February 9, 2016 - 00:34
![courtney's picture courtney's picture](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ed61e06c4e764b2bb7f472315b9ca4a4.jpg?d=https%3A//serendipstudio.org/oneworld/files/pictures/SerendipStudioAvatar.png&s=100&r=G)
In the book we read for class this week, I was most interested by the classification and categorization of appropriate citizenship. The need for a uniting collective (and normative) bodily identity emerged specifically within the USA after periods of war and revolution, it seemed. A standard of citizenship was used to bring people who differ--whether in original nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, etc--together under a unifying idea of what it means to be a citizen, i.e. productive, contributing to the community, self-sufficient. Ironically enough, some people with disabilities didn't (and still don't) 'measure up' to those ideas of citizenship that so intentionally try to bring diverse people together under one national identity. I am interested in pursuing the theme of citizenship and how it relates to competence, dependence/independence, and Western, commercialized notions of productivity.