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 I've also been thinking a lot about how Lynda Barry's speech/workshop relates to this notion of a comparative norm and the "deformed." I loved how we weren't allowed to read over anything during the course of the two day workshop - especially because I'm the kind of writer who compulsively checks over each sentence and edits/criticizes myself. It's weird how I never realized how paralyzing that process could be! What Barry called the voice of "rationality" but we could also call the sense of a "norm" or "standard" completely restricts one's freedom of expression by the anxiety of checking back and retracting and erasing. I think this philosophy is relevant in many contexts outside of writing, as Anne states. I was thinking about the moment where she brought up how most people used to sing but once they heard Frank Sinatra's voice over the radio, they said, "Oh, so that's how it's supposed to sound!" and people stopped. While I don't know how accurate this anecdote is, I think the idea is crucial. Once a kind of standard is publicized, then people feel that they should be ashamed if they don't match up - if you can't sing like Frank Sinatra then you must not be a good singer. So I guess I'm getting a little bit away from the discussion of disability, but I do think that the ideas are related. One cannot be marginalized until a norm is established. Lynda Barry's solution to this voice of "rationality" or "normalcy" was to think about it like this (and i'm paraphrasing):

You're drawing a picture and a voice in the back of your head says "that drawing sucks. where's drawing going to get you in life?" You call that voice the voice of reason. But think of it this way - you're sitting in a bar and you're drawing a picture on a napkin. Some guy walks up to you and says "that drawing sucks. where's drawing going to get you in life?" What an asshole, right? You'd want to punch him right in the face. So think about that voice in the back of your head like the asshole in the bar, tell it to shut the hell up and keep drawing! 

I feel like we can apply this lesson to all the voices that tell us how to define perfection or normalcy or an ideal or on the negative, whether you are deformed or a freak or less than. It's something external that comes from a social construction - it's just the voice of some asshole who thinks he knows better. Everything that you express has an inherent value that has nothing to do with a standard.