The memoir My Body Politic is an inspirational first person framework by Simi Linton. Her powerful stories give the reader a strong understanding on disability studies as well as the challenges Simi endured as she lived through a difficult time period for someone having a disability. When she became disabled in the 70’s, Simi’s life drastically changed. After spending months in the hospital and rehabilitation centers, Simi decided to take the opportunity to move to New York and attend college there. While living in Berkeley, she discovered that her neighborhood was more accommodating for people with wheelchairs, making it a welcoming space to live in. It was there where she discovered the political disability movement which inspired her to go back to university to get her bachelor’s degree in psychology. After obtaining her degree from Columbia University in New York City, Simi used and still uses her knowledge and …show more content…
Being left out is never a pleasant experience for anyone, especially when society is shaped to exclude people who do not fit the standards of being “normal.” A sense of belonging is a fundamental human need. Human contract is essential for surviving; therefore, being left out hurts on a physical and psychological level, often times resulting in severe depression and anxiety. One part in the book that stood out to me was when the taxi driver refused to take her to her hotel by saying “this is not an ambulance.” These kinds of situations are hurtful and result in a sense of loneliness; however, Simi does a good job by moving forward. She becomes accepting of her disability by forcing herself to realize that she does have an important role in the world regardless of her impairment. As a society we need to correct our negative views on disability so that we can progress and focus our behavior on improving society’s overall atmosphere to avoid having unfavorable interactions between
In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Story of My Body” Ortiz Cofer represents herself narrative story when she were young. Her autobiography has four headlines these parts are skin, color, size, and looks. Every headline has it is own stories underneath it. Ortiz Cofer’s is expressing her life story about her physical and psychological struggle with her body. Heilbrun’s narrative, “Writing a Woman’s Life” shows that, a woman’s does not have to be an ideal to write a self-autobiography to tell the world something about herself and her life. Ortiz Cofer’s facing a body struggle that is not made by herself, but by people around her. Therefore, every woman is able to write can write an autobiography with no exception.
All these and more evidences used in the book support Peterson’s thesis and purpose—all of them discuss how having a disability made Peterson and others in her situation a part of the “other”. Her personal experience on media and
Every individual has two lives, the life we live, and the life we live after that. Nobody is perfect, but if one works hard enough, he or she can stay away from failure. The Natural is a novel written by Bernard Malamud. It is Malamud’s first novel that initially received mixed reactions but afterwards, it was regarded as an outstanding piece of literature. It is a story about Roy Hobbs who after making mistakes in his life, he returns the bribery money and is left with self-hatred for mistakes he has done. Hobbs was a baseball player who aspired to be famous, but because of his carnal and materialistic desire, his quest for heroism failed, as he was left with nothing. In the modern world, the quest for heroism is a difficult struggle, and this can be seen through the protagonist in The Natural.
As social scientists, we are intrigued on analyzing relationships within society that can help us understand individuals and surrounding issues. In “Feminist, Queer, Crip” Kafer challenges the issue and ideas of disability through the analysis and frameworks intersected with feminist, queer, and crip theories to argue how society has rendered disability towards people with disabilities not having a “future”. Kafer quotes, “disability is seen as a sign of no future” (p.3). In other words, people with disabilities are perceived and expected to not have a future because they are not capable of conducting things as to someone who is an ableist. Kafer states that disability needs to be addressed, and mentions that “The military complex causes illness,
As social scientists, we are intrigued on analyzing relationships within society that can help us understand individuals and surrounding issues. In “Feminist, Queer, Crip” Kafer challenges the issue and ideas of disability through the analysis and frameworks intersected with feminist, queer, and crip theories to argue how society has rendered disability towards people with disabilities not having a “future”. Kafer quotes, “ disability is seen as a sign of no future”(p.3). In other words, people with disabilities are perceived and expected to not have a future because they are not capable of conducting things as to someone who is an ableist. Kafer states that disability as a whole needs to be addressed, and mentions that “ The military complex causes illness,disability, and death on global scale, and there is much more work to be done in theorizing how to oppose war violence and its effects without denigrating disability and disabled people in the process(168)”.
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.
The contentious little book titled Women, Power, Politics maintains politics to be devalued, acknowledging the fact that only few people do vote, and women are unable to achieve within the realm of Canadian politics. Sylvia Bashevkin, the author of the book argues that Canadians have a profound unease with women in positions of political authority, what she calls the "women plus power equals discomfort" equation. She evaluates a range of barriers faced by women who enter politics, including the media's biased role of representing the private lives of women in politics, and she wonders why citizens find politics is underrepresented in Canada compared to Belgium. In clear, accessible terms, Bashevkin explains her ideas on how to eliminate “low voters turn-out,” “devaluation of politics,” "gender schemas," and "media framing.” She outlines some compelling solutions to address the stalemate facing women in Canadian politics which are; contesting media portrayals, changing the rule of the game, improving legislative quotas, electoral reform, movement renewals, and so on. This response paper would addresses the reality of a political mainstream, actions which should be taken against the oppressive elements of reality, and the awareness it brings through economic, social, and political environment.
While acknowledging the diverse influences of capitalism, colonialism, urbanization, and industrialization on the perceptions and constructions of intellectual disability, this book also adds a new and significant dimension by including analysis of social and cultural notions of identity, personhood and selfhood.
Melody, like a fish out of the water is out of her mind. I feel that everyone, including you should read this book. This is a meaningful and powerful book written by a mom of a disabled kid. Although this book is fiction it is based on a real life person, Wendy Michelle Draper. There are many disabled kids at our school and I believe reading this book helps us understand them, some disabled kids are made fun of, some get stares in the halls, and most people pity them or their parents. They don’t want your pity as I have learned. Being disabled isn't the worst thing ever. The parents work hard raising their kids and don’t want you to pity their family. Reading this book, you will see the disabled in a different perspective. You won’t think they’re
Melody’s problems are very similar to mine and other’s, not fitting in, bullies, speaking to others (Us “normal” people have more freedom toward that), and countless more. She’s very similar to me and everyone else, but she just has more to deal with, with her disability. I was very surprised by the ending when Melody didn’t make it to the final competition. I felt bad that Melody was treated that way and she wasn’t even told by her friends that they left early. It was a very touching book. It made me think more about others and what they are going through. I learned that we’re all so alike, but we treat each other differently. I just wonder why we do so. I enjoyed the book very
‘“Now it’s my turn to make it better for generations that come after, which is why I’ve become, involved in disabilities issues”’ (Open University, 2016a).
In the story, The Natural, certain characters and events are portrayed in a distinctive way that makes this story unique to other books and shows the typical writing style of the narrator. The author uses a repetitive writing technique that is impossible to overlook. The writer of this book is able to catch the reader’s eye with his concept of the importance of beautiful description. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud, uses great imagery that makes the story appealing.
The purpose of this essay is to draw on the idea of disability by exploring how the social construction of self and other might impact geographies of inclusion and exclusion. The idea is that social constructionism is a product of men and was created by society as a whole, rather than by individuals, and disability, along with the other concepts such as race and gender, were no longer viewed to be biologically determined (Berger & Luckmann 1966). In order to illustrate this issue, the essay will be broken down into three parts, with each part addressing a different topic in relations to disability. The first part will show what society considers to be a disability, and the expectations of society, which includes the different models that has
In the essay “Disability,” Nancy Mairs discusses the lack of media attention for the disabled, writing: “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anyone’s life.” An ordinary person has very little exposure to the disabled, and therefore can only draw conclusions from what is seen in the media. As soon as people can picture the disabled as regular people with a debilitating condition, they can begin to respect them and see to their needs without it seeming like an afterthought or a burden. As Mairs wrote: “The fact is that ours is the only minority you can join involuntarily, without warning, at any time.” Looking at the issue from this angle, it is easy to see that many disabled people were ordinary people prior to some sort of accident. Mairs develops this po...
After learning from doing this interview my preconceived notions about disability has not change, having invisible disabilities myself, I understand the complexity of disability and the challenges that follows. I know that asking for helps doesn’t mean you are weak, it is part of the human experience, as we help each other we are building and strengthen our society. I know that each personal with disability has different experience, while people may share the same syndromes, but not the same experience.