Comments on: Best of 2007

By: Body Impolitic - Blog Archive - » Beauty Contests Reach New Lows - Laurie Toby Edison: Photographer

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:53:08 +0000

[...] called Miss Ability, soon to be syndicated in a country near you. She points to that post in her Best of the Year wrap-up for Alas, A Blog, with a link to our post on the Miss Landmine Angola [...]

By: Kay Olson

Kay Olson — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:39:12 +0000

Kate just described my exact personal view on the topic, which probably isn’t as hardline anti-choice as many imagine — it isn’t actually anti-choice AT ALL — but people take it that way when those lobbying this point of view pipe up to make sure all the tricky nuances of choice get into the conversation. It’s interesting that when women of color lodge their issues with abortion choice rhetoric they are generally seen as unfeminist. Disability activists are seen as anti-choice.

By: Kate L.

Kate L. — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:45:38 +0000

“On others — like the suggestion that a woman who chooses to abort a fetus with Down’s is doing something wrong — I’m not aligned, although I understand the argument.”

It’s interesting, because this is probably one of the most divisve issues for disability activisits and feminists. Personally, I support choice regardless of circumstances as can be applied in the Roe V Wade standard, but I also don’t have a problem with pointing out that the language and rhetoric used when women choose to abort disabled fetuses or the push to do so by the medical community is not right. For me, it’s not about the individual woman’s choice - I will support that no matter what - but rather the meaning of that choice as an aggregate and the fact that people are often making uninformed or at least not completely informed choices and they are doing so at great pressures from the medical establishment. Which means, I’m less worried about an individual woman’s choice and more worried about how physicians who tell patients that the fetus has downs (or whatever else) handles that initial discussion and those afterwards.

While in general, I’d like to see fewer abortions due to a “defect” with the fetus, that’s not *really* my main issue. The main issue is the lack of good information from all sides and the disease model discourse that is pushed by the medical community and the general devaluation of disabled people’s lives that is tied to it. And, I’d also like to see fewer abortions due to lack of available birth control - doesn’t mean I’d want to stop a woman from terminating a pregnancy as she chooses, just that I’d like to see birth control more available to more people, KWIM?

And Kay, It’s great to “see” you hear. I look forward to reading more posts!

By: cripchick

cripchick — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:15:12 +0000

thanks for posting this kay. it was really hard to relive ashley x all over again but reminds me why disabled feminists putting their voices out there is so important.

By: Mandolin

Mandolin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:04:51 +0000

“but leads most reasonable people to at least cautious support”

I’d say I’m in a cautious support place, for a lot of things.

On others — like the suggestion that a woman who chooses to abort a fetus with Down’s is doing something wrong — I’m not aligned, although I understand the argument.

By: Kay Olson

Kay Olson — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:25:34 +0000

I think that’s a very common perspective. Like with feminism though, there is context to the disability rights perspective (or the black perspective or the immigration debate) that show the defensive positions taken are survivalist in a very real sense. When people not familiar with the threats disabled folks are responding to with their politics speak against them, a reactionary dynamic develops as it does anywhere else. I like to think that, as with feminism, a broader, deeper understanding of the issue may not bring full agreement but leads most reasonable people to at least cautious support. For me, I’m still learning a great deal about areas of disability like autism and mental illness.

By: Mandolin

Mandolin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:51:17 +0000

I read all these last night, and really enjoyed them. It’s a bit shallow, but I felt the one I could most dig into with my analytic teeth was the beauty contest post — when I saw the posts about the contest on feministe, for instance, I’d wondered about some of the things you brought up. It was saddening (but hardly surprising) to see my suspicions confirmed.

I don’t tend to agree with everything that I see disability rights activists putting out there. I don’t really consider myself an ally of those causes. Which is not to say that I don’t agree with a lot of what you and others say, or that I’m not outraged by things like the death of Ruben Navarro — but I do disagree on a few of what seem to be the basic premises of disability rights activism.

However, I greatly anticipate learning a lot more about disability rights issues, and perhaps having my mind change with education on some of those premises.