Tag Archive for "Disability Rights"

Posts Tagged Disability Rights

Guest Post: Mothering and Disability

For me, to be a woman with a disability, cerebral palsy, means to journey outside of the ramifications of femininity and fertility. The sexualization of the handicapped body is taboo. My sex life cannot be normal, it must exist for others as: a fetish, an impossibility or, at best, a co-habitation with another disabled body. As much as a women with a disability cannot be considered a whore, nor does she fit into the stereotypical mother role.
The birth of my son was planned, a September 11th baby. When I first learned that I was pregnancy nervousness over pain and ignorance about structure of my body led me to desire a scheduled c-section. The doctor where I had my first ...

By Jessica • 14 years ago

Gov’t reports underestimate rape rates of women and people with disabilities

Lynn Hecht Schafran and Jillian Weinberger of Legal Momentum (a women’s legal defense and education fund) say that recent reports from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) underestimate the number of rapes among persons with disabilities and women.
Schafran and Weinberger point specifically to two reports, Crime Against Persons with Disabilities (2007) and Female Victims of Violence (2008), arguing that the methodology for both were flawed.
Crime Against Persons with Disabilities, for example, excluded institutionalized people with disabilities – a huge omissions considering that sexual assault and abuse happen at extremely high rates in institutional settings. Schafran and Weinberger also note that the statistic in the report related to reporting abuse ...

By Courtney • 14 years ago

Follow Up on Disability Rights Dialogue

As many of you know, a group of disability rights activists organized to call us out on our lack of coverage on disability issues and ongoing problem with ableist language at Feministing (sometimes on the part of editors, but mostly popping up in the comments sections). Some ableist language that I used in this post was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. I apologized, pointing out that I really don’t know enough about the field of disability rights and activism and want to learn more. And Miriam jumped on board to serve as another representative of Feministing who was interested in forwarding the dialogue about this intersection and it’s presence or lack there of on our ...

By Courtney • 14 years ago

Spot the Ableist Assholes

Via FAIL Blog:

Wow, seriously? Spot the disabled kids on campus and win free shit! This is right up there with Shoot the Freak in terms of sophistication and ethics. It’s not only wildly misguided, but dehumanizing.
I don’t what university it originates from, but someone needs to check their Disability Resource Office. Maybe they could run a contest called “Spot the Assholes” where students take pictures of the administrators and win tuition waivers.

By Chloe Angyal • 14 years ago

The Feministing Five: Patty Berne

Patricia Berne is the Co-Founder and Director of Sins Invalid, a San Francisco theater company that blends performance and art with the political vision of a more just and equal world. The goal of the company is to challenge and reshape the public’s ideas about people with disabilities and other traditionally marginalized groups. Focusing particularly on disability justice, their performances resist the framing of the company members’ bodies as “less-than,” simply by putting those bodies on stage. “It’s the most basic claiming of voice and claiming of space by creating beautiful work with political grounding,” Berne says.
Berne, who believes that performance and other forms of cultural work play a crucial role in movement building, has dedicated ...

By Miriam • 14 years ago

Sins Invalid 2009

Photo credit: Richard Downing
I wanted to give a shout out and a heads up that Sins Invalid has announced the dates for their 2009 series. I’ve heard great things about them, although I haven’t been able to see a performance live. About Sins Invalid:

Sins Invalid is a performance project on disability and sexuality that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists as communities who have been historically marginalized from social discourse.

Unfortunately their performances are only in San Francisco, but if you’re in the Bay Area you should check it out, October 2-4. You can also check out their blog and videos from their performances.

By Courtney • 15 years ago

RIP Theologian and Disability Activist Nancy Eiesland

I’ve decided that the obituary section is my favorite new place to read about unexpected feminist legacies. Of course I wish I learned about these women sooner, but I’m grateful to discover them even while simultaneously “losing” them.
Such was the case this weekend when I ran across the obituary of theologian and disability rights activist Nancy Eiesland. An excerpt:

By the time the theologian and sociologist Nancy Eiesland was 13 years old, she had had 11 operations for the congenital bone defect in her hips and realized pain was her lot in life. So why did she say she hoped that when she went to heaven she would still be disabled?
The reason, which seems clear enough to ...

By Jessica • 15 years ago

Parents complain about disabled TV show host

There’s a really disturbing campaign of hate being directed at Cerrie Burnell, a host of the children’s television show CBeebies, who was born missing the lower section of her right arm.

“Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on CBeebies may scare the kids because of her disability?” wrote one adult on the CBeebies website. Other adults claimed that their children were asking difficult questions as a result. “I didn’t want to let my children watch the filler bits on The Bedtime Hour last night because I know it would have played on my eldest daughter’s mind and possibly caused sleep problems,” said one message. The BBC received nine other complaints by ...

There’s a really disturbing campaign of hate being directed at Cerrie Burnell, a host of the children’s television show CBeebies, who was born missing the lower section of her right arm.

“Is it just me, ...