2007-11-20 - 11:07 a.m.
We were assigned to read several papers for a class (by a guest teacher with a disability who suddenly had to take some time off because she�s adopting a baby!) and do a creative response to them in any medium we choose (I can almost guarantee someone will make a collage). I picked creative nonfiction because I write that anyway (well, mostly). This entry is my creative response, so lucky you are getting to read my homework�
Most of the articles examined aspects of the Stare (the gawk, the gape, the gaze) at people with disabilities. One author noted that having a visible disability essentially means you are always on display. While there are no longer �freakshows� featuring people with disabilities as pay-to-watch attractions, you might say the public now basically gets to see the spectacle for free.
However, I don�t necessarily think this is a bad thing. Yes, people with disabilities are now more visible in the world (and I may talk more later about the amazing impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act�s effect on increasing people with disabilities� ability to �get out more� and in fact be a more noticeable presence in society). But the �display� is now on our own terms and can be quite illuminating to those who see it.
I noticed this early on in the development of visible signs of my MS. When I was hobbling around with a cane and doing things that were quite ordinary (simply getting coffee at Starbucks springs to mind), I became aware that people were often staring at me in amazement. Like �Oh my God, that crip�s getting coffee!� (They generally didn�t actually say anything to me, although occasionally I�d get regaled with unprompted tales of their war-buddy who got a disability in combat.)
But this astonishment that someone with a disability was actually participating in life was, if mildly annoying to me, probably a net positive overall. General awareness was being raised in people who saw me (even more so now that I use a wheelchair) that, oh yeah, people with disabilities are a regular part of the world. They get coffee too. They�re just people.
I would imagine a somewhat similar process went on after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It may have taken a while (and of course there are unfortunately still some people who haven�t quite gotten it), but over time, as majority America began increasingly seeing minorities in various settings, they started to realize �Oh right, they�re just people as well.
A similar thing also happened with the recognition of women as equal members to be included in society to the point where now it�s totally unremarkable. The fact that there was once a society in which at least half the population was not considered full members is quite beyond my understanding. (Never mind the chilling fact that this was still the situation within the memory of older people currently alive.)
I remember I once saw a college course catalog from around 1950. It had a listing of faculty and, next to every female name, parentheses indicating what you should call them. �Professor Mary White (Miss White)�. God, I thought. If I ever addressed my professor as anything other than �Professor� until I was invited to do otherwise� Well, this is so inconceivable that the idea that this would make me some sort of sexist jerk isn�t even comprehensible. Suffice it to say, I�d certainly fail.
It is my belief (and certainly my hope) that this social inclusiveness is expanding to people with disabilities and the Stare will eventually become just an expression of curiosity rather than judgement. I recently had several encounters with children and younger people born after (or at least very little during) the 1990 passage of the ADA. Their reactions to me suggested that there may be a paradigm shift underway about how disability is seen by society. I�ll write more about this in a future entry.
Several of the articles talk about photography of people with disabilities and its essential ability to transfer the act of gazing from a public act to a private one. Probably the most private use of photography is looking at pornography. Author Eli Clarke (who seems to be a woman, despite her traditionally male first name) discusses disabled model Ellen Stohl�s appearance in the July 1987 issue of Playboy magazine.
Whether Playboy can truly be considered �pornography� is debatable (I sometimes wonder whether people who think of it as such have ever actually seen real pornography). But Stohl�s pictorial aroused a lot of controversy when it came out. Some considered it a terrible affront, people with disabilities� capitulation to the dominant culture�s objectification of women. Others praised it as refuting the myth that people with disabilities are asexual beings.
One of the biggest bones of contention was that no photographic evidence appeared that Stohl even had a disability. She�s paraplegic and her wheelchair was not shown, although she did talk about her disability in the accompanying interview. Some saw this absence of disability paraphernalia as proof that depictions of disability were still sexually undesirable.
However, this objection seems to miss the broader point. Women appearing naked in photos (Ellen Stohl in fact was pictured on a bed) simply have no need of anything other than their own bodies! Where would you even put a wheelchair? Having one in the shot makes it almost seem like a medical textbook. �As we see here, people with disabilities maintain an interest in sexual activity��
To have an obvious disability in a naked photo, you�d have to have a missing limb or something. And I suppose there are people with invisible disabilities who already pose for such pictures. (Indeed, some would say that many models have anorexia and, if this is considered a psychological disability, there are already lots of nudie photos of people with disabilities.)
I believe it was Descartes who once said (in reference to pornography involving ethnic minorities): �Women all look the same without their clothes on�. So if women with disabilities appear in erotic photography intended to turn men on, well that�s the sort of equal inclusion in society that�s the sort of equal inclusion in society we�ve been seeking. Even if it�s not quite in the way we were expecting.
� 2007 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
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