luedens

Rachel, James, and Lueden’s Final Paper

Rachel Mullins, James M Pryor, & Lueden Sheikhnureldin

Dr. Foss

ENGL 384-02

April 28,2020

Autism in Popular Culture

Prompt #2

In popular media representation such as on television and film, Autistic characters are overwhelmingly portrayed as males, specifically white males, and while there is a small percentage of Autistic female characters, they are also white. Visual media greatly lacks representation for Autistics of color. These shows and movies lack input from the Autistic community and are usually based on stereotypes which results in not only every character in these shows and movies being virtually the same, but also enforces the notion that only white people are Autistic. This stereotype is extremely harmful for Autistic people of color because they are invalidated constantly and can feel like there is no place in the community for them (Giwa-Onaiwu xiii). Another trope derived from the lack of Autistic input in these shows and movies is that these Autistic characters are usually there to simply ‘teach’ a non-Autistic person how to be kind, and they more likely than not have some sort of ‘bizarre’ talent or interest that is supposed to show how amazing Autistic minds are. While on the surface it sounds like acceptance, in reality it pushes the idea that an Autistic person needs some special skill to validate their existence. These negative representations of autism in movies and TV shows led to Autistic people not relating to canonly Autistic characters, but instead saying characters that they relate to or like are Autistic as a way of saying that if those characters were explicitly stated to be Autistic, they’d be better representations than what is shown now. Visual media representation is extremely important because this is where people get most of their ideas and beliefs, so by showing bad representation, it leads to harmful misconceptions of the Autistic community and makes Autistic people feel unrepresented (Ne’eman). If creators of these television shows and films used Autistic input, there would be less perpetuation of these stereotypes and more diverse representation for Autistic people.

A character that is considered the ‘blueprint’ for Autistic characters is Raymond ‘Ray’ Babbitt from the movie Rain Man. Raymond fits the stereotype for Autistic people greatly. He is a white male, is an extremely fast counter which is his ‘bizarre’ habit or trait, and as argued by many critics, his autism is not for representation, but is one of the many stories of how autism affects neurotypicals instead of how it affects Autistic people (Ne’eman). Raymond’s character is also not played by an Autistic actor. The inspiration for Raymond’s character was inspired by a man named Kim Peek who did not have autism, but had savant syndrome (Treffert). While Peek seemed to be in support of this character and this movie, this film is the cause of a lot of misconceptions of autism such as all Autistic people being savants and that autism is only present in white men. Furthermore, having a non-autistic person portraying an Autistic character makes autism seem like it is not a valid identity, but instead something one can just ‘pretend’ to be and turn on and off when needed. Having an Autistic actor is the best option for better representation because it shows how autism is a real, lived experience. A character that is the product of Autistic input is Julia from the popular kids’ show, Sesame Street. Julia is an Autistic little girl and was added to the main cast as a way to promote diversity and so Autistic fans of the same show could have a character to relate to. Julia was created with input from Autistic people such as the Autistic Self Advocacy Network who helped workshop her (ASAN). Julia was a revolutionary character, until Sesame Street partnered with Autism Speaks, an organization known for speaking over Autistic people and treating autism as something to be fixed. This completely undermined everything Julia stood for and took Julia from being great representation to another Autistic character whose sole purpose is to ‘help’ neurotypical people. What happened to Julia is more proof of how neurotypical people ruin Autistic representation for Autistic people.

In Ari Ne’eman’s Dueling Narratives: Neurotypical and Autistic Perspectives About the Autism Spectrum, he brings up several points on how parents and doctors damage the Autistic community with the way they talk about autism; saying falsehoods such as how autism “steals” children, ruins families, and is something that only people who are close to Autistic people ‘truly’ experience. Inevitably, these false narratives are translated into the media. Since autism is so villainized, these characters are portrayed as pitiful and helpless. This reason is why the savant trope is so problematic because it tells the audience that Autistic people are to be pitied, but ‘at least’ they have this talent going from them. These narratives are exceptionally harmful to Autistics of color. Neurotypical people do not get their input from Autistic people, so they make these narratives based on what they know instead which leads people of color not being accounted for in these narratives. Morénike Giwa Onaiwu’s Autistics of Color: We Exist…We Matter describes her experience as an Autistic Black woman and how both her identities have been invalidated. Some would say she is too Black to be Autistic and too Autistic to be Black. Autistics of color are only represented when they need to be seen as sad stories and examples for the community to not exclude them (Giwa-Onaiwu xii). They are rarely represented in the way white Autistic people are as people with interests and positive lives. Her experience with ableism and racism as an Autistic Black woman can be linked to the fact that Autistics of color are never seen in visual media (Giwa-Onaiwu xv). Bad representation is a vicious cycle in this case. Lack of Autistics of color in visual media leads to people thinking that people of color can not be Autistic which leads to more media without Autistics of color. This is why Autistic people being the actors, writers, creators, etc. is so important. More autistic people putting their lived experiences into something leaves less room for misconceptions and damaging stereotypes.

One positive from having stereotypical characters, is that Autistic community has found comfort in calling characters that are not canonly Autistic, autistic (Mullins). Many Autistic people had found the representation they were being given extremely offensive and found that there were many characters who were not explicitly stated to be Autistic to be much better representations than what they are given. Some of these characters are considered to be autistic coded which means the character is Autistic, but not stated by the creator for various reasons or based on an Autistic person (Mullins). While this can be a very empowering way to interact with ableist popular culture, it has its own issues such as white characters more likely to be coded as Autistic by fans than non white ones. White Autistic people can be just as guilty as white neurotypical people for the exclusion of Autistics of color (Giwa-Onaiwu xi). The problem lies in the fact that there is not enough Autistic created content or input being put into the mainstream pop culture which causes this aforementioned vicious cycle of bad representation.

Autistic representation in visual media is run by neurotypicals for neurotypicals instead of being by Autstic people for Autistic people. The harm these movies and television shows do have real world effects. The idea of autism affecting neurotypical people exclusively is only enhanced by these representations. Autistics of color being viewed as non existent is backed up by them never being what people see in movies and film. Autistic people are represented as white men who have one particular interest and if someone does not fit that image, then they can not be Autistic (Giwa-Onaiwu xv). The lack of Autistic voices causes the rise of neurotypical stories being told under the guise of Autistic stories. By not having Autistic representation that Autistic people can resonate with, they are given Autistic representation that neurotypical people can take and bend for even more damaging narratives (Ne’eman). By having more Autistic people being involved with the making of these TV shows and films, the neurotypical narratives would diminish greatly. Autistic people are not plot material and devices; autism needs to be shown as a valid identity and not simply something non autistic people experience and are completely changed by. The Autistic voice in the media should belong to Autistic people, so their stories are not told as sob stories or cure seeking.

Word Count: 1,408

We pledge

Works Cited

ASAN. “ASAN Has Ended Partnership With Sesame Street.” Autistic Self Advocacy Network, 2 Aug. 2019, autisticadvocacy.org/2019/08/asan-has-ended-partnership-with-sesame-street/.

Brown, Lydia X. Z., and Morénike Giwa-Onaiwu. “Autistics of Color: We Exist…We Matter.” All the Weight of Our Dreams: on Living Racialized Autism, DragonBee Press, 2017, pp. X-xxii.

Mullins, Christa. “Reflection: Autistic-Coded Characters and Fans in Fandom.” Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2019, doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v8i2.495.

Ne’eman, Ari. “Dueling Narratives: Neurotypical and Autistic Perspectives About the Autism Spectrum.” The Society for Critical Exchange , 2007, case.edu/affil/sce/Texts_2007/Ne’eman.html.

Treffert, Darold. “Rain Man, the Movie / Rain Man, Real Life.” Agnesian, 2017, ttps://www.agnesian.com/blog/rain-man-movie-rain-man-real-life.

Lueden Sheikhnureldin’s Major Project/Paper: Invisible Till Further Notice: Blackness & Schizophrenia

Lueden Sheikhnureldin

Dr. Foss

ENGL 384-02

April 23rd,2020

Invisible Till Further Notice: Blackness & Schizophrenia

Psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia have been seen as synonymous with words such as ‘evil’ or ‘scary’ and so has being Black in America. In the 1960s, society saw a rise of Black people being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Most were being diagnosed shortly after being arrested during Civil Rights protests. The government used the traits of schizophrenia (hallecutions, disconnect from reality, psychosis, etc.) to say that what the Black community was fighting for was irrelevant because they were schizophrenic. These ableist diagnoses showed how society enforced the stigma that having a disability meant one can not have any valid thoughts or feelings. Not only do Black people already have to fight for their right to be heard, schizophrenic people have to as well because of the aforementioned stigmas. Having schizophrenia does not make one’s opinions and beliefs any less credible, but since this was not, and is still not, the socially accepted notion, this stigma was used against Black people to further promote the silence of the Civil Rights Movement. The basis for these diagnoses at the time were also extremely racially charged with factors such as “extreme aggression” and “irrational distrust of police officers and government officials.” This rise of schizophrenia being misdiagnosed for Black people would become detrimental to our society today where there are still racial disparities. Studies are showing that it is more likely that the people getting diagnosed have depression and not schizophrenia, but since depression is not considered a “Black disorder” it is not a possibility that crosses many doctors’ minds. Black disabled people have their disability erased as evident in numerous pieces of literature with Black disabled characters. These diagnoses are one of the very few moments where society recognizes Black disabled people as being a part of both identities instead of only seeing one and not the other, but they are recognized for ableist and racist reasons rather than actual validity.

The Civil Rights Movement had been going on for many years in the 20th century, but the heart of the movement was in the 1960s. The Black Panther party was becoming more visible to non black people, public boycotts were making headlines, and even children in primary school were participating. This newfound platform was not ideal for members of the U.S. government who refused to let the Black population gain any of the rights they were fighting for. There were many means of intervention by the U.S. government such as the F.B.I.’s assisantion of Black Panther Party member, Fred Hampton, constant incarcerations of Black people, and admitting numerous Black men into, what were then called, insane asylums for schizophrenia. This rise in schizophrenia diagnoses was the most shocking to historians because prior to the ‘60s, schizophrenia was mainly diagnosed to white women who did not perform their motherly or wifely duties to their husbands’ liking. (Metzl 13) The majority of schizophrenic patients were Black men, more importantly, Black men who had some sort of connection to the Civil Rights movement whether it was attending boycotts or working with Black advocate leaders. (Metzl 14) Schizophrenia diagnoses changing from predominantly white women to predominantly Black men was not a mere coincidence. The diagnosis of schizophrenia had changed from non threatening hysteria to aggressive paranoia. (Pride) A lot of the ‘new’ symptoms were also extremely racially charged. Irrational distrust of authority, extreme hostility, and something white doctors called protest psychosis. (Metzl 16) Protest psychosis was the notion that participating in protests drove Black men to madness and the intent behind that was an attempt to show how ‘awful’ the Civil Rights Movement was and why Black people who were involved could not be trusted.

The most famous example of a Black man who was affected by the schizophrenia rise is civil rights advocate, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. More commonly known as Malcolm X. While Malcolm X was never admitted into a psychiatric ward, he was arrested and investigated heavily by the FBI. (Haley & X 145) In declassified FBI documents, historians found that the FBI had diagnosed Malcolm X with pre-psychotic paranoid schizophrenia. (Pride) The media was not aware of this government issued diagnosis till after his death, but Malcolm X had been painted by the media as a ‘crazy and insane’ man for his entire career. His distrust and paranoia of governmental authority heightened as he became more prevalent in the movement because the FBI were taping and constantly profiling him. (Gadek) Those reasons did not fit the narrative that the media wanted to paint. They wanted people to believe the government wasn’t doing anything behind anyone’s backs and that Malcolm X and other Black people who were distrustful of them were simply crazy. Oppressors would use ableist words such as crazy, insane, and psycho as a way to discredit Black people and the Civil Rights Movement. By doing this, they promoted an ableist mentality that people who are not able minded can not possibly have anything valid to say because their mental state does not “allow” them to have ‘coherent’ thoughts and that having a mental illness is a bad characteristic. This assigning of negative connotations to mental illness also led bigoted people to believe that being crazy and being Black were synonymous since they were both considered ‘bad’ things. Malcolm X did not deny any of those ableist allegations, but instead responded to these claims with that he was crazy, not because he was Black, but because society’s racism drove Black people to madness. (Haley & X 231) This response was seen as revolutionary; Malcolm X had used the word crazy to advance himself and his agenda instead of being silenced or flat out denying it. Malcolm X’s rebuttal was also seen as empowering because he was calling for people to critique the racism in society and not the people being affected by racism. (Pride) Another way Malcolm X not responding with simple denial could be seen as empowering was that it was him ending the notion that being mentally ill meant that one could not be trusted.

Calling someone crazy as a political weapon enforces the mentality that mentally ill people can not have valid opinions or coherent thoughts. Even in present time, people throw words like crazy around without thinking of its implications. Schizophrenics especially have to deal with the socially accepted ideology that they are “not in control” of themselves and should not be trusted. (Brune) The idea that people with psychotic disorders are not everyday civilians who go to school, work, and live typical lives, but instead are violent criminals stems from the diagnoses of Black men in the 60s. (Metzl 32) Black men became the poster children for schizophrenia and since they were most often incarcerated prior to the diagnosis, schizophrenia, criminality, and Blackness all became synonymous. Those diagnoses had long term effects on the Black community to this day. Rutgers University conducted a study where they assessed the Black men who were getting diagnosed with schizophrenia and found more similarity to major depression than schizophrenia. The racial disparities with schizophrenia in our current time has not radically changed when compared to the 60s’. Those racist studies have thrown off the data for schizophrenia, so it is now “more common” for Black people to be schizophrenic, so doctors do not consider depression or anxiety for their Black patients. This is an issue because antipsychotic medications are extremely strong and should not be taken by people who do not have schizophrenia. (Rutgers University) The side effects of taking such drugs have been compared to that of a lobotomy procedure. (Mollow) Numbing of the mind and extreme lack of motivation are the most common. According to the Rutgers studies, the Black students who were taking these medications were doing worse in school and had frigenthing shifts in personality. These misdiagnoses are killing Black minds and it is all because of biased studies that were more than half a century ago. Black people do not get diagnosed with depression and anxiety as much as white people because those are not seen as Black disorders. There is a hierarchy with mental disorders where psychotic disorders are the scary, unredeemable disorders while depression and anxiety are seen as “less serious”. (Donaldson) Not only does it undermine the experiences of people who have any of these disorders it also enforces the racial bias with diagnoses. Since psychotic disorders are the “scary” ones, it must be the Black disorder.

Disability and Blackness are connected, but not in the racist and synonymous way that is forced onto the Black disabled community. Being Black does mean one is inherently mentally ill and the notion that they are is ableist. Pickens’ book, Black Madness :: Mad Blackness, she rethinks the relationship between the two as being mutual. On page 3 of her introduction she writes, “In an ideological construct of white supremacy, Blackness is considered synonymous with madness or the prerequisite for creating madness. To push them (Blackness and madness) together syntactically runs the risk of appearing repetitive, but it also prompts the possibility that the two must be parsed.” Pickens’ idea of parsing Blackness and Madness in Black texts specifically is done so because of the aforementioned white supremacist construct. Black disabled people are rarely ever recognized as both Black and disabled unless it fits the racist and ableist narrative people want to paint. For example, in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, we are introduced to the character Crooks who is a Black man with a hunchback. In high school classes when analyzing this text, students are encouraged to look at characters with several lenses, class, race, and disability. These lenses are usually taught to be very specific in the sense that if one views a character with a race lens, they can not view the same character with a disability lens. The character Crooks is rarely ever considered to be physically disabled even though other white characters with similar disabilities are. Another example of a Black character disability being erased is the character Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Said character’s left arm is described to a foot shorter than his right and his left hand is small and shriveled. The only time this is mentioned is when he is on trial and they have to prove that he could not have possibly hurt the victim because the injuries could not have been done by someone who has no usage of his left arm. Later in the book, there is a white disabled character, Boo Radley, who kills a character who tried to hurt the main characters and instead of trailing Boo, the detective argues that because of his disability it would not be right since he already has so much trouble. Yet, everyone in the book felt fine trialing Tom Robinson who is also disabled. If literature can not recognize characters as both Black and disabled, this is simply a reflection of white dominated societal beliefs. Unless a person can be shown as disabled as a direct result of their Blackness, then society sees no need for their disability and their race to be mentioned.

This erasure of disability is evident in other parts of history. In Anne Finger’s piece, COMRADE LUXEMBURG AND COMRADE GRAMSCI PASS EACH OTHER IN THE CONGRESS OF THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL ON THE 10TH OF MARCH, 1912, ends with Finger talking about how these two political figures had their disabilities hidden by history. Disability is viewed as a sign of weakness and since we should believe that these historical leaders are strong and ‘perfect’, then their disability should not be mentioned unless needed. We learn about Helen Keller in school, but only that she is a Deaf and Blind person. History books make no mention of her activism and politics because her beliefs don’t fit the image they want to paint about disabled people. This is parallel to what happens to Black disabled people, but with the added layer of anti-Blackness. A Black man committing an act of violence is an aggressive thug, but a white man doing the same is society’s fault for not helping the mentally ill. Then on the other, white supremacist hand, Black people are also crazy and agressive, so they need to be diagnozed with something just as ‘evil’ like schizophernia to ‘prove’ how unstable they are. Disability and Blackness are viewed simply as tools for white people to pick and choose what story they want to tell. The result of this are factors like the rise of schizophrenia in the 60’s which was one of the few times Black disabled people were visible for both identities, not for the actual validity in their identities, but for racist and ableist ideologies that only seek to benefit the white and abled dominated society.

I pledge

Word Count: 2,133

Works Cited

Brüne, Martin, et al. “Social Skills and Behavioral Problems in Schizophrenia: The Role of Mental State Attribution, Neurocognition and Clinical Symptomatology.” Psychiatry Research, vol. 190, no. 1, 2011, pp. 9–17., doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2010.03.015.

Donaldson, Elizabeth. “Beyond A Beautiful Mind: Schizophrenia and Bioethics in the Classroom.” Disability Studies Quarterly, dsq-sds.org/article/view/4635/3934.

Gadek, Emily. “Segregating Schizophrenia.” BackStory, 2014, www.backstoryradio.org/blog/segregating-schizophrenia/.

Haley, Alex, and Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine Books, 1989.

Metzl, Jonathan. The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease. Beacon, 2011.

Mollow, Anna. “‘When Black Women Start Going on Prozac’: Race, Gender, and Mental Illness in Meri Nana-Ama Danquah’s Willow Weep for Me.” Gale Literature Resource Center, 2006, go-gale-com.umw.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA157947339&v=2.1&u=viva_mwc&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w.

Rutgers University. “African-Americans more likely to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, study finds: The study suggests a bias in misdiagnosing blacks with major depression and schizophrenia.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 March 2019. .

Pickens Therí A. “What’s Good?” Black Madness:: Mad Blackness, Duke University Press, 2019, pp. 1–22.

Pride, Felicia. “Schizophrenia as Political Weapon.” The Root, 2010, www.theroot.com/schizophrenia-as-political-weapon-1790878403.

Fries Test

Posted this on Canvas, but was encouraged to post it here too!

Was looking up our poet Kenny Fries who I think we have read two poems from him, Excavation and today’s poem. He made his own test that is similar to the Bechdel test which determines if a creative work has a fair representation of women. This test is called the Fries test and can be used to determine if a creative (fiction) work has a fair representation of disabled people. Here is a link Dr. Foss provided to a short reading by Fries himself on this test. And here is what Dr. Foss said on Canvas!

“He (Fries) shouts out Good Kings Bad Kings as one of only a couple of novels he can think of as passing the test! He also mentions the important short fiction collection The Right Way to be Crippled and Naked: The Fiction of Disability, from which I selected a number of our contemporary short stories, and the equally important Beauty is a Verb: The New Disability Poetry, from which I selected a number of our contemporary poems.”

This is the criteria according to Wikipedia, but I think it varies based on what type of creative work it is!

have more than one disabled character;
the disabled characters need to have their own narrative purpose other than the education and profit of a nondisabled character;
the characters’ disability should not be eradicated either by curing or killing.

Can ya’ll think of any creative works that pass this test? Honestly it is the first bullet that kinda stumped me. So many works that I enjoy that have what I feel is a good representation of a disabled character, that character is usually the only one. Feel free to reply to this with ones that completely pass this test or ones that don’t at all because it’s fun to laugh at bad representation sometimes. Also list some that don’t pass, but don’t completely fail either. Here are some recommendations that I have that I enjoyed.

A Silent Voice: Anime movie about a teenage boy trying to make amends with a deaf girl he and his classmates bullied in elementary school. (WARNING: PHYSICAL ABUSE,VERBAL ABUSE, AND SUICIDAL IDEATION) I like it because I feel that they don’t let the boy off so easy and he isn’t making amends just to make himself feel better, but I also haven’t seen this since it came out, so it’d be fun to watch it knowing what I know now from this class. Does not pass because she is the only disabled character (well an argument can be made for the main character, but if you have seen this or do watch it let’s talk about it!) and she does have her own purpose, but a lot of it does revolve around the main character bettering himself. It’s not bad to do both, but because this is such a common trope I don’t want to ignore that.

Atypical: Netflix TV show about an autistic boy named Sam and his family. (3 seasons with the 4th season coming out sometime in the Fall) This show has a lot of issues with the main character not being played by someone on the spectrum and neither is the main writer for the show, but one thing I do appreciate was that in season 2 and 3, they hired autistic writers and actors because the main writer did care about having that representation. I think they definitely could have hired an autistic main character from the beginning, but it is Hollywood. I’m surprised they even acknowledged it. I think this does pass the test and the address a lot of issues such as police brutality and the mistreatment of disabled people especially Neurodivergent people by the police, but because our MAIN CHARACTER is not played by an autistic person I don’t want to fully applaud them for passing the test. A lot more needs to be done.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini: (WARNING FOR SUICIDAL IDEATION, SELF HARM, HOSPITALIZATION, and EATING DISORDERS) A book about a teenager who is diagnosed with clinical anxiety and later admitted to a psychiatric ward. One of my favorite books all time! The author himself has been admitted into psychiatric wards, so it is the most accurate writing of one I have ever read. There are also disabled people of color in the book too which isn’t in the Fries test, but I think should be. This book doesn’t try to profit off of teen anxiety and romanticize anything. It’s very real and has a great message. It does pass the test, but I do have an issue with the only time you meet other disabled people is in the psychiatric ward even though the character later learns that disabled people are all around him, I feel like it is cop out to say, “look at all the disability representation!” when the setting is kind of an obvious one instead of a more typical one.

That’s all I have for now! Please let me know if you have any that pass, fail, or kind of almost pass! Also I’d like to know what everyone thinks should be added to the Fries test for criteria? This is not the end all be all of representation, but I think it is a good start!

Lu Sheikhnureldin’s Response to Lambeth’s Symptoms

In Laurie Clements Lambeth’s poem Symptoms, she compares the poetic speaker’s back, leg, and arm compression braces to a girdle and a corset. This comparison along with the speaker describing themselves as sporting a cane in a similar way one would describe carrying a purse are the presumed female presenting speaker trying to find a connection between their femininity and their disability. The speaker then goes on to say that if the clothes they were wearing were to fall, everyone would see their cellophane body. Their braces and their cane are their versions of the able bodied women fashion, but yet they must cover those up with societal fashion standards to hide their body because it is a disabled body which doesn’t fit the female image. Lambeth’s speaker can be seen as reclaiming their braces and cane as their own fashion and rejecting the fashion of able bodied women instead of longing for their fashion which strays away from the narrative of disabled people wishing they were able bodied or minded.

In Garland-Thomson’s piece on feminist theory and disability theory, she touches on the subjects of the disabled female body not being seen as something sexual or desirable and instead seen on something shameful or pitiful. Lambeth’s poem of the speaker having to cover up their braces and canes with fashion that was made with the intent for an able bodied woman to wear represents this because the need to cover up is directly related to the speaker feeling like they should be ashamed of their body instead of embracing it. This feeling of shame relates to Sheila Black’s poem,What You Mourn, and how this concept of self love and body acceptance is not meant for disabled bodies because disabled bodies are things that need to be fixed or covered up.

Kafer’s Imagined Future really goes in depth on how society sees disabled people as people who long for an able bodied or minded life when that is not the case for many disabled people especially since the rise of disability advocacy and studies. Able bodied and minded people think of disability developing in their lifetime either to them or a loved one as a tragedy, so Kafer states that this future without disability is their imagined future. It is a lovely, perfect future because disabled people are excluded from it. This ideology shows how disability is something to be ashamed of and if someone can “fix” their disability they should. A disabled person such as Lambeth’s speaker, in an able bodied mindset, should have no problem with hiding their disability because it makes this imagined future seem more possible when this imagined future is not something disabled people want in the first place.

Lambeth’s speaker refers to their cane as something they sport, not something that burdens them and wish to get rid of. Their braces are like corsets and girdles, but the rest of the world sees it as a cellophane. They describe clothes like skirts and sleeves with a negative inflict that they don’t use when describing their braces and canes because the majority of people seeing a disabled body as something that needs negative inflict are able bodied people. The speaker says that the dresses and the sheets of their bed are meant to bind them and it is an interesting comparison because their compression braces are binding them, but not in the way the clothes and sheets do. The clothes they are forced to wear is this societal binding to an image of a disabled person forced to act like they aren’t disabled while the compression braces are physically binding their muscles, but it does not hold them back like the able bodied clothes do.

Word Count: 633 I pledge

thoughts on our readings from 1/23

Coming Out Mad and Coming Out Disabled by Elizabeth Brewer was a super interesting and fun read. I liked having more insight into the world of disability studies and the inter-community issues. All marginalized groups have topics that are frequently debated within them which not many people realize because the way they see it is in like a The Oppressors vs The Oppressed sort of way, so in the case of disability studies people would think that the only issue in the disabled community is about non disabled people and how their ableism impacts disabled people when there’s so many intricacies that go into it. I personally agree with Linton’s inclusive view of disability and don’t think that broadening the definition discredits the community, but instead makes it stronger! I love talking about the spectrum of disability and I think focusing on more than JUST mental or JUST physical is super vital for disability studies and not including it would be counterintuitive.

I Am (Clare) by John Clare makes me wish I knew how to analyze poetry better. What I felt from the poem was that the speaker still feels like themselves even though the people around them, even their friends feel that their disability has changed them for the worse and they are no longer the person they used to be which is super common for people to feel that disabled people aren’t actual people with thoughts and personalities. The phrase empty shell is used a lot or “not what they used to be” and those phrases make it sound like disability completely erases the person and it’s the entire victimizing thing that was discussed in the Reassigning Meaning piece we read. Clare’s poem reaffirms that people do victimize disabled people, but the speaker in their poem does not care at all about this victimization and knows that they are who they are and not regardless or despite their disability, but because of their disability.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was mind blowing. I found so many connections in the text to back up the disability lens theory and I also see why people read this book in racial studies and gender studies classrooms as well. I had never read it until now and it is WILD!!!! First, I’d like to suggest calling Frankenstein’s creation simply Creation because by not associating him with Viktor it is easier to see him as his own person instead of a dependent which removes another stereotype about disabled people. Yes, he is technically Viktor’s creation, but Viktor does not claim the creation as his own and I believe it isn’t fair to Creation to think of him as” belonging” to Viktor. I could see an argument saying that calling Creation, Viktor’s is the same as saying “Dan’s child”, but I would not call Creation Viktor’s son or child because Viktor does not have that right to call him that after how he abandoned him. I promise this is not an entirely Anti-Viktor post or anything, interesting character, but viewing him in a disability lens when talking about him and Creation I dislike him, but seeing him on his own, I think he’s….intriguing.

Okay now the actual stuff I wanted to talk about

Creation telling Viktor that if he were to give him a wife, he would take his wife and flee to a South American jungle, far from human civilization was, to me, a mirror on the segregation of disabled people. Whether that be institutionalized segregation or familial (Bertha from Jane Eyre, Rosemary Kennedy), the point is people try to remove disabled people from their lives by literally hiding them away. Creation is aware of this segregation and even offers to self segregate as long as he is not alone.

Viktor not wanting to make Creation a wife because he didn’t want to bring another “monster” in to the world felt like when parents have a child with a disability and refuse to have more children because they don’t want the other children to be disabled. Those parents are making disability into this horrible thing that needs to be stopped and that they did something awful by having a disabled child which is exactly what Viktor thought. Granted this was after Creation had killed his brother and by association killed his housekeeper, but Creation spoke to him and told him that he is a free thinking being who can communicate and feelings things and wants to be accepted by somebody. Regardless of this deep confession Creation gave, Viktor could not pull through because he thought he’d making the world worse. And Viktor has his own reasons granted, but this blog post is too long for me to go into why I think Viktor is not completely at fault. (70% at fault though, don’t get me wrong)

When Henry and Viktor go abroad and Henry is just this over enthusiastic, positive person and Viktor is…the opposite. Viktor says that he saw his former self in Henry. The person he was before Creation and the first thing that came to my mind was he is acting like those parents who treat their disabled children as this burden on their life. More specifically the Autism Speaks video with the moms saying these, in my opinion and many others!, horrible things about their children. These moms say things like they never get breaks, how they basically wish their children were “normal”, and what I found the most relevant in relation to Viktor was that these moms talk about how their lives have changed for the worst because of their children.

And that brings me to my 100th point, is it problematic to compare Creation to a person with disabilities? The whole time when I was writing my notes I was like wow the parallels, amazing!! But when I thought of my last point about Viktor being compared to a parent of a disabled child, I started thinking that isn’t it a little off to say that Creation, someone who has killed people VERY purposefully, can be the same as a disabled person? Like for example with my point (I am contradicting myself, but gimme a second) about Viktor being like one of the Autism Speaks moms, Viktor was tired of Creation because he was threatening him and his loved ones and had already taken many of them out of his life and he lived in fear of Creation hurting more people, is that not a valid reason to not want to be around Creation?

BUT! That brings me to my next, almost last I promise, point. In Chapter 24, when Creations finds Viktor’s dead body, he cries. He starts talking about he admired him and how he hates himself now. Creation shows genuine remorse for what has happened. Creation is not this cold, heartless monster that was killing people just to kill. He was killing for the same reason many people do, out of anger. OBVIOUSLY, murder is wrong and it doesn’t matter that the person was angry, but this shows that Creation does actually have emotions if for some reason the entire book wasn’t enough proof. And a huge stereotype among disabled people, specifically the Autism community, is that they are cold and unfeeling. But as we see, Creation is obviously showing emotion and even communicating how he feels and completely goes against what Viktor thought of him as and goes against the aforementioned stereotype.

Over all what I got from Frankenstein was that it can be a great example for the discussion on what is disability especially if you use Linton’s inclusive definition. Some who disagree with Linton’s definition could say that Creation is not disabled. Creation is able bodied, he does not express any trouble with mobility. He has no issues with verbal communication and he knows German and English. The only reason he is rejected by others is because of he looks and I know, he is made up of corpse body parts and has a very “gruesome” appearance, but his facial and body “deformities” are the only reasons he is being treated that way. What I believe is that Creation is disabled because society is disabling him. It all goes back to the discussion we had on the first day of class. A person in a wheelchair is only disabled when society is disabling them. Someone in a wheelchair can have a job, go to school, etc, but the second they are faced with an inaccessible area, that is society disabling them. No, their disability doesn’t just go away and come back when faced with an issue like this, but they are not disabled BECAUSE they are in a wheelchair, they are disabled because society doesn’t allow them to have that accessibility because having accessible areas is seen almost as a reward, like yay we finally made this place accessible when EVERYTHING should accessible always. So, back to Creation. He falls under this sort of example. No one wants to look at how “ugly” he is and they see him as a monster. That is a hinderance on him. That idea people have about him is what is disabling him.

I pledge

TL;DR: Readings good, Frankenstein amazing, see ya’ll on Tuesday!

Edit #1 11:14 AM: I misread the syllabus and thought we had to finish Frankenstein by 1/23 and I posted a huge spoiler, but I deleted it and I will repost those points after our class on 1/28.

Edit #2 12:28 PM: I have added the previous points!