By abby jean on 10 May, 2010
Oh, American Apparel. For those of you lucky enough to evade their reach, AA is a good company with a lot of problems. They started out selling themselves as the sweatshop-free, made in the USA, source for cotton basics like t-shirts, primarily wholesaling to people who would print and resell the clothes. In 2003, AA [...]
Posted in bodies, media and pop culture, normality, othering | Tagged advertising, american apparel
By abby jean on 8 May, 2010
Via Information Aesthetics, a blog I read because i am obsessed with data visualizations and charts and graphs, I read about a new campaign designed by “eco-design consultancy Giraffe Innovation.” They’ve created a website where a user creates a humanoid form to represent themselves. The site then tracks the person’s environmental impact – things like [...]
Posted in blaming, bodies, normality, othering | Tagged environmentalism, visualizations
By Guest on 28 April, 2010
Matthew’s accomplishments are not notable in this article: only his disabilities. I’m not quoting or going through the whole article because the able privilege is so dense. The first line is indicative of the attitude taken in the article: Matthew doesn’t “bemoan”, unlike those other people with disabilities who would surely be champion athletes if they just tried. The construction is an ableist implication that other folks with disabilities are lazy whiners. Throughout the article, every reference to barriers Matthew faced is immediately matched by emphasis on how he overcame this disability. The focus is not on his exceptional effort and achievements, but on the “heartwarming” “good cripple”.
Posted in bodies, media and pop culture, news, normality, othering, representations, social attitudes
By s.e. smith on 27 April, 2010
A scene in which the title character (who speaks in the third person) is explaining the way his brain works to another character: ”Cognitive disorder’ is not an accurate description of what happens inside Marcelo’s head. ‘Excessive attempt at cognitive order’ is closer to what actually takes place.’ ‘Yeah? I like excessive order myself. Is [...]
Posted in normality, Quotations, representations, social attitudes | Tagged autism, autism spectrum, books
By Annaham on 23 April, 2010
In San Francisco currently, there is something of a debate brewing about Mayor Newsom’s proposed sit/lie laws, which would make it illegal for anyone to sit or lie on any public curb or street in San Francisco (with a couple of exceptions). The intersections with disability here are rather clear. For one thing, there are [...]
Posted in bodies, class issues, invisibility, justice, news, normality, othering, policy, politics, poverty, social attitudes, Uncategorized, violence | Tagged home, homelessness, invisibility, poverty, San Francisco
By s.e. smith on 20 April, 2010
He got through school, he has a good job and he married. That’s probably the biggest concern of Tourette’s sufferers and their relatives: Will their life be normal? This quote comes from Anne Miller’s Washington Post piece, ‘‘American Idol’ segment helps push Tourette’s Syndrome into cultural mainstream,’ which I mentioned in ‘Whose Voices?‘ There’s a [...]
Posted in normality, othering, social attitudes | Tagged dominant narratives, normal is only one option
By Anna on 14 April, 2010
Women like me – and so many other women and men with “hidden” disabilities, women and men who are trans* or bi or lesbian or gay, people who are non-gender binary, people who write about their struggles with racism or sexism or homophobia or bullying at work, people who are otherwise marginalized – risk losing their jobs, having their children taken away from them, risk being attacked in their homes or at work, having their children threatened, just for writing about their lives online.
Posted in mental health, normality, social attitudes
By Annaham on 13 April, 2010
This recent music video from singer-songwriter Janelle Monae is a great example of how not to completely screw up representation(s) of disability. Lyrics are located here. And a description, courtesy of FWD’s own S.E.: A black title card reads: ‘The Palace of the Dogs Asylum: Dancing has long been forbidden for its subversive effects on [...]
Posted in bodies, creative work, happy posts, justice, media and pop culture, normality, race, resistance, social attitudes, Uncategorized | Tagged intersectionality, justice, media and pop culture, mental illness, music, pop culture, representation, social inclusion, video
By Anna on 8 April, 2010
My point isn’t that people with disabilities need to use different words or that currently non-disabled people need to use different words. It’s that words come with context.
Posted in language, normality, social attitudes
By Anna on 5 April, 2010
But children are very aware of the pressure to be normal. And when people like Jenny McCarthy and her ilk push “cures” for disability out there, not only are parents asked why they aren’t administering these cures, children are, either directly or indirectly, asked why they aren’t cured, too.
Posted in bodies, normality, social attitudes | Tagged family, family dynamics
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