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Rosemarie Garland-Thomson "The Case for Conserving Disability"…
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson "The Case for Conserving Disability" (2012)
Why should we "conserve" disability?
"conserve" does "the precise semantic work of explicating counter-eugenic logic" (341).
"Counter eugenic logic" : "a way of thinking that does not rely on thinking that disability should be eliminated" (340n) move sus away from the ethics of eugenics logic (is
"What I consider here is the bioethical question of why we might want to conserve rather than eliminate disability from the human condition" (341).
"Disability occurs when the shape and function of bodies come into conflict with the shape and stuff of the world. The discrepancy between body and world, between that which is expected and that which is, produces disability as a way of being in the environment" (342) - destabilizes abled/disabled binary, thinks through
all
bodies
Disability As Resource
"because-of-rather-than-in-spite-of counter-eugenic positions" (343). Ok, we as a society need people with disabilities: "I ask what we lose besides the individuals themselves if we eliminate disability and disabled people from the world" (343)
Narrative resources
Fiedler's examples of freaks: "The fundamental plot here is that the spectacularly disabled among us contribute the cultural work of teaching the nondisabled how to be more human" (344)
(are we skeptical of the didacticism, the reification of "human", the fantasy of literature as ennobling) the problems of "edifying"
Epistemic Resources: a value in a difference in making knowledge
"Keller's necessary independence from relying on the dominant senses of hearing and sight provides her a generative opportunity to develop a vivid tactile, taste, and olfactory knowledge that often remain dormant" (346). A way of knowing in the body that knows differently than dominant ways
"The subjugated knowledge that comes from disability might be understood as an asset rather than a libaility, not just in terms of diversity or human rights categories, but as what might be called an advantageous minority skill set" (346). foreground new spaces of access when we allow and embrace and take seriously how disability interacts with the environments
climate crisis
development of new systems of communication
additive experiences from captioning and audio descriptions
(uh oh, is this borderline super-crip?)
yike son bikes, why does disability have to be made utilitarian?
"Counter-eugenic logic and the problem of suffering" (349): "eliminating disability to eliminate suffering is a fundamental rationale of eugenic logic" (349)
interrupting suffering
"So disability's contribution, its work, is to sever the present from the future" (352).
recognizing the tension of suffering and love as braided: (350 - Emily Rapp's careful balancing of suffering and love