"prioritize the needs of the body over the rigorous, unrelenting expectations of the body under capitalist prouction"

"Slowing down is seen as a luxury by society but is actually an ignored necessity"

In my life, access intimacy is something that has been hard won, organic or at times even felt magical.  It has taken me by surprise, showing up with people that I never would have expected to have that kind of “access connection” with.  It has been exciting and relieving, like a long slow exhale.  I don’t know where it comes from or how it happens.  It has felt like an unspoken, instinctual language between different people, like an entirely unique way of being able to communicate and connect.  Similar to meeting someone you just “click with,” access intimacy has felt like a distinct form of attraction, desire and energy on to itself. -- passage from access intimacy'

I attended the AndrewLeland reading and Q&A last week! It was a really fun trip to Bryn Mawr! I read Andrew's book, "The Country of the Blind", over Winter Break and absolutely loved it! As he's losing his sight, Leland meditate on joining the blind community and the wider disabled community. I found it to be a beautifully written story about conquering one's  internal ableism and discovering the joys of living a disabled life. Highly recommend! Anyway, event started with a 10 minute reading that was followed by a conversation  Andrew Leland and Rodney Evans, another man experiencing low-vision. A filmmaker by trade, he directed "Vision Portraits", a film profiling several low-vision/blind artists.

Gene Therapy at CHOP allowed a deaf boy to hear. But some deaf people object to the treatment.

Among the deaf people with concerns about the gene therapy is one who also happens to be a scientist.

This podcast brought into perspective for me how ableism feeds into the surveillence and persecution of women. As we talked a bit about in class on Tuesday, the social reform progressive movement of the early 1900s brought about ways to institutionally construct the ideal body of citizens. This ideal body is built on classist, sexist, and racist foundations, leading to the targeting of diabled people. Through the podcast, it became clear to me how the history of the institutionalization of diabled people is rooted in the pursuit of controlling womens bodies and behaviors.

After our discussion on Tuesday, I was definitely feeling the weight and darkness of the history of disability in the US. From the discussion about Haverford’s own Gotter’s eugenics movement contribution to the varying levels of surveillance at Ellis Island, there were many points in the history of disability that are not being discussed nearly enough in the classroom setting. However, a thought I was contemplating while having this discussion was how does one even begin to talk about something so traumatic and heavy. It is difficult to envision the “correct” way of broaching this topic.