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HomeBody

HomeBody

nkechi's picture

I also agree that Clare would not call himself SuperCrip in this type of space. While people can attribute Supercripdom to him, meaning well, I doubt that Clare, in a space of self expression, would choose to use this sort of opportunity to focus on how other people view him, rather than how he sees himself.

However, I found this exercise very difficult. To speak for another person is always troublesome, because your perspective is inherently different, and you could misrepresent the views of someone who may very well be able to speak for themselves. This in particular was tough because I am non disabled, and only have a part of Clare's narrative. So, for me, it felt reductive to focus on his disability when assigning him his identifier, whether he would or not.

Either way, the passage about the body as home really resonated with me. Because all of our bodies carry with us all of the identities that make us who we are. Rather than trying to run from them, "...the stolen body can be reclaimed(13)", and really are the only thing that truly belongs to any of us.  Clare argues that we must take the labels given to us by others, hurtful or empowering, and turn them into something meaningful for ourselves.

For his avatar, I picked this photograph of a man standing  on the Atlantic Road in Norway, a bridge that from the right (or wrong) angle, the bridge seems to end abruptly, leading to nowhere. The passage about displacement reminded me of this road, and the idea that, when leaving from somewhere, the baggage you enter your new surroundings with can mean completely different things in a new space.

 

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