The metamorphosis from a disability studies perspective

The metamorphosis from a disability studies perspective

The studies of disabilities consider disability in ethical, cultural, political, and aesthetic contexts. In literature, numerous critics on disability try to comprehend how the representation of disability and normal bodies has changed throughout history. Moreover, studies on disability also examine how disability is perceived, the prejudice subjected to people with disabilities as well as the narrative related to disability. Therefore this essay will capture various theoretical perspectives on disability including how disability is represented in literature, how bodies or normal people are constructed, how people with disability are gendered, how disability, race, nationality, and race intersect and how disability like deafness is tied to communication and blindness to the truth within a literacy work.

How is disability represented in literature?

In literature, disability has been represented across all genres and periods. It shows us how widespread disability oppression is still in our educational institutes and culture. Through literature, we can see a correlation between negative scripts about disability- prejudices, hate speech, stereotypes, and how people with disabilities are treated by society. Literature helps us understand such conflicting and confusing contemporary disclosures about disability. It assists us in tracing where such oppressions and stereotypes originated and how they evolved. Stereotypes about disability are not always right about their reality of lives and abilities because they are more of political agendas of various places and times. Through literature, we can find multiple instances of prejudices that encircle disability. However, we can also stumble upon the complexity of how disabled people survive and the rich and lively history they have. Moreover, we can even conceptualize how disability is viewed across cultures and throughout history (Barker and Murray). It is through such a script that we can understand how disability highlights the various shades of how humans are different.

How are “normal” people or bodies constructed? How is normalcy reinforced?

Normal is perceived as a means of quantifying or representing what is right and desirable. Humans’ concept of normalcy tends to associate an identity with the body. It is through such notions of normalcy that medical procedures are done on our bodies, such as the corrections of mental disorders, straightening of teeth, which are all intended to make an individual more normal. An average person is perceived as an individual who possesses the characteristics of competitiveness, self-reliance, and efficiency, whereas those who do not possess such privileges nare considered abnormal because they are not seen as healthy. Therefore this concludes that disabled people are perceived as problematic, people who contribute less and require more from society, and therefore undesirable in the making of normalcy (McLaughlin and Coleman-Fountain). Normalcy can be reinforced through medical procedures whereby differences are eradicated to make our bodies alike, healthy, and identical.

Are people with disabilities gendered differently? As sexual? As feminized?

People with disabilities are often perceived as without gender, as freaks of nature, monstrous, as sexual creatures, and different from the social norm. They have often been represented as people who their gender has a small bearing. Nonetheless, the image of disabled people has been intensified through gender, whereby women have been portrayed as having a sense of intensified helplessness and submissiveness. In contrast, men with disabilities are seen as corrupted masculinity spawned by enforced dependence. Furthermore, these representations of disabled people have resulted in real consequences in terms of employment, personal relationships, education, victimization, and abuse as well as living arrangements. Such gendered experiences on how disabled people are perceived reveal patterns of differences between women and men (Meekosha). Therefore people with disabilities are gendered based on their condition.

In what ways do disability, gender, race, nationality, and class intersect?

The intersection between systems or forms of discrimination, oppression, or domination can be referred to as “intersectionality.” The concept of an intersection has materialized as an influencial way of understanding discrimination and exclusion in our society. Individuals discriminated experience instances of biasness as a consequence of their gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, or a combination of these. For example, in the field of educating students with a disability or those with different colors are often categorized under special education and sometimes labeled as mentally retarded or emotionally disturbed (Magaña). However, despite being desegregated in schools based on their gender, race, and disability, education has become a neutralizer of such discriminations and is often perceived as one of the ways of intersecting different people in terms of their race, gender, nationality, and disability.

How are disabilities like blindness tied to “Truth” or deafness to communication within a literary work? What symbolism is attached to disability?

Disability is associated with various challenges when it comes to literacy. Students with disabilities, such as deafness, face numerous learning challenges because they do not get literate in typical ways. In most cases, they do not have exposure to literacy-based material that aids them in learning. For instance, deaf children may not have had the privilege of hearing stories read aloud, and therefore, the only way for these students to maximize access is to use specialized formats. One of the most pressing challenges that these individuals with multiple disabilities face is the lack of early literacy experiences. Blind children lack incidental learning opportunities and therefore lack exposures of seeing others write or read as a daily routine, whereas those with hearing difficulties lack experiences of listening to stories that are often told or read aloud. However, in order to modify their environments and offer them such experiences of literacy, we can use sign language alphabets, tactile, and visual. Labeling of their environments through the use of tactile labels, Braille, and large prints exposes them to literacy (Davis). Moreover, by providing each student with access name symbols, we improve their level of literacy. This can be done by labeling their desk, chairs, and other personal spaces. Such name symbols may include a photo or a tactile symbol.

In summation, this essay has highlighted how literature helps us understand conflicting and confusing contemporary disclosures about disability, how normalcy tends to associate one with the physical body, and how race, gender, and disability are all intersected by education. Moreover, societal attitudes have largely determined the extent to which the social, personal, and educational desires of those with disabilities will be realized.

Work Cited

Barker, Clare, and Stuart Murray. “From Richard III to Captain Ahab: What Literature Reveals about How We Treat Disabilities.” The Guardian, 2018. www.theguardian.com, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/12/disability-literature-point-of-view.

Davis, Lennard J. “Deafness and Insight: The Deafened Moment as a Critical Modality.” College English, vol. 57, no. 8, 2015, pp. 881–900. JSTOR, JSTOR, doi:10.2307/378619.

Magaña, Sandy. “An Introduction to Race, Gender, and Disability: Intersectionality, Disability Studies, and Families of Color.” Women Gender and Families of Color, vol. 2, Sept. 2014, p. 105. ResearchGate, doi:10.5406/womgenfamcol.2.2.0105.

McLaughlin, Janice, and Edmund Coleman-Fountain. “The Unfinished Body: The Medical and Social Reshaping of Disabled Young Bodies.” Social Science & Medicine, vol. 120, Nov. 2014, pp. 76–84. ScienceDirect, doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.09.012.

Meekosha, Helen. GENDER AND DISABILITY. 2014, p. 14.