Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.
Modus Dopens: In Utah, miscarriage = criminal offence
What counts as non-”reckless” behaviour? If you don’t eat five portions of fruit and veg a day and do (gynecologist-approved) cardiovascular exercise three times a week, is that “reckless”? What if you have a glass of wine at a party (there being no scientific basis for believing that drinking in moderation poses any risk to a fetus)? What if you take over-the-counter medication for a headache, without a doctor’s prescription? What if you take prescribed medication that carries a pregnancy risk?
Elizabeth Switaj at Gender Across Borders: Are Children an Oppressed Class?
Many people I respect have written about this subject before. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find most of these posts through Google, though I remember that one appeared here. You see, when I first started seeing these posts, my response was anger. Haven’t women, and disabled women in particular, been fighting not to be treated like children? Doesn’t saying that children are oppressed undo all of that?
But enough people I respect had commented on the subject that I sat on my rage and thought about it for a while. Eventually I came to see was that my reaction to the idea of children as an oppressed class resembled the way some temporarily able-bodied feminists respond to discussions of ableism. Able-bodied women don’t want to be treated like “cripples”, after all. Then I had to admit that of course children are oppressed as a class.
Hoyden About Town: Not your punchline, Amanda Palmer.
If you missed this week’s Good News Week, or couldn’t see it because you’re not in Australia, here are the “disabled feminists” sledges aimed at FWD/Forward from Amanda Palmer, Des Bishop, and Paul McDermott. The ones we’ve been talking about in Otterday.
CBC News: Stroller rules for buses rejected in Ottawa
City staff and advocates of seniors and people with disabilities had proposed tighter rules in response to complaints about the area at the front of the bus reserved for seniors, pregnant women, people with disabilities and passengers with small children. Customers and operators said the strollers blocked other passengers and resulted in injuries. However, parents said folding up their strollers was difficult and impractical.
NPR: For Some Jobs, Asperger’s Syndrome Can Be An Asset [Remind anyone of The Speed of Dark?… ~L]
Thorkil Sonne is the founder of Specialisterne. The company currently has three dozen consultants with autism spectrum disorder doing software testing and data entry.
“[The company] actually sees autism — the autism characteristics — as a potential competitive advantage,” Sonne says.
Maia Szalavitz at Time: Are Doctors Too Reluctant to Prescribe Opioids?
Decisions about a patient’s pain treatment are now made much more collaboratively, but even in modern times, the process is fraught with moral judgment, stemming largely from the nature of available pain treatments and an incomplete understanding of how to use them. Patients who ask for more pain drugs are eyed as potential addicts; doctors who prescribe pain medications too frequently fear being arrested for it.
The link for “Are Children an Oppressed Class?” appears to be broken, it places the link after http://disabledfeminists.com/ and so doesn’t work. Well, either that or my browser is being wonky.
Nice catch, minna, thanks! It should be working now.
The suggestions and related links at the Time article are making my head explode, especially since this is an issue near and dear to me!
(See TIME’s special report “How to Live 100 Years.”)
(See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2009.)
(See how to prevent illness at any age.) – Stay classy, Time online.
(See pictures from an X-ray studio.) WTF
See how eating less might help you live longer.
See the costs of living a long life.
Back to the article –
“We’re not saying opioids are innocuous. They are dangerous drugs,” says Dr. Bruce Ferrell, who chaired the panel that authored the guidelines. “We are saying that there is a substantial proportion of the population for which opioids might be a better choice than NSAIDs.”
This hurts my head.
And also, “elderly” “middle-aged” over and over again.
I think what I want to say about Amanda Palmer is possibly against the comments policy. Also, because all the contributors and commenters at FWD are just a big faceless mass to some of those people, they’d probably copy what I said and post it around while saying how mean the “disabled feminists” are. WHICH IS NOT EVEN THE NAME OF THE BLOG! Also, I’ve been into AFP for so many years, and this is so heartbreaking (which is silly I know, but fandom is always more important than you want it to be).
That stroller on buses issue is a tough one. Strollers have gotten bigger and if you are out and about with your little one, managing all of your own things plus your baby’s things is really tough. If buses are going to be viable options for families, there need to be some allowances. But I kind of see this as being like the airplane issue. If you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation because of someone else’s need for more space, you just have to deal with it. It’s part of public traveling; you’re not going to always be comfortable. Injuries shouldn’t be happening, though. Ideally, buses would have more floor space than they do, so I hope they look into some bus design options that allow that. For the future, at least.
The Amanda Palmer thing – I didn’t realise it still had the power to be so hurtful to me, and I dunno that I can listen to her again. :/
Up to this point, even with the blog where she blamed us for not getting her context and minimised the whole thing completely, I could still just see her as your typical ignorant TAB ableist who is not going to be ready to ‘get’ it for another five years. Very very bad in itself, but not surprising.
Now? She’s flaunting it, you know? Mocking us on TV to people who’ve now permanently got the wrong end of the stick about the whole imbroglio.
@Ang – I feel the same way. She just keeps digging a bigger and bigger hole. It is not cute.
Yeah, I thought her blog post, awful as it was, was still slightly better than just going “La la la! I’m not listening!” like she did right off. At the very least, I figured that would be the end of it, but of course not. The posts here were more just asking people to think about the project rather than outright condemning it and she’s claiming she’s “crucified.” I’m a bit confused here.
At least Jason Webley’s more receptive.
Sorry for double posting, but this just crossed my mind: I totally hate how she’s using this “controversy” to for publicity because in doing so, she’s just exploiting disabled people for her own ego.
Did anyone see this article linked from the bottom of the opiod one? (Talks about a doctor’s perceptions of people “faking” their pain and for this reason was somewhat triggering for me. May be so for others as well.)
I did read it, Tori.
Yes, we do it for the money. (? Yeah, right. Sick days go fast, and I’ve used most of my mom’s.)
And the attention! Because it’s all positive!
He provided one example of a lying patient and wrote an article/column because…?
Kaitlyn, I was so enraged I ended up writing a response to it, even though it’s nearly 4 years old. If you want, you can read it here. (I don’t see anything that strikes me as needing a trigger warning, but — that’s also my own perspective. There is sarcasm and venting, and I’m still sort of in that headspace right now.)
Quijotesca – yes, I agree about Jason. I exchanged some e-mails with him, and I understand other people have done so as well. He seems to genuinely want to take our views into account and figure things out, which I appreciate.
I have trouble holding my child for any significant period of time, so having to fold up a stroller would make buses unaccessible for me. It always makes me sad when accessibility problems run into other accessibility problems; it seems unfair to have it turn into a zero-sum game.
That was amazing Tori!
Not to angry, though don’t read it while eating a burrito, eh?