trickie

I am a feminist and a disability rights activist. I've been passionate about social justice issues all of my life and enjoy the opportunity to learn from and share with a wider community of feminists. I am currently a PhD candidate in Critical Disability Studies in Toronto.

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Access to Parenthood: Canadian Couple May Lose Their Son Because They are Disabled

I am commenting on this story. As a disabled woman I have been interested in the intersections of sexuality and disability for a long time. There are so many barriers beyond the physical when disabled people want to express themselves sexually. One of the biggest barriers is that it is still widely believed that disabled people are inherently asexual. This misconception not only leads to difficulties in being accepted as sexual beings but also places disabled people at a significantly higher risk of sexual violence (if a person is perceived as nonsexual their is an assumption that they are immune to sexual advances).

So what happens when a disabled couple expresses their sexuality and that sexuality produces a child? In ...

I am commenting on this story. As a disabled woman I have been interested in the intersections of sexuality and disability for a long time. There are so many barriers beyond the physical when disabled people ...

Abortion Access and How It Might Have Been Better If You Were Never Born

I must preface this post with the statement that I am staunchly pro-choice but I must admit that there are certain aspects of the pro-choice movement that make me very uneasy. Today there was a post on the main page discussing how Poland had been chastised for refusing genetic testing to a woman whose fetus may have been malformed. As I said in my direct comment to that posting I applaud international support for abortion rights but as a disabled person cannot condone the use of possible congenital disabilities as a valid reason to support abortion access.

Feministing in general does a wonderful job of supporting disability right as a whole and especially as they relate to the women’s movement. For ...

I must preface this post with the statement that I am staunchly pro-choice but I must admit that there are certain aspects of the pro-choice movement that make me very uneasy. Today there was a post on ...

An Open Letter to Steven Moffat (Head Writer of Doctor Who)

Dear Steven Moffat,

I will begin this letter by assuring you that I am a diehard Doctor Who fan. I really do love the show. I especially love how the show can be used to make relevant social commentary in the middle of deep space hijinks. However since you have taken the helm of Doctor Whothere seems to be a problem. Apparently either you haven’t come to the realization that women are people or you are just really bad at writing female characters. You seem to do okay with characters created by someone else such as Donna Noble but when it comes to starting from scratch you seem to fall back on biology rather than humanity as your inspiration for characteristics. ...

Dear Steven Moffat,

I will begin this letter by assuring you that I am a diehard Doctor Who fan. I really do love the show. I especially love how the show can be used to make relevant social ...

Susan B. Anthony and the Abortion Debate

I realize I am a bit late to this debate but the furor surrounding it fascinates me.

I’ll start with a little background. A number of people have posted about Sarah Palin’s involvement with The Susan B. Anthony List SBAL) which is a conservative women’s group which seeks to fund anti-choice women politician’s in there respective bids for office.

Now the SBAL claims to be a feminist organization and backs this up by citing how a number of nineteenth century suffragists and early feminists were themselves anti-choice (or pro-life as they would say).

Now comes the part that interests me. In response to these claims about early feminist activists, modern academics and bloggers (including some on feministing) have responded with a resounding “no ...

I realize I am a bit late to this debate but the furor surrounding it fascinates me.

I’ll start with a little background. A number of people have posted about Sarah Palin’s involvement with The Susan B. Anthony ...

Finding Work While Disabled and Feminist

I have Cerebral Palsy and Asperger’s Syndrome as a result I am unable to attend school and work at the same time. I try to avoid student loans because I know finding permanent employment after I finish school will be a challenge. As a result I try to find work in the summer to get me through the school year (I still live at home so beyond tuition I have fewer expenses than the average student).

Last summer I looked for work all summer with no luck until three months before I was to return to school and I was finally offered a job in a government organization. I was hired but I had to wait for my security check to ...

I have Cerebral Palsy and Asperger’s Syndrome as a result I am unable to attend school and work at the same time. I try to avoid student loans because I know finding permanent employment after I finish ...