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Selectively picturing?

By bridgetmartha
September 21, 2014 - 15:39
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Garland-Thomson’s “Picturing People with Disabilities” presents a new side to the framing of disability in art. The images, symbols, and messages we discussed last week all had some sort of motive, these portraits do not, and herein, I believe, lays the distinction. Portraits are specifically for the person painted and the audience. Common depictions of disability are meant to evoke, as Garland-Thomson suggested, “the sensational, sensual, or pathological” (23), treating the people featured in them as objects to be stared at, pitied, or studied by the gaze of a stranger.

War Wounds: The Hero vs. The Supercrip

By smalina
September 21, 2014 - 13:16
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In her article "Picturing People with Disabilities: Classical Portraiture as Reconstructive Narrative," Rosemarie Garland-Thomson writes: "a portrait [. . .] tells viewers that the subject of the portrait is worthy of commemoration and honour because a portrait has been made of that person" (25). This line made me think immediately of portraits (both paintings and photographs) created of army veterans, generally in higher ranks, who have historically been honored in images that commemorate their great accomplishments. Sometimes this means that the subjects have war wounds--often amputations from battle.

The Overpowering Identity

By HCRL
September 20, 2014 - 21:05
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While I studied abroad in Hyderabad, India, I lived with a fantastic host family. They were a farirly wealthy family, and had many people working at their house. I spent quite a lot of time with 3 of them: Durgamma, the amazing live-in cook, Naresh, the driver and Laxmi, a young woman who helped Durgamma.

Access to an education in another country

By lcastrejon
September 20, 2014 - 20:13
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To think about another person’s identity and their access to an education is not easy. I’ve thought back to my family because while growing up they would always tell me to take advantage of the opportunities I had here (the U.S.) because if we had been living in Guatemala, chances were I wouldn’t be in school right now. From what I know, no one in my family from my mother’s side has successfully completed middle school/high school while in Guatemala. My father and his side of the family is from Mexico and within that side I know that I do have some family members who have been able to continue onto higher education in Mexico. However, for this post I will be focusing more on my mother and her educational experience based off of her identities.

 

How Two Little Girls Taught Me About Their Identities and Access

By bicostudent2016
September 20, 2014 - 09:23
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“Jessica is here!”

Anna* comes running down the stairs. She was wearing a pink shirt, green skirt, and purple leggings.

“Hi Jessica!” she greets me.

Her older sister, Elsa, sits on the kitchen counter reading a book while eating breakfast. She was wearing a blue shirt, her horseback riding pants and a cap she crocheted herself.

Anna once told me, “My sister doesn’t like skirts. She’s not that kind of girl.”

After they both finished breakfast, Anna pulls me upstairs to the room she shared with sister. “Will you read with me?”

“Sure!” I exclaimed looking a bookshelf that was filled from floor to ceiling with books of all sorts.

Proposal: More Than a First Impression

By smartinez
September 19, 2014 - 21:31
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Before you say hello to someone, hug them or have that first encounter with them, the initial stepping stone to developing the contact zone is by the way the person looks. First impressions are the gateway to the contact zone. Using their looks as the primary source before actually having an interaction with someone, you can sometimes judge which party within this relationship is going to be the superior party and which one would be the inferior. Someone may be wearing beat up clothes while the other person is dressed in the latest trend, and in that instance a contact zone as well as the rankings of each person involved in the contact zone has been set before anyone has uttered a word.

Access

By kross825
September 19, 2014 - 19:10
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My freshmen year of high school, one of my friends was asked to leave due to inappropriate behavior. Shortly after he was asked to leave, two more guys from his friend group were also expelled. I went to a Catholic high school with strict rules on drugs and proper behavior. I stayed friendly with the three boys that left and saw them around from time to time. By the time we were seniors, two of the three boys had dropped out of the public school they attended. Both of these boys were involved in heavy drug use and spent time with a "dangerous" crowd. The year that I graduated high school, one of the boys was in prison and the other was in the hospital. The boy in prison had been dealing cocaine and got caught. Today, he is still in and out of prison, living on various friends' couches.

Rosa and Rachel's "consumption" project

By The Unknown
September 19, 2014 - 17:00
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On a daily basis, humans consume many beverages from plastic bottles. Whether it be water or an athletic drink, it is hard to actually realize the impact we make by purchasing these drinks. Seemingly, the only contact with a human we make when we purchase these items is between us and the person behind the counter or, sometimes, just a machine that drops the ice cold bottle down for us. In actuality, there are many interactions before this one. For many of the bottling companies, these interactions are international and far spread. We are going to make it our point to look back, look back to far before the drink touches our lips or enters our stomachs. We are going to discover all that goes into the creation of our hydration and discover all the contacts we miss out on.