Disability Arts

[Jozanny]

Okay peoples. I have taken my dive in on putting everyone to sleep on a subject I care intently and passionately about. You can follow me here,

http://spastic-dowager.livejournal.com/

and I will use this thread to make general announcements about events and such as they come to me.

Love ya

[Jozanny]

As I have previously assumed, posting to it is time consuming when I am dealing with other priorities. I have been posting here two years and not one word of encouragement from the regulars. Am I that annoying?

[OrphanPip]

I think it's important for any marginalized group to be given a voice, and looking at how those groups are represented by others, or by themselves, in the arts is certainly an important endeavor.

Unfortunately, I think there is a tendency amongst most people to want to avoid thinking about the issues of minority groups. Disabled people, a difficult group to essentialize in any substantial way, are probably more severely ignored than any other group. People don't really want to think about disability issues beyond mild accommodations in public buildings.

What you're doing is commendable, but it's probably going to be hard to garner a lot of interest.

[Jozanny]

Orphan, I have been online for thirteen years now and have tried til I was blue in the face to integrate mainstream audiences with disability studies, and some talented academics who I have on occasion been in contact with can do it, as can a rare John Hockenberry, who was able to anchor Dateline, as you might know, though I knew of him long before that.

Online groups make such things difficult because, as you and I have both seen here on LN, there are gaps in educational and language ability, sometimes stemming from developmental and MH issues, something from which I am not entirely immune, due to the extent of my cerebral palsy.

I do not like blogging. I think it is a difficult skill to master, but at least if I try it I do not have to scream at angry activists like a damn zookeeper, and can control the agenda.

I will give it a row--and some of my writing friends think it is interesting and have offered advice, and besides, we all enjoy movies. We'll see, and thank you!

PS: Could you clarify what you mean by "essentialize"? Puzzling word there. Our first wave activists, most of whom are dead, essentially tied the movement to identity politics and its civil expansion of liberty, and they are wrong on the analogy. We are not really akin to African Americans or Holocaust victims, even if some days I certainly feel my Overlords (white Jewish and black no less!) are trying to kill me!

[Jozanny]

And actually, I think I can make it work. There is a lot that can be taught about disability through things that at first glance have nothing to do with it, even a comedy like Sex and the City.

I might draw the better matriculated, at first, but I can probably cull some sympathetic progressives later. I was supposed to teach a class online about disability arts, so this has been with me for years.

My problem is time. I cannot sue everyone in the state of Pennsylvania, freelance, develop one or two literary projects, blog, and watch films, and so on, without a discipline budget.

[qimissung]

I enjoyed your blog , jozanny. Thanks for providing the link.

[Jozanny]

I enjoyed your blog , jozanny. Thanks for providing the link.

Thank you gims!

It is a totally shallow reaction, but I am bummed that no comments have been posted yet.

I have to finish my whoa is me letter to the politicians and the ACLU, (there is just so much, some of it embarrassing and I am angry and have to watch my tone), and then I can really focus on things, but I do see, and have always seen, disability in the fine arts as a cross over topic.

Angry activism is one thing. Theater and film is another.

[Niamh]

hey Jo. I read your blog the day you posted this thread. sorry i didnt leave a response. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to reading more.

[Nightshade]

HEy Jozanny, you might actually be able to help me with a bit of a bizzarre information request, Ive been looking for years but information on historical attitudes to disability written in that time period are not easy to find. BAsically what I am after is attitudes to physical disablilty in the ling 18th century or if there is more info Victorian times, as evidenced by literature of the period. Baring in mind 1 in 4 people in England at the time suffered from polio I thought there would be a wealth of information I was wrong.

As to how to advertise your blog, give eme a few days but basically you find a list of blogs by topic and add yourself onto it.

[Jozanny]

HEy Jozanny, you might actually be able to help me with a bit of a bizzarre information request, Ive been looking for years but information on historical attitudes to disability written in that time period are not easy to find. BAsically what I am after is attitudes to physical disablilty in the ling 18th century or if there is more info Victorian times, as evidenced by literature of the period. Baring in mind 1 in 4 people in England at the time suffered from polio I thought there would be a wealth of information I was wrong.

As to how to advertise your blog, give eme a few days but basically you find a list of blogs by topic and add yourself onto it.

Historical attitudes in the 18th century might be tough, as my main professor hated the Enlightenment and after a heavy dose of Pope's poetry I myself am not too keen on the period, but actually, a good place to start might be Shakespeare, and then work your way up.

I have a bit of nostalgia for the sweat and brain fever William sets off, but his genius still serves as a kind of forerunner to modern attitudes, like the dynamic between Prospero and Caliban.

Caliban is considered to be a disabled figure, disruptive, and a threat, and amusing.

Also, I know Hugo is early 19th, but his Romanticism carries over from earlier years the notion that impairment implies saintliness, especially in Les Miserables.

Let me chew on this. Milton may have something to offer too.

[OrphanPip]

PS: Could you clarify what you mean by "essentialize"? Puzzling word there. Our first wave activists, most of whom are dead, essentially tied the movement to identity politics and its civil expansion of liberty, and they are wrong on the analogy. We are not really akin to African Americans or Holocaust victims, even if some days I certainly feel my Overlords (white Jewish and black no less!) are trying to kill me!

I much it much in the way of identity politics, as associated with First Wave and Second Wave feminist. I think feminist and racial movements gain a lot of strength by their ability to reificate (to borrow a marxist term) abstract concepts like womanhood into an easily identifiable concept of Woman, although never a complete or universal one. It's easier to get people to understand women's rights issues because it is easier to generalize the plight of the "average" woman.

I think when we get into larger and more diverse groups, like disabled people, the first barrier is going to be to make people understand the nature of each individual's disability. I can't help but think of a range of morphing possibilities when I hear a person described as "disabled", from neurological disorders to amputees.

I'm wondering if there might not be a kinship of ideas between transgendered/gender queer movements and disability rights. Groups that often are fighting against definition. Gender queers and transgendered don't really want to be viewed as different, they more want to be accepted into the sphere of "normalcy." I'm not familiar enough with disability movements to say, but I get a sense that a lot of individuals (particularly with regard to mental health) are fighting not be regarded as different but as simply another part of the normal range of human existence.

[Jozanny]

I much it much in the way of identity politics, as associated with First Wave and Second Wave feminist. I think feminist and racial movements gain a lot of strength by their ability to reificate (to borrow a marxist term) abstract concepts like womanhood into an easily identifiable concept of Woman, although never a complete or universal one. It's easier to get people to understand women's rights issues because it is easier to generalize the plight of the "average" woman.

I think when we get into larger and more diverse groups, like disabled people, the first barrier is going to be to make people understand the nature of each individual's disability. I can't help but think of a range of morphing possibilities when I hear a person described as "disabled", from neurological disorders to amputees.

I'm wondering if there might not be a kinship of ideas between transgendered/gender queer movements and disability rights. Groups that often are fighting against definition. Gender queers and transgendered don't really want to be viewed as different, they more want to be accepted into the sphere of "normalcy." I'm not familiar enough with disability movements to say, but I get a sense that a lot of individuals (particularly with regard to mental health) are fighting not be regarded as different but as simply another part of the normal range of human existence.

Yes, the independent living movement/disability activism is often led by gay, lesbian and transgendered individuals. I would discuss why I believe this is the case but I am not in the mood to start a food fight, except to observe that some of these individuals are not physically disabled.

You are right about the semantics, and part of the movement's dirty laundry is the division between jock crips, like me, and those with passable or hidden impairments--much like Spike Lee caused discomfort in some of his films with the light/passable dark skin issue. I know I just used an analogy I dislike, but this is off the top of my head.

My editors once ran a story on Lance Armstrong's testicle, and I got yelled at for making the objection that our readers could never compete with the athletic excellence Armstrong represented. My boss said they covered illness because we needed to compete for the limited audience out there.

[Paulclem]

Hi Jo. I've just read your blog, which is interesting, though I am unfamiliar with the films you are reviewing, so I didn't leave a comment.

I was wondering, do you think that disability is viewed over- sensitively by peope who could leave responses or engage you in conversation? It is outside of many people's personal experience of course, but lots of us come into contact with colleagues or, in my case, learners who have a variety of disabilites.

Our approach is to engage and ensure the acessibility of our programmes. I wondered if people generally are a little awed, or feel inadequate when addressing issues of disability to someone who hast a wealth of experience?

[Jozanny]

I lost my reply Paul, so I am going to go vent about IE and mouse pads. I will try again tomorrow but the short answer is no. Every human body has the potential to break, and I may laugh at those wonderfully progressive professionals who use community integration like it is the new normal phrase, but we are gradually going as mainstream as any other identity group.

[Jozanny]

I will take suggestions from members, as well, about films they like that deal with disability and disease, to put in my queue. I know I haven't seen everything.