Reflections on Failing Bodies
I think I’ve finished my recent reading binge of disability nonfiction, which coincidentally overlapped with Disability Pride Month and the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which passed on July 26. I read Johanna Hedva, Kim Nielson, DeAnna Quietwater Noreiga, and Julia Watts Belser. I summarized my thoughts on a recent blog post.
All people experience a disappointment in and/or failure of their body. It’s a point Johanna Hevda and Julia Watts Belser both point out in their work. They claim that everyone experiences disability within their lifetime, but I extend that same idea to say that all people at some point experience body dysmorphia. Even if your body works, and is completely normal, you will experience dissatisfaction with it at some point. Maybe you hate your hair, struggle with your weight, identify as trans, or wish you were a better athlete. All of these experiences have nothing to do with disability, but stem from the body.
Now, most of these books remind the reader that our modern capitalist societies value only those individuals whose bodies are productive— and Hedva and Watts Belser as disability advocates extoll the need for rest and Hedva champions the difference between capacity and capability. They remark that just because people have the capability to do something, they may not have the capacity.
Neilson, as a disability historian, goes further. She points out that women, people of color, and disabled people share the same basic civil rights struggle. They have all bodies that able-bodied white men have deemed inferior and incapable of proper function and full utility.
I add that both of these arguments, which both hinge on capitalist economic theory, neglect appropriate consideration of the role of industrialism. Since we no longer live as extended families in agrarian communities, it is nearly impossible to reorganize the distribution of work to benefit people with disabilities. But that’s not something we discuss here in this newsletter… but it is something I am exploring as I do more disability-themed writing as a person aging with cerebral palsy.
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