On Fri, 11 Jun 1999, Martin Fletcher wrote:
> . . .the argument that disability research and action when
> combined lead to the development of an aggressive and assertive disability
> movement that seeks equality of access and recognition of difference.
>
Well put, Martin! Such an aggressive and assertive disability movement,
and its resulting posivite awareness & recognition of difference--might indeed
make 'eradication' and 'prevention' talk seem anachronistic; i.e. if dp had a
more positive presence in society, the mentality that disability was tragic
might be superceded by a movement to make society more inclusive.
Utopian? It could happen, I think.
But you lose me, Martin, when you go on to say:
> I worry about the argument that the cause of disabilities should be accepted
> as inevitable and something that "will always exist" and that is why we
> should not seek to erase them as to do so is to perpetuate the
> negative/tragic view of disabled people.
I don't think anyone has suggested that research on prevention be halted.
The Q was, more or less, are the issues of respect/positive identity and
prevention of further impairments mutually exclusive? The Q was, what kind of
campaign is needed to educate mums (in particular), without demeaning the
value of dp's lives.
As for your 'worry'about
> disabled people. . . [who seem to] have some personal investment in their disability? - "My
> paraplegia was the best thing that happened to me" - patient in a spinal
> unit. Why is there this view amongst some disabled people?. . . What is
>going on? How, in sum, can people have a preference for their disabled self
>over their previous self?
I can't answer for dp themselves, but I can say that, since I learned of
the social model and gave up my 'victim/martyr'persona that my culture had
ascribed to me, and since I have met and worked with the dp culture, I find
that I enjoy this culture a lot. The people I met in England, and online here
on this listserv, are more genuine and caring and insightul folk than those
with whom I've been associated in my other life--the white-bread, purebred,
class-led, humanity-dead people who value nothing but money, power, and
beauty. Not to generalize, nor to sugest that disability makes one a better
person, but the dis. culture is populated by people who care about the things
that I care about: life, learning, equality for all citizens of the universe.
>How, in sum, can people have a preference for their disabled self
>over their previous self?
I personally *vastly* prefer the person I've become since my (second-hand)
disability experience, to the performative-role-conscious woman I was tending
toward before I became an unconventional mother at age 21. Are there easier
ways to mature into the person I now admire? Clearly. . . but not without
becoming sensitive to class-bias and body prejudice via some route
(being born black, or female, for instance. ;)
I'd *love* to hear how dp themselves answer the Q about preference for
their disabled selves. Responses to a subject line such as "I'm
thankful for..." would be recorded, and would appear in my dissertation. The
exercise would not only answer Martin's Q, but might be empowering for us all.
Dona
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