work, through discussion groups such as this one
and through their help with my research either by participating in its
qualitative components or by providing constructive critical feedback.
Yet, from what I have experienced, disabled scholars and disabled people
in general are among the most inspirational and enlightened people I've
ever met. In having faced the full impact of the kinds of normalising
structures which would function to exclude them, disabled people often
become far more "mature" and emancipated because they are no longer tied
to the normative prescriptions which bind those who can more closely
approximate the norm.
I would ask you to expand on what you mean by "childish". It sounds
pejorative, but it must be intended to be descriptive. Yet, descriptive of
what? Being emotional? Getting angry? Demonstrating hurt? Needing help?
Being limited in choices and power? Please clarify.
Rose
Rose Galvin
School of Social Inquiry
Murdoch University
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