Public Service Announcement about Ability Some of us have trouble getting through the day without taking a loan out on spoons. Others among us struggle to get out of the house. Still others are there, alongside you, doing what you do, as you might do it, and fighting every second of our lives for purchase on (a/their) reality or desire. While ability may seem categorically transparent, it is precisely its lack of transparency that makes it so difficult to hold on to. I cant count the number of times Ive had my experience of my (dis)abilities discounted in favour of another oppression, laziness, lack of (intellectual/emotional) vigilance, hatred, narcissism, or just plain ignorance. Try to remember as you go about your day, and face the many injustices of capitalism/colonialism/white supremacy/ and heteropatriarchy that ableism isnt just about what you can see--most of the time it is precisely the opposite. Neither is it an optional axis of oppression. I did not opt into my disability, suggesting--that my morals are at stake, that malingering may be an issue, or the methods I take to address its ramifications are not sustainable--as much participates in a logic of ability as knowable and quantifiable. I work really hard to make access a defining dimension of my relationships to others (this is a multi-vantaged site of resistance). Even as it is exhausting to constantly participate in an epistemology of the closet around ability, I choose to live out because I think access cant occur behind closed doors. That said, it is terribly heartbreaking (for anyone) to be faulted for ones orientation to (ones own) inability. So, Im asking you to start considering how much harder it is to admit lack, or difference than it is to go about pretending competence. Consider the shame at stake in such an avowal and be kinder to yourself and to others. Stop thinking you know how to be-able. #pushbackagainstproduction #abilityisnotoptional
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:21:52 +0000
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