Continuing Our Discussion of Disability

lvasko: what western cultures consider a "disability", another culture could consider a blessing....Lakshmi, aptly named after the hindu godess of prosperity, is being worshiped as a godess in her hometown.....our conversations about Feminist Disability Studies...may not apply to other cultural traditions.

gammyflink: This is not just a matter of appearance....."The complications for Lakshmi’s surgery are myriad: The two spines are merged, she has four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities. She cannot stand up or walk."

jrizzo: I'm not sure I see what is so terrible about favoring normalizing surgeries when the disabled do now typically have a more difficult situation than those who are not. To say nothing of legitimate health issues, having some visible deformity and attracting The Stare....People stare at things that are different. Sometimes gawk. Sometimes it's very impolite, but the unusual does attract attention.

kwheeler08: What is important to take from this article is the idea of the cultural constructedness and the arbitrariness of the definition of the term "disability"....Individuals should not have to change to fit the "mold" of society; instead society should change the mold (or rather get rid of it all together) so as to accept people of difference.

from Caleron's summary of Martes' Class!!!

• beauty is something valued culturally, but it is not necessarily an enabling quality or disabling quality.
• women are twice disabled because we are women and also physically disabled.
• Consider how beauty and disability are parallel.
• The challenge that reconstruction is not feminist?
• There are two different cosmetics: reconstruction, and self-esteem.
• Class issues: genetic testing is not available to everybody.

The last comment was Alexander’s...on how having a child is a selfish act.

Further discussion?

"I was in a different world....
Differences be damned" (Kindred, 72, 81).