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There are some aspects that are displayed in the article freaks and queers by Eli Clare. These aspects include disability, exile and pride, liberation, and queerness that are discussed through some words that describe people who ae disabled. Clare is one of the disabled people who is suffering from a disability known as cerebral palsy. Hence, he accepts some words that are used to describe him such as queer and cripple. This acceptance helps him to be strong as well as proud rather than having a feeling of worthlessness and weakness. Also, Clare finds out the definition of the words with an aim of understanding why the disabled people embrace some words while there are words that are termed as offensive and unacceptable. However, he declares that he had not yet accepted the use of the word freak that was used to refer to the disabled people in the community whereas, there are other people in the same community who accept the word. The other people declared that the use of the words helps them to have self-assurance as well as have a sense of pride. As a result, Clare explores more on the aspect of the word and associates it with some connotations that are negative meaning.
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This backdrop may be used to represent various issues such as language, labels, and a reclaiming process that is undertaken by many people in the community who are oppressed. For example, the people who are disabled in the community are usually not different in any aspect that may be presented in the text. In the expression of the term cripple, the author finds it offensive and decides to use freak instead. Also, he explains why he does so by narrating a story to the people who are disabled to make them feel better. Hence, the use of the word freak by Clare does not imply a negative meaning. Instead. It reinforces the attitude the disabled people have towards themselves (Rosemarie
The two essays “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs and “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris are excellent pieces of work that share many similarities. This paper would reflect on these similarities particularly in terms of the author, message and the targeted audience. On an everyday basis, people view those with disabilities in a different light and make them conscious at every step. This may be done without a conscious realisation but then it is probably human nature to observe and notice things that deviate from the normal in a society. In a way people are conditioned to look negatively at those individuals who are different in the conventional
“I am a Cripple,” when people typically hear these words, they tend to feel bad for that person, but that is exactly what Mair does not want. She prefers that people treat her the same way they would if she did not have the disease. Throughout the essay, Mair discusses her disease openly. She uses an optimistic tone, so that the reader will not recoil with sadness when they hear her discuss the disease and how it affects her life. In Nancy Mair’s essay “On Being A Cripple,” Mair uses her personal stories, diction, and syntactical structures to create an optimistic tone throughout the essay, so that the audience can better connect with the story.
Disability, a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movement, senses, or activities. Lisa I. Iezzonis’ reading “Stand Out” depicts a rather stimulating framework of how the disability is seen and treated. The relationship between health, illness, and narrative in this reading marks the idea of discrimination of disability through her own life events by separation of identity, people. The author employs repeated phrases, metaphors and perspectives to display this. The form of literature is written and told in the form of the first-person perspective short story but in storytelling form.
The hardships of living with a disability are communicated using minor characters as props and how they are misconceived as being unintelligent or even abnormal. For example, a waitress suggests that Raymond is a “very clever boy”. Fascinatingly, she is the only minor character who treats Raymond with respect and sympathy, in contrast to Charlie and the general public who evidently takes advantage of his condition. In addition, the mise-en-scene composed of high key lighting and a wide-angle shot creates an ambient atmosphere, which makes it seem as if Raymond is unique, in contrast to abnormal or strange.(Cinematheque, 2010, p. 1). This conversation with the waitress shows that Ray’s disability makes him unique, in a positive way, especially because the general public seem to be uneducated about mental disabilities in this film; this is evidently shown where a man is seen screaming as Raymond, as he stands in the middle of a busy intersection. As a result, the director breaks down these misconceptions and generalisations about the, as if he is reprimanding that the disabled are a part of our society and that they should be treated with respect.
In her essay “On Being a Cripple,” Mairs describes her path of acceptance of her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis by declaring that she is a “cripple” in alternative to the more broadly acceptable terms: disabled or handicapped. Her essay is written with humor, satire, an open heart, and open eyes. Mair’s purpose is to describe her acceptances of her condition by using rhetorical elements and appeals, such as ethos and pathos, in order to allure her audience.
In the Pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks, Lindsay underwent many of the relatable choices and struggles high school students endure every day. During this episode, Lindsay was in a rough spot due to the death of her grandmother, and as a result she changed her normal decisions. This includes everything from what she wore to school to the types of people she associated herself with. Though many changes were occurring, one thing remains: her desire to appear unchanged by her parents. I enjoyed the intro to Freaks and Geeks because the conflicts were engaging, and the introduction was easy to follow.
The author writes, "People–crippled or not–wince at the world "cripple", as they do not at "handicapped" or "disabled." (Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one whom the fates/gods/viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely. As a cripple, I swagger." (194) This quote shows the author's strength and sense of humor. These are the two things which allow her to honestly face the truth of her situation as well as how other people react to it. She does not want pity from people who see her limping down the street with her cane, nor does she want them to shy away as though she is some ...
Nancy Mairs, born in 1943, described herself as a radical feminist, pacifist, and cripple. She is crippled because she has multiple sclerosis (MS), which is a chronic disease involving damage to the nerve cells and spinal cord. In her essay Disability, Mairs’ focus is on how disabled people are portrayed, or rather un-portrayed in the media. There is more than one audience that Mairs could have been trying to reach out to with this piece. The less-obvious audience would be disabled people who can connect to her writing because they can relate to it. The more obvious audience would be physically-able people who have yet to notice the lack of disabled people being portrayed by the media. Her purpose is to persuade the audience that disabled people should be shown in the media more often, to help society better cope with and realize the presence of handicapped people. Mairs starts off by saying “For months now I’ve been consciously searching for representation of myself in the media, especially television. I know I’d recognize this self becaus...
Eli Clare in Freaks and Queers observes how individuals use certain words to reaffirm their identities and also distinguish themselves from the rest of society. Being a disabled transman, Clare mentions various words, like handicapped, cripple (crip), gimp, amongst others, which have come to be accepted by the disabled community. He says, “cripple makes me flinch…but I love crip humor, the audacity of turning cripple into a word of pride” (p. 83). Some of these words, like queer for the LGBT community, are used as a means of agency and community for minority groups. But he also turns to the ugly side of language, which can be used to decrease and erase the worth of an individual. He mentions his discomfort with the word ‘freak’ and how
Clare provides different paradigms of disability in order to demonstrate the wide variety of views concerning disabilities. He states that the paradigms of disability "all turn disability into problems faced by individual people, locate those problems in our bodies, and define those bodies as wrong," (Clare, 2001, p. 360). The first paradigm model Clare explains is the medical model which defines disability as a disease or a condition that is treatable. Next, he explains that the charity model defines disability as a tragedy and the supercrip model defines disability as a tough challenge that individuals overcome; the supercrip model makes individuals with disabilities out to be superheroes. Lastly, Clare explains that the moral model defines disability as a weakness. In order to demonstrate the paradigms and how they overlap, Clare cleverly uses an array of popular examples. One significant example is Jerry Lewis' telethon. During this time, Jerry Lewis attempts to raise money in order to find a cure for a condition. Overall, his Labor Day telethon raises money to end a disability by finding a cure for the broken bodies. This telethon employs the medical model because it demonstrates disability as a condition that needs to be treated. In addition, the telethon employs the charity model because it shows disability as a misfortune. All four disability paradigms are known as the social model because they are the ideas that society has about certain bodies. When society creates these ideas about disabilities, they create unnatural
Mairs recognizes herself as a “cripple” although many people would not want to be called a cripple since they would find it offensive, but Mairs believes it fit her perfectly. Mairs does not like the term “handicapped” or “disabled” because they are not flattering which is why she prefers the word “cripple”. Although she has a serious condition she does not take consideration of other individuals statements, “whatever you call me, I remain cripple. But i don’t care what you call me” (Mairs). This passage demonstrates how brave and strong she is; Mairs is also optimism because she learned to accept herself the way she is, she eventually became confident enough to joke about her serious condition.
In the book, The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney’s thesis is that there is more to people than their disabilities, it is not restricting nor is it shameful but infact it is beautiful in its own way. With a plan to travel the United States, Mooney decides to travel in a Short bus with intentions of collecting experiences from people who have overcome--or not overcome--being labeled disabled or abnormal. In this Mooney reinvents this concept that normal people suck; that a simple small message of “you’re not normal” could have a destructive and deteriorating effect. With an idea of what disabilities are, Mooney’s trip gives light to disabilities even he was not prepared to face, that he feared.
This tone is also used to establish an appeal to pathos which he hopes to convince the audience of the fact that handicapped people are still people and not less than anyone else. A very prominent example of Peace’s emotion is displayed when he says, “Like many disabled people, I embrace an identity that is tied to my body. I have been made to feel different, inferior, since I began using a wheelchair thirty years ago and by claiming that I am disabled and proud, I am empowered,” (para. 15). This declaration demonstrates to his audience that Peace is honored by who he is and what disabled people can do and that he is tired of being oppressed by the media. Peace also makes this claim to support his thesis in the first paragraph that states, “The negative portrayal of disabled people is not only oppressive but also confirms that nondisabled people set the terms of the debate about the meaning of disability,” (para. 1). This is Peace’s central argument for the whole article and explains his frustration with society’s generalization of handicapped people and the preconceived limitations set on them. Peace’s appeal to pathos and tone throughout are extremely effective in displaying to his audience (society) that those who have disabilities are fed up with the limits that have been placed in the
Throughout this passage Nancy Mairs uses the word cripple to describe who she is and the beliefs of her condition. She does this by describing her condition in a few different ways; the opinion of others and the opinion of herself. As anyone should she decides what her title as a person should be and she doesn’t listen or care for anyone’s opinion outside of her own. Her tone is very straightforward throughout the passage. Mairs describes her condition and how it relates to the actions and response of other people in any situation.
It could be said that in modern industrial society, Disability is still widely regarded as tragic individual failing, in which its “victims” require care, sympathy and medical diagnosis. Whilst medical science has served to improve and enhance the quality of life for many it could be argued that it has also led to further segregation and separation of many individuals. This could be caused by its insistence on labelling one as “sick”, “abnormal” or “mental”. Consequently, what this act of labelling and diagnosing has done, is enforce the societal view that a disability is an abnormality that requires treatment and that any of its “victims” should do what is required to be able to function in society as an able bodied individual.