Citizenship

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.