section 02 – dis/lit 19

Autism Within Of Mice and Men

So I forgot my password and it wouldn’t let me log in, so that was fun. Here’s my final!

Molly Avery

4/30/19

English 384

Professor Foss

Autism Within Of Mice and Men

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men disability is shown throughout the entirety of the text in three of the most prominent characters. Although two of these disabilities are physical, mental disability is addressed in the story through the character Lennie. While readers appreciate the representation, they are never explicitly told what disability he possesses. He is often assumed to be intellectually disabled, but through close reading, one can conclude that Lennie is actually an autistic character.

Literary analysts are quick to shut down theories of Lennie being autistic due to the fact that Of Mice and Men was published before the first autistic diagnosis in 1943. While this does support the fact that Steinbeck did not write Lennie as an autistic character, it doesn’t make him any less of one. Most mental disabilities used to be classified as intellectual disability at the time the book was written. Since then though, doctors have broaden these terms to more accurately diagnose patients based off of the exact symptoms they display. Lennie shows multiple signs of having specific symptoms that fall on the autism spectrum, as is supported by the text. Despite what analysts say Lennie’s sensitivity to touch, lack of social skills, and incapability to control his body, prove him to be an autistic character.

Throughout the book Lennie has an obsession with touching various items that one could consider soft. This is first shown when Lennie finds a dead mouse in the very first chapter of the book. Multiple times throughout the first five pages Lennie attempts to discreetly reach into his pocket to pet the mouse, although this fails as George does eventually notice. Lennie argues that the mouse is a source of comfort for him, stating that he “could pet it with my thumb while we walked along,” (Steinbeck, 5). Although people on the autism spectrum can sometimes be sensitive to the things they touch, they can also adore the feeling of petting certain materials as well. This is shown through the story not just with the mouse in the beginning, but also with rabbits, dogs, hair, and clothing. Touching these things are usually comforting for an autistic person, and having it taken away may cause a distressed breakdown. Lennie shows the reader this when they learn about the backstory of what ran the two men out of their old town Weed. Back in their old work place, Lennie was fascinated by a young girls dress. Not knowing better, Lennie goes over to touch the fabric of the dress in a memorized state. The girl, obviously distressed by this unwanted interaction, begs him to let go. Lennie does not understand why he should, and is distraught at the idea that he cannot feel the fabric. He ignores the girls pleas, and continues to stroke it. The girl screams of attempted rape, and George and Lennie must skip town before harm can come to them. These two specific examples as well as other unstated ones prove that Lennie is sensitive to touch, whether it’s in a comforting way or disturbing way. Sensitivity to touch is just one of many common traits of an autistic person.

Another autistic trait that Lennie shows is a lack common social skills, that most men of his age would be aware of. A majority of people on the autism spectrum are usually socially incompetent in some way, and Lennie fits right into that. Of all the symptoms Lennie shows of being autistic this is the strongest. At the very beginning the reader learns of this incompetence when George has to give him specific instructions on how to act. “That ranch we’re goin’ to is right down there about a quarter mile. We’re gonna go in an’ see the boss. Now, look -I’ll give him the work tickets, but you ain’t gonna say a word. You jus’ stand there and don’t say nothing. If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won’t get no job, but if he sees ya work before he hears ya talk, we’re set. Ya got that?” (Steinbeck, 6). Even with these instructions Lennie forgets them right away, and speaks up while they are meeting the boss for the first time. It is not only in the beginning of the story that the reader sees this though, it’s throughout the entire piece. Every single thing Lennie does is directly caused by his disability. Lennie doesn’t fit in with the rest of the workers at any point throughout the piece. When they go to play horseshoes, Lennie stays behind in the barn, and when the girl in Weed asks him to let go of her dress, he keeps petting it. George often has to take what people say to Lennie and repeat it to him through a filtered lens. Lennie lacks the ability to comprehend people’s demands and wishes, which is a trait an autistic person would show.

Another sign of proof that Lennie falls on the autistic spectrum is that Lennie fails to have control over his own body. He is described as a big man that often is not aware of his own strength. Throughout various points in the story Lennie often kills animals while trying to show them affection by petting them. He does this with mice, rabbits, and eventually Curley’s wife. Although many people can be unaware of their own strength, this is a symptom that points to autism. The worst of this problem occurs at the end when Lennie is petting Curley’s wife hair. She does not wish to have her hair touched and demands he lets go. Just like in Weed with the girl in the dress, Lennie does not understand why he must give up this simple pleasure and continues to stroke it. This angers her as she starts yelling at Lennie to let go. Not wanting George to be upset at her yelling, Lennie grows angry, and attempts to silence her. Unaware and incapable of controlling himself, he does this by accidentally killing her. Steinbeck describes her death quietly stating that “She continued to struggle, and her eyes were wild with terror. She shook her then, and he was angry with her. ‘Don’t you go yelling,’ he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck,” (Steinbeck, 87). This shows that Lennie is incapable of controlling himself, just as some people on the autism spectrum are unable to fully control their body at times.

By closely reading the text, one can conclude that Lennie is autistic rather than intellectually disabled. Readers may continue to reject, but the topic is irrefutable. Lennie appears intellectually disabled to readers, is because intellectual disability and autism share some similar aspects in how they affect a person. This should not be confused as the two being the same though. Lennie is an autistic due to his sensitivity to touch, absence of common social skills, and lack of control over his own body.

I pledge… Molly Avery

Word Count: 1170

CitationsSteinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. Modern Library, 1938.

Mental Health and Stigma

Kaitlyn O’Gorman

Dr. Foss

9 April 2019

ENGL 384

Mental Health and Stigma

The five major categories of mental health conditions are anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, eating disorders and dementia. While each of these conditions is unique and each carries varying degrees of hardship, one commonality is that all of these conditions are invisible. Depending on the degree of severity an individual could be battling their condition every day without anyone being the wiser. Other battles are harder, some individuals require more assistance than others and that is fine too. No matter the condition, be it clinical depression or schizophrenia, the stigma associated with mental health never fails to rear its ugly head. While society is becoming increasingly more comfortable with formerly controversial topics, we have yet to learn how to treat people with mental health conditions like people. This paper will serve as an informative piece to help bring awareness of the true facts about mental illness and how as a community we can help dissolve the mental health stigma, normalize mental health, and as a result eliminate undue stress for those with mental health conditions.

When a person is born with a physical health condition that condition can be seen and is identified. The affected individual then receives the proper care and treatment. People with physical disabilities such as missing a leg or being paralyzed from the waist down are often seen as warriors, individuals strong enough to live normal lives while having to depend on a prosthetic or wheelchair. A person born with a mental illness, however, does not show immediate signs and symptoms of their condition. These ailments often lie dormant, undiagnosed, and unseen; therefore the condition is untreated. The afflicted goes through their childhood and teen years coping with what they assume is normal everyday strife. The symptoms children display if any are rarely seen as serious, more often than not they are written off as a phase. Some individuals grow up with no symptoms at all, and then they are suddenly hit with a major breakdown between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. Not only are these individuals at war with their brains but they are also fighting the stigma with mental health conditions. People with mental disabilities are rarely seen as brave individuals; their battles are invisible so their strength is not appreciated or romanticized as much as someone with a disability that you can see. These individuals fighting daily invisible battles are written off as too weak to hold a job or friendships, too weak to handle life. In order to not be labeled as weak, many mental health warriors fight their battles alone and in silence, afraid that if they seek out help or treatment they will be associated with this stigma.

As defined by Mayo Clinic, “mental Health conditions – disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behavior” (Mayo Clinic. 2015). This includes common health conditions such as clinical depression and anxiety disorders like panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and phobias. Everyone either knows someone or is someone affected by a mental health condition, “nineteen percent of the adult population in the United States experiences some form of mental health condition” (Parekh, Ranna. 2018). Anxiety disorders being the most common, affecting nearly 40 million adults in the United States alone. Out of that 40 million, only 36.9% of those individuals are being treated for their anxiety disorder. Even though the number of affected individuals is large enough to say that mental illness is common, they are still not held in the same regard as a physical condition.

In order to become more aware and active in the mental health movement, it is important to begin by realizing the fact that mental health conditions are as common and can as debilitating as physical disabilities. Due to the fact that mental health conditions are invisible, it is hard for people to understand that these are real conditions that come with daily struggles. In order to break away from this stigma, it is important to understand what stigma is, Graham C.L. Davey wrote an article in 2013 titled “Mental Health and Stigma” to assist in bringing awareness about the issue and how to finally break from these age-old ideologies. The mental health stigma is created by the view that “symptoms of psychopathology are threatening and uncomfortable, and these attitudes frequently foster stigma and discrimination towards people with mental health problems” (Davey. 2013). It is a known fact that people are generally scared of the things they know the least about. Rather than learning the facts, people chose to avoid and discriminate against those with mental disabilities.

Mental health is difficult for anyone to constantly maintain, a person with a mental disability has it that much harder to maintain, so why create or contribute to stigma or discrimination of mental health conditions? Everyone is entitled to having a bad day or the occasional bad attitude, but if someone with a known mental health condition displays anything other than a pleasant attitude it is seen as them acting out or having an “episode”. There are two different types of mental health stigma, social stigma, and perceived stigma or self-stigma. Social stigma is characterized by discriminating behavior towards individuals with mental health conditions. Perceived stigma is the internalized negative belief with the self, this comes about when a person experiencing social stigma begins to believe and in and agree with these negative reactions or associations with mental health conditions. Both social and perceived stigma has the power to greatly affect a discriminated person’s mood which in tern, can negatively affect treatment outcomes making it nearly impossible to rise above this stigma.

In a modern society that claims to be tolerant and all inclusive, we are still unable to break away from this ancient stigma. These beliefs likely stem from early theories that those suffering from mental health conditions are suffering due to demonic possession. We now understand that demonic possession is not the cause of a mental health condition, however even our modern medical model assists in the stigmatization of mental health conditions, “the medical model implies that mental health problems are on a par with physical illnesses and may result from medical or physical dysfunction in some way (when many may not be simply reducible to biological or medical causes)” (Davey. 2013). This medical model is reinforcing the idea that those with mental health conditions are “different”, and thus should be treated differently. This idea that one person is “normal” and another person is not should never be the standard way to compare two individuals. The reality is that no matter what condition an individual is harboring, they are still a person. No matter what the situation, a person with a mental disability or a physical one, they still expect, and deserve, to be treated like a person.

The first step to breaking away from mental health stigma is becoming more aware of the facts. In 2000, researcher Arthur Crisp, conducted a survey of over 1700 adults in the United Kingdom to study the stigmatizing attitudes people held for individuals with mental health conditions. Crisp found that most commonly held beliefs were that “(1) people with mental health problems were dangerous – especially those with schizophrenia, alcoholism and drug dependence, (2) people believed that some mental health problems such as eating disorders and substance abuse were self-inflicted, and (3) respondents believed that people with mental health problems were generally hard to talk to” (Crisp, Gelder, Rix, Meltzer et al. 2000). While mental health conditions may sound intimidating and dangerous, most individuals with mental health conditions are just as likely to be as violent as anyone else. In fact, only three to five percent of violent actions can be linked to an individual’s mental health condition (metalhealth.gov. 2017). Another common misconception is the idea that mental illness is something someone could choose to “snap out of”. This stems from not only lack of knowledge but also the seeing is believing phenomena. Another belief is that those with mental health conditions brought it upon themselves. The fact is that there are numerous factors that contribute to mental health problems like biological factors, trauma, and brain chemistry, none of which are avoidable. Sometimes things just happen, and having a mental health condition should not be the deciding factor for whether or not someone is employable or simply approachable.

The best way to solve a discriminatory issue such as this is to promote awareness and teach the facts early on, to normalize disability from the very start. If disability studies became part of the standard curriculum in schools, children would grow with a heightened awareness about disability. These children would grow into adults, unphased and unafraid of both mental and physical illnesses. By integrating disability studies in elementary, middle, and high school curriculum it will normalize disability and help students become more aware of symptoms and warning signs. By having a basic knowledge of the symptoms and warning signs early on will allow children to not only evaluate their own mental health but also be aware and sensitive to their peer’s mental health as well. When disability is taught as a normal everyday health unit or noted in books during English class, disability will become normal and it will create a platform for the disability movement to grow.

Mental illnesses do not discriminate, they lie in wait, fester, and show themselves when we are least expecting it. Mental illnesses are invisible Instead of maintaining ignorance, and judging individuals for having an ailment they have little to no control over; we should be striving for further research, better awareness, and improved overall care. Those living with a mental illness such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, eating disorders and dementia are not weak individuals, they are silent warriors, they take on a world that pulls each and every one of us down whilst simultaneously battling their illness. Those suffering from mental illnesses should never have to be ashamed of their condition or too proud to seek help. As a community of people, we should be practicing awareness and sensitivity, not stigma. We should be pushing for our school system to educate students or at the very least put in the effort to educate our children at home about the symptoms and warning signs so that they are able to identify the issue and be helped earlier rather than after the first breakdown. In the past few years, we have come so far as a community to practice better tolerance and sensitivity for all life. Why not for those with disability?

Word Count: 1778

I Pledge… Kaitlyn O’Gorman

Work Cited

Davey, Ph.D, Graham C. L. “Mental Health & Stigma.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-we-worry/201308/mental-health-stigma.
“Facts & Statistics.” Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA, adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics.
“Mental Health Myths and Facts.” Mental Health Myths and Facts | MentalHealth.gov, 2017, www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/mental-health-myths-facts.
Parekh, M.D., M.P.H., Ranna. “What Is Mental Illness?” What Is Mental Illness?, 2018, www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness.

Makayla’s Major Project “The House”

The House – Transcript Download

Attached is the transcript of the Chapbook that I made. I hand-bound the physical book using purple thread.

Mental Health & The Yellow Wallpaper

Write-Up Word Count: 643

“The Yellow Wallpaper” has been one of my favorite short stories through the years, but for some reason, I never really thought to look at it through the lens of disability and/or mental illness, even though it was literally and unapologetically about mental illness—a very real brush with a severe, potentially crippling mental breakdown. I first read Gilman’s story in high school, but we never touched on the disability aspect of the story. It was either Gothic Horror or American Fiction, and nothing a little more profound or potentially relating back to things that happen in real life.

In that regard, especially given the growing vocality of the disabled and mentally ill, and the constant criticism of coding film and fiction villains as mentally ill, I find that not talking about the disability aspects behind “The Yellow Wallpaper” to be a great disservice to our high school students. They still have the flexibility to unlearn toxic behavior and thought processes with teachers and administration as mediators, without them having to come face to face with it on their own without support. If we embrace that support structure, we might even help kids ask for help if they think something might be wrong. I know that if we’d taken the disability studies route when I was in high school and first read “The Yellow Wallpaper,” I might have asked for help sooner than I did. Not that I ever had hallucinations or anything, but maybe, just maybe, I would have recognized the dangers of hyperfocus and being fatigued all the time, and how staring off into middle distance all the time probably wasn’t a good thing.

So that was the motivation for this project. I’m currently in the Master’s of Education program here at UMW, and I wanted to do a project that more aligns wit my future goals and career than just writing my ten millionth academic paper. Since I’m going to be a teacher, I do need to practice writing lesson plans, since that’s going to be what I’m doing for the rest of my professional life.

Coming up with something that didn’t rely on the heavy theory readings we did in class was a challenge. Most of the theory reading we did likely isn’t accessible to 11^th graders without very careful modeling and guiding, and there isn’t a lot of time for that when you have a state-mandated curriculum to follow. They’re just that dense. I did manage to find several resources for teaching at grade level and some to use for differentiation purposes, since not all students learn the same. The experience I have as an active substitute and my twenty practicum hours this semester were an advantage I utilized to the fullest. If given the chance, I think I’m even ready to teach this lesson, even though it’s designed to take at least two 80-minute class periods. Parts of the lesson plan were purposefully left vague, as they depend entirely on student response.

Making the lesson accessible was my biggest challenge, because a lot of the theory is so dense, and I chose an SOL Standard focused on 11^th grade, and most classes won’t talk about anything other than what’s already tried and true. Even today, which the voices of the disability community growing louder, I’ve noticed in my years as a substitute teacher that schools don’t really talk to their kids about disability and mental illness. It’s still taboo, which is a shame, since it’s just as important as looking at racism and sexism in texts, both of which schools do talk about (if, still very inadequately). Disability gets nothing. With that in mind, I wanted to work on this project so that I could have something to show that it is possible to make disability studies accessible even to high schoolers. I just hope I succeeded.

Smith’s Notes on 4/4 Readings

Notes on Airless Spaces

p.4 “When critics dismiss these friendships as symptoms of illness rather than a legitimate attempt at community building, they deny the personhood of those who cannot “recover,” people who end up getting left behind has Esther moves toward normalization.”

This sounds like intentional dehumanization, potentially even rooted in misogyny. The dismissal and denial of community is also a method of control. Isolation can make and/or keep people “mad” and thus keep them in requirement of “care” (a case could be made for this scenario in “The Yellow Wallpaper”). Control under the guise of healing is also a plot point in many a modern horror story and psychological thriller – Grady Hendrix’s “IKEA” horror comedy Horrorstör comes to mind, since it plays with Foucault’s idea of discipline and punishment and the iconic panopticon.

p.8 “Graphic novels and comics, Gross argues, are important modes of communicating trauma: they can present experiences of disability in images when words fail. This is especially important when dealing with mental illnesses which have symptoms that may be impossible to express in words and are also often invisible to others.”

Visual media representation (that is accurate and empathic) is so important, especially nowadays when more people are reading comics and watching TV/movies rather than reading novels or short stories. I also admit there have been several instances in my own life when I wished I had the artistic skill to visually express what I was feeling with regard to my anxiety & depression, and my executive dysfunction because my words were failing me or generally getting jumbled up/not making any sense, and other people just weren’t understanding what I was trying to say. Visual art and media can be so incredibly powerful and sometimes people just have no idea just how much power a poster or a TV appearance can be.

Overall, this reading interested me because of the diversity involved with the project. It made me interested in writing the whole book to see a diverse set of writers talking about a diverse set of issues and topics within the larger discussion of disability studies.

Notes on The Snake Pit

p.113 “If people think you’re crazy, they don’t listen to you.”

Coupled with a line on p.109 about the importance of patient experience, it’s very hard to get successful treatment when your doctors don’t listen to you. I had a psychiatrist I had to quit seeing because he wasn’t listening to what I was really saying, and it was like all he heard was “insomnia” and “depression” so he essentially just threw Welbutrin and trazodone at me and called it a day. He barely even talked to me, and I was only ever in his office for like 15 minutes at a time. It was frustrating, and I hated going every month, since he wasn’t listening, and the medications weren’t working, and I told him they weren’t working. I finally found a therapist who, though she can’t prescribe medication, listens to me and talks to me. She’s been more help than any meds have ever been. It’s fortunate that I’ve been in a situation where I can choose to quit an unhelpful doctor and find another. Many people aren’t so lucky.

p.116 “Sometimes a sick animal knows more about how another sick animal should be treated.”

Sometimes the best help comes from someone who’s been where you are and understands. Sometimes doctors only have a theoretical, superficial understanding and not an experiential one, and therefore don’t know what it’s actually like being ill. That lack of understanding can lead to frustration on both ends at best and gross mistreatment (both medically and socially) at worst.

p.118 “They reached out to their patients. […] Some suggestions were as radical as simply calling the patients by their names.”

This really shouldn’t be so radical! The fact that people don’t seem to grasp basic human decency is appalling. Utterly astounding that basic courtesy can lead to vast improvements in interpersonal relationships does unrecognized. Talk to people. Use their names. Listen to what they’re saying – they typically know their own lives better than you do. They live them after all. They live with their minds/bodies every day. You don’t.

In general, I think it’s important that this chapter emphasizes in several places that recovery is rarely linear. Relapses happen. Something can trigger an anxiety attack or a nervous breakdown. The important fact is that we’re trying to recover and working toward recovery, and a little support from our supposed professionals and a sense of community can go a long way.

Notes on The Yellow Wallpaper

The whole “doctor knows best” trop really needs to be modified. The doctor may know how to treat maladies, but they don’t know what the patient actually lives through. They need to listen to their patients to have any hope of success. The patient knows their own body/mind. They live with it. Every day. The doctor doesn’t. Even in the case of The Yellow Wallpaper, the doctor husband and doctor brother don’t live with the patient day in and day out. The husband is away during the days and sometimes even away overnight. So he’s not there day in and day out.

There are several instances where it reads like the narrator’s husband is keeping her ill as a means to keep her close and controlled, since he’s often away from the house. He has her completely isolated, and even though this was supposedly a common treatment of “nervous disorders” back in the day, the fact that the narrator isn’t allowed to see any friends or family at all, and if she weren’t in a beautiful ancestral home (in need of renovations), she might as well just be locked up in an asylum. She, the narrator, is absolutely convinced that she would do better if she just got to see some friends and family, had a little bit of stimulation, but her husband, “the doctor” keeps her isolated and “controlled.” Keeps her insane. After all, I think we’ve established this semester that isolation can cause insanity. Human beings are social/pack animals.

The fact that the doctor-husband clearly “knows best” and won’t even listen to his wife is telling. The level of control there is alarming. A case can be argued that the doctor-husband fainted in the end of the story because either he realized he couldn’t control her anymore, as the narrator explicitly states, or he was utterly astonished to be incorrect in his treatment/diagnosis, because obviously he knows best, and she was improving physically (and wouldn’t even listen to the possibility that her mind was deteriorating).

It could even be said that it wasn’t the wallpaper itself that drove the narrator mad. It was the isolation, the lack of stimulation and any real companionship outside of her illness. The wallpaper was the only stimulating thing available to her that she could focus on, since she wasn’t allowed the creative outlet of writing – hiding her writing had exhausted her to the point where she couldn’t even do that anymore. She was essentially completely alone with no companionship, no stimulation, and a semi-checked out husband. That would drive anyone mad, even the healthiest person in the world.

Notes on Tulips

I’m not really sure what to say about this poem. Part of it reads like the poetic speaker is being treated without being listened to at all. Like the poetic speaker is just being loaded up on sedatives to keep her compliant and “happy.”

I’m not even sure what the tulips are supposed to mean, since traditionally red tulips are indicative of pure/true/eternal love, which seems incongruous with the rest of the narrative. Plath has always been difficult for me to parse out, but especially here, since I’m not sure what’s really going on outside of the sedatives and hospital bed.

Smith’s Response to Hirshberg’s “Crazy Wisdom? Enlightened Iconoclasm in Tibet, Guru Sex Scandals in the West”

While this was an absolutely fascinating lecture on Tibetan Buddhism and iconoclasm, there wasn’t much in it that I would truly consider “crazy” even though one of the Awakened Buddhists himself (Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche) coined the phrase “crazy wisdom” in the West. Much of the “crazy” parts simply sounded to me like a cultural disconnect between East and West.

Perhaps it’s because I’m pretty liberal and into philosophy, and had to read a lot of Nietzsche in the past, but a lot of the ideas behind Buddhism in the lecture given made sense to me, and didn’t seem crazy at all (e.g. that the “self doesn’t exist the way it appears” – that nothing really exists simply as it appears on the surface, and that everything, even negative/harmful emotions can be harnessed for the benefit of others and transmuted into a positive/constructive force if done correctly and one has the knowledge and skill to do such a thing. Anger for the sake of anger doesn’t get anything done, and only leads to more anger, for example).

There were one or two individuals that were eyebrow raising in their level of inappropriate behavior and general “craziness” (probably because of near perpetual intoxication, since most “), but for most of the lecture I felt that the “Crazy Wisdom” aspect of the lecture was more of a cultural disconnect than anything else. To Westerners, a lot of East/Southeast Asian cultural norms seem “crazy” and “weird” but mostly because their cultural norms aren’t Western cultural norms and most everyday people’s kneejerk reaction is to go “That’s so crazy/weird” when encountering something from another culture that’s different than our own. If you were to take a step back and think about it, consider it from another person’s perspective/culture, then perhaps you wouldn’t think it so crazy at all.

Outside of only a handful of individual practitioners/leaders, who seemed to be outliers and eccentrics, they seemed very not-crazy at all. Normal by their own culture’s standards. Trying to normalize them Western standards would be ignorant at best and racist at worst – eccentric outliers not considered. Hirshberg’s lecture was fascinating and enlightening – and I don’t think I could consider practitioners of the iconoclastic Tibetan Buddhism as crazy. It’s simply a different religious culture than I’m used to seeing, and while I’m ignorant on a great many things, I’m not ignorant enough to write them off as certifiably insane.

Caitlyn with a C’s Response to L.J. Davis’s “The End of Identity Politics and the Beginning of Dismodernism”

Within society individuals are constantly searching for, and creating labels: labeling others in order to place them in arbitrary stereotyped groups, labeling themselves to gain a sense of belonging or community, labeling behaviors, thoughts, actions. People are so desperate to either align with, or alienate themselves from others that differentiation categories, such as race, were created purely on the basis of the appearance of skin color. L.J. Davis’s introduction section controversially explores the idea that disability should not be one of these identifiers, and instead society should “expand the protected class (referencing the disabled) to the entire population.” (30)

Davis begins as many disability theorists do, by explaining the history of disability studies, and citing it as a “relatively new field” which has made critiquing, and especially attempting to dismantle one of the main ideas of the organization, extremely taboo. (11) Davis then focuses in on the idea of eugenics, and how it unites the studies of race, gender, sexuality, and disability. This fascinating concept of whether or not creating a ‘perfect society’ would include those who are seen as ‘the other’ is discussed alongside the question of genes, and their inability of consistently or accurately determining the outcome of an individual. This supports Davis’s proposal that these distinguishing features are not substantial at all, as there is little scientific fact to support these assumptions. “If all identities are socially constructed or performative, is there a core identity there? Is there a there?” (13)

Another biological aspect relating disability and identity discussed in this piece is genetic testing, and whether or not disabled individuals have “the right not to be born.” (22) While this topic may not be quintessential to Davis’s overall argument, it is a concept that stuck out greatly, and was such an original, unheard of idea, that it had to be further explored. Typically, when genetic testing is referenced in a disability theory piece, it is to highlight the underlying harm of attempting to not have a child with a disability. While Davis does do this, namely referencing the disparities that would be seen relating to the wealth of different countries and social classes, he then presents this new concept. Is this something that will become more commonplace as disability studies becomes more accessible and popular? If children have the right to be born, can they also have the right to not be? This is something that could have been further explored, as it would support Davis’s idea that disability is not black and white, and should not be seen as a concept to differentiate people.

Throughout the various theory pieces analyzed in this class, different authors have presented dissimilar models of disability that they believe are quintessential. Models such as the medical, social, and racial have all been presented, explored, and thoroughly dissected. Specific to this piece, Davis explores the humanistic model, which is “a new way of thinking [that] rests on…” dismodernism. (30) This humanistic model centers around the physical human body, and postulates that there is no ‘normal’ in society, and disability should not be a dividing factor amongst individuals.

Groupings such as gender, sexual orientation, and sexuality were once thought to have concrete boundaries, but these ideas are now seen as being on more of a spectrum. Davis proposes that disability is a grouping that should also be rethought, but unlike those previously mentioned, disability should no longer be a form of identity at all, because as Davis states, “We are all nonstandard.” (32)

Word Count: 581

I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.

-Caitlyn Valenza

Morgan’s Notes for 3/21 Readings

Notes on Working Together

Not sure what to say about this poem. The title seems apt, and the poetic speaker and their caretaker do seem to be actually working together rather than one working against the other. The poetic speaker doesn’t seem to appear nonverbal, if they can communicate when to stop, when something is too hot, whatever it means by saying the caretaker can do. What is the speaker telling their caretaker they can actually do? “Tell her she can.” Can what?

The poetic speaker works with their caretaker, rather than against, which is… Good? I know if it were someone like my grandfather, it wouldn’t appear quite so reciprocal. He had full knee replacement surgery a couple years ago, and he’s one of those people that if he can do it himself, he will, and he absolutely hates asking for help unless he has no choice, and trying to take care of him when he’s sick or laid up with injury is a veritable keysmash of frustration. He’s crotchety and insufferable when he can’t do something he’s normally able to do. If we’d had an outside caretaker for his knee recovery, he probably would have driven them insane and then away.

Notes on Plato, Again

“Such things happen to people with disabilities, more often than many would like to believe.”
Normally I don’t like to read introductions or end notes when reading a piece for a class, because I feel like it colors my perceptions before I can begin to make my own judgments, but this end note can apply to other marginalized communities as well, often in conjunction with disability. For example, Virginia is one of 31 states where it’s still legal to discriminate based on sexuality. It’s legal to get married in all 50 states, but 31 still have discriminations in place – VCU fired a volleyball coach in 2012 because he was a married gay man.

While it may not make for a “good story” or a “good narrative,” if a person in real life happened to experience the situation in the short story, they could potentially fight the decision with the ADA or even the ACLU, couldn’t they? Someone like me wouldn’t be able to, at least in over half the country.

Notes on MitchSny Biopolitics Introduction

p3. “In tandem with queer, ‘crip’ identifies the ways in which such bodies represent alternative forms of being-in-the-world when navigating environments that privilege able-bodied participants as fully capacitated agential participants within democratic institutions. Such alternative modes of interaction made available by crip/queer lives create capabilities that exceed, and/or go unrecognized within, the normative scripts of biopolitics. It is in these spaces of cultural production that disabled people offer alternatives to what Robert McRuer calls ‘compulsory able-bodiedness’: “the assumption that able-bodied identities, able-bodied perspectives, are preferable and what we all, collectively, are aiming for.”

Compulsory anything is toxic and potentially damaging in the long-term, e.g. compulsory heterosexuality: I thought I was broken for 10 years because I wasn’t into all the relationships that my middle & high school peers were getting into. I was 22 years old when I first learned the word “asexual” and it was like the world lifted off my shoulders. I mean, sure, I’m still going to face a lot of difficulties, especially in the state of Virginia for being LGBT+, but knowing that there was a word for me and that I wasn’t alone was a huge relief. The same thing with physical disabilities (of which I do not have) and mental illnesses (of which I do have, and I get frustrated every time someone tells me to just DO something as if it were so easy and I didn’t have to jump through the hoops of anxiety, poor attention span, imposter syndrome, etc.)

p4 “Inclusion has come to mean an embrace of diversity-based practices by which we include those who look, act, function, and feel different; yet our contention here is that inclusionism obscures at least as much as it reveals.”

While inclusion is important so that we can teach children that we exist and we’re not that much different from other people, and that it’s even okay to be different, we need to be careful that we’re not including just for brownie points. We’re more than a brief unit of study. We’re more than a month and done. Marginalized communities are more than February (Black History Month), March (Women’s History Month), June (Pride Month), etc. (And speaking of units of study, Pride Month is never “taught” in a school unit because it’s the month of June, which American Public Schools have summer vacation during, so we don’t get even a small “unit of study”).

p6 “Right now, disability studies and global disability rights movements find themselves having to argue that disabled people must be allowed to pursue their lives much as able-bodied people do in order to prove worthy of acceptance and as recipients of equality of treatment […] such a goal is too small and often further solidifies the unchallenged desirability of normative lives.”

While it’s true that we should be able to pursue our lives how we want without being told what we can or can’t do, there’s still that underlying whisper of what is normative by ableist standards. And that we’re overcoming our disability/mental illness. Or that we’re succeeding in spite of it. I know I’ve had people ask me why I want to go into the high stress job of teaching (high school) when I have anxiety and sometimes have even shut down because of that anxiety. I’ve been outright called insane for wanting to teach on the high school level, not just with my anxiety but just because… I want to teach high school? Because apparently wanting to teach elementary school is SO much easier and more desirable. It’s like they don’t think I can do it. But I think I can. In fact, I AM doing it. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for people with physical/more visible disabilities.

p18 “disabled people want to e treated like everyone else and in such a way that their disabilities are not defining their value as human beings.”

My ADHD is a part of me. It comes with depression, anxiety, insomnia, etc. Sometimes it makes life difficult. But it’s not who I am. It doesn’t define me. My sexuality is part of me. Sometimes it colors my perceptions. I won’t be in a sexual relationship, probably ever, and that’s fine with me because I can have the romance and the intimacy without sex. It’s a part of me and my life. This still doesn’t define me. My PCOS can sometimes get in the way of me living my life, like when I’m in so much pain I can’t get out of bed. I get out of bed and go to work anyway. It does not define me.

Morgan’s Response to Medhi Aminrazavi’s Lecture on Divine Madness

Apparently 25% of the human population in the world is Muslim. One in four human beings. I didn’t know that. Fundamentalists are the extremists who base your value as a human being on how religious and devout you are. They consider Sufism as heretical and Sufism actually arose as a reaction to the extreme Fundamentalism. There seems to be debate on where the term “Sufi” came from, such as the Greek word “sofia” for wisdom, a word for burlap (like the irritating fabric worn by monks), or a Persian word for “soft.” They believe that if religion is something to truly be believed in, then it must transcend earthly laws (even if those laws are from the religion itself) and focus on something deeper, such as Truth and Love. Sufism itself is not a sect, as it has hundreds upon hundreds of sects and denominations within itself though most of them believe that being stuck on following religious laws for the sake of following them borders on idolatry and worshipping the laws themselves rather than God.

Medhi Aminrazavi showed segments of a film I think was called Beyond Words, that was considered very rare footage of an extreme sect of Sufism where initiates engage in acts of self-mutilation as expressions of love and devotion to God. Aminrazavi called this “sacred intoxication” and “sacred madness,” and it followed the idea of being so intoxicated by love that the more you suffer, the more genuine your love for God and your faith in Him. Some people were using knives, as an expression of “cutting off their ego.” Aminrazavi, several times, referred to it as “utter madness.”

There’s even science behind the “high” of these experiences. There’s a branch of brain science called neurotheology, which is the “neuroscience of religion” and it claims that the left temporal lobe is the seat of religious/spiritual experiences. The left temporal lobe lights up during these experiences, but some people are more prone to these religious highs than others.

The lecture was really interesting in that it kept discussing the idea behind “the more you love someone/something, the more you’re willing to suffer for it” and that, apparently, being in love, especially Divine Love, is madness, and that when you’re in love, even if you’re in love with a fellow human being, you’re not acting “rationally.”

How utterly mad being in love must be.

Kenzie’s reading response to Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”, and Tobin Siebers’ “Disability in Theory”

In the short story Cathedral by Raymond Carver, we are introduced to a story about a man’s wife and her friend who is blind. The husband is obviously uncomfortable with the idea of this man, not only staying in his house but also with his blindness. Earlier in the semester, we read Disability in Theory by Tobin Siebers and in his paper, he talked about disability, social constructionism, and people’s negative outlook on impairment. In the short story, it was clear that the husband’s perceptions of blindness were influenced by social construction. Not only did he strictly refer to his wife’s friend as “the blind man”, but as we read the story we notice just how uncomfortable the husband is when it comes to disability. This ableist man is compelled to recognize that there are other bodies besides the able body.

Before the speaker met Robert, he couldn’t understand how he was happily married due to his blindness. He felt bad for him and then, in turn, felt bad for the woman because Robert would never see her and compliment her appearance. Later on, when the husband meets Robert in person he was immediately put off by the man’s appearance and his judgments got the best of him. “He also had this full beard. But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear dark glasses. I’d always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind. Fact was, I wished he had a pair”(Carver 217).

The husband’s misconstrued idea of blindness was proven wrong as soon as he was introduced to Robert. He didn’t look like the stereotypical blind person the husband had pictured him as, and later on in the short story, he finds out that this man is more similar to what he would consider normal and exceptional. Like any other person, Robert openly smokes and drinks regardless of his blindness which succeeds in leaving the husband dumbfounded. He originally assumes that if you’re blind you can’t smoke because you can’t see the smoke. The man being uncomfortable with Robert not wearing glasses forces the husband to come face to face with his impairment. In fact, Robert wearing or not wearing glasses has nothing to do with the husband and in no way does Robert have to present his body in a way that appeases him.

Tobin Siebers discusses how “people easily perceive when someone is different from them but rarely acknowledge the violence of their perceptions”(Siebers 174). It wasn’t until much later when Robert was forced to acknowledge Robert’s blindness one on one, that he stopped perceiving him as someone lesser than him. Even though I don’t agree with the idea that temporarily blinding yourself allows you to truly understand blindness, the exercise he did with drawing the cathedral did help him communicate with someone he had a hard time connecting with. The short story in its entirety showed disability through the eyes of the able-bodied person. Not only are we looking through the lens of someone who is dependent on his own views of disability. When he is finally introduced to someone who isn’t of the “exceptional body” he is taken aback and has to interact with someone who is different from him.

Word count: 540

I pledge: Kenzie Ward

Works cited:

Siebers, T. “Disability in Theory: From Social Constructionism to the New Realism of the Body.” American Literary History 13.4 (2001): 737-54. Web.

Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral” web.