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Disability Culture? (Wheaton)

Erasmus's picture

I think one of the most complicating factors in the Kupper questions is the complex evolving wavefront between disabled and nondisabled.  There are tons of folks who don't identify as disabled when they certainly could, and their attitude toward any aspiring disability culture is important and complicating.  Second, our definitions of disability change over time.  Twenty years anxiety disorders likely would not have been considered disabilities, and twenty five years ago AIDS as a disability was a very hotly contested subject.  Third, people enter and depart the world of disability with some frequency for lots of different reasons.  All of these reasons create a crazy frothy dynamic that is hard to represent or coalesce in a group culture or group consciousness.  Perhaps these factors don't preclude a disability culture, but they make one very very difficult to find.

I could whole heartedly get behind the assertion that there are cultures of disability, but I really struggle to find a singular one in art that works.

However, I continue to believe that there are values and experiences that can be shared across all disability and while I can't conceive of an artistic culture that could span the multifaceted space I remain optimistic for a potential humor that could and a potential political movement that could.  Perhaps these could be considered culture, and my own limited inclination for visual art forms is leading me to be overly pessimistic on their score.