April 3, 2017 - 21:21
The Kuppers piece reminded me of a piece we read in Disability and Super-Ability in Film, about the postmodern idea of "becoming." That piece argued that people with disabilities --and in fact, all people -- are constantly forming "systems" with the objects and people that they engage in interdependence with. They don't exist as a fully autonomous version of themselves, but enter new modes of "becoming" as they move in and out of these systems.
Kuppers' description of disability culture also seems to fit this model. It is a "process, not a state," and comes in and out of focus based on emotion and identity. In their daily lives, people with disabilties move through different conceptions of themselves in relation to this "nebulous" culture. It seemed to me that Kuppers was saying that even places that usually embody disability culture -- like the dance class -- are not static: with one comment, they can transform back into a place that equates the "twisted" with the "strange."
It also seemed, from this reading and from Invitation to Dance, that an important element of disability culture is that it allows people to be conscious of their disability without being uncomfortable about it (or sensing that discomfort in others). At dances like the ones at disability studies conferences or in the course described by Kuppers, people with disabilities are aware that their body moves differently from most people around them, but that is not viewed negatively. The way that their body moves is accepted without question. This, I think, is an essential and unique element of disability culture.