When people protest the use of prejudicial humour, they’re often told to lighten up. This is, after all, just a joke. Everyone knows it’s meant to be funny. In some cases, they’re told that the whole point of the joke is to make fun of people who think that way; no one really thinks Jewish …
Tag Archives: ableism
Disability: Stop Asking ‘Why,’ Start Asking ‘How Can I Help?’
Every year, hundreds of studies involving disabilities take place in the US, like wide-sweeping lookbacks into cases of autism and research into multiple sclerosis. The majority of these studies, though, focus on viewing disability from a medical perspective, which is not surprising, since they are run by doctors and they occur in a nation which …
Accessibility Shouldn’t Be An Afterthought
All too often, it seems a project is released without any thoughts to accessibility, whether it’s a new website, a utility students are being asked to use in the classroom, plans for a building, or some similar public tool or development. It’s clear from the plans and the presentation that no one stopped to think …
Disability Tragedy Porn, Defined
It occurred to me the other day that I frequently reference the concept of disability tragedy porn (which I often shorten to just tragedy porn or disability porn), but I haven’t actually taken the time to sit down and define it, to discuss what, precisely, it is, and why it’s a problem. I sort of …
Can We Challenge Genetic Perfectionism In Science Fiction?
One of my recurring frustrations with science fiction as an overall genre is the tendency towards eliminationism in texts; disabled people are often entirely absent unless they’re being used as plot devices. The idea is that they’d be eradicated by manipulating genetics and using advanced medical techniques to resolve serious injuries and prevent or cure …
How Your Attitudes Might Be Trapping Disabled People In Their Homes
Progressives struggling to grasp the concept of ableism often want to be pointed at specific, real-world examples of how ableism works against disabled people. Despite the fact that disability-based discrimination is a huge social construct that contributes to everything from how policy is made to how spaces are laid out, they want a crystal-clear thing …
Think Progressive Disability Is Awful? Rethink Your Views On Disability.
In conversations about progressive conditions, one of the most common attitudes I encounter is that they’re awful and horrific. They leave people isolated and alone, living in nursing homes staring quietly at the wall and waiting to die. These arguments are used as the underpinning of assertions that people with progressive conditions live inherently unfulfilled …
The ADA, Swimming Pools, and the Hotel Industry
Two years ago, the government developed revised accessibility standards for swimming pools, among other recreation areas, after much discussion and comment. As is routine with the development of new building standards, they didn’t go into effect immediately. Advisories were published and information was made available for people who might be affected by the guidelines, giving …
Fashion, ‘The Rules,’ and Hiding Your Body
So many of the rules of fashion for non-normative bodies seem to boil down to a mandate to hide your body. Concealment is the order of the day, and it’s presented as the mode, chic thing to do; if you expose your body, if you admit you have a body, you are not fashionable. It’s …
Grey’s Anatomy and Casual Ableism
Last season of Grey’s Anatomy featured a storyline rife with casual ableism, a not unusual thing for the show but still a frustrating thing. A pregnant intern, Morgan, delivered her baby prematurely, and her boyfriend left her in the lurch. Morgan’s baby had a number of health conditions, a not uncommon issue for preemies, and …
