What I'm thinking about, today:
Feb. 18th, 2017 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mni
[Image description: a block of text, divided into four sections. The base of this box is bright yellow, with black text that reads: “Ableism: The belief that the value of a human life is best judged by a Measure of Ability.”
Above that, reading left to right, are three blocks titled “Racism:”, “Sexism:”, and “Homophobia:”.
The “Racism:” block is brick red, and reads (in white text): “Blacks are natural thugs because they’re not as smart as Whites, and they can’t control their emotions.” A yellow arrow points to this from the box defining “Ableism,” and yellow text reads: “That’s ABLEISM.”
The “Sexism:” block is dark teal, and reads (in white text): “Women are better off married to men, because they are weaker, and are less rational.” A yellow arrow points to this from the box defining “Ableism,” and yellow text reads: “and that’s ABLEISM, too.”
The “Homophobia:” box is lavender, and embedded in the upper right corner of the sexism block; it reads (in white text): “Gay men are corrupting our culture by being effeminate and undermining healthy Masculine Values.” An arrow with a teal point and yellow shaft points to this from the box defining “Ableism,” and text (in teal and yellow) reads: “That’s SEXISM, which is ABLEISM.”
Description ends.]
Created in response to this article, by Mel Baggs: There is Ableism Somewhere at the Heart of Your Oppression, no Matter What that Oppression Might Be (published May 1, 2016)
Now that I have working scanner/printer again, I want to illustrate it with something more organic and hand drawn; I'm thinking each of the -isms as trees, with their roots in in "Ableism" (maybe with homophobia growing as an epiphyte on a branch of sexism?).
And I really want to rewrite that definition of ableism, to echo, paraphrase, and draw on this definition from Jay Timothy Dolmage:
Ableism, on the other hand, positively values and makes compulsory able-bodiedness.
Disability Rhetoric, Syracuse University Press, first paperback edition 2016, page 22.
And I'm trying to decide where the balance lies between my ideas and my ability.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 07:16 pm (UTC)I think the biggest root is even deeper: the idea that some people are better than others.
Ableism underlies a lot of it, though. But it's not a single tree, more of an entertwined thicket of related ideas.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 08:00 pm (UTC)And yes, it really goes back (at least in our Western Christian hegemony) to the Medieval idea of the Great Chain of Being, where God is at the top, and the angels just below that, and down through monarchs, knights, educated men, illiterate men, women, domesticated animals, wild animals, vermin, plants, and rocks.
It's just that, in our culture, we decide who belongs in what category based (largely) on what they are capable of (or on what we claim they are capable of).
So, say, for example: a chimpanzee who learns a few clumsy signs is treated as more remarkable (and thus is treated with more respect), than a Deaf human being who signs fluently with all the nuance of human language, because, in our cultural schema, the chimp has moved up the chain (closer to God) from where we expect them to be. And the Deaf person has moved down the chain from where they're "supposed" to be (because we've decided, long ago, that vocal speech is a key attribute that "separates Us from the Animals."
no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 09:52 pm (UTC)Thank you.
I read the linked article with considerable interest and will reread again at some point.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 09:57 pm (UTC)And hand drawing an illustration of an organic metaphor will be another way to translate it.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 07:44 pm (UTC)Or ableism as tentacles, wrapped around the other -isms,
no subject
Date: 2017-02-18 08:06 pm (UTC)Also (as I commented to
no subject
Date: 2017-02-19 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-19 06:34 pm (UTC)