In Anne Finger’s fictionalized historical story Comrade Luxemburg and Comrade Gramsci Pass Each Other in the Congress of the Second International on the 10th of March, 1912, much can be said about the fictionalization of two once-living people within the scope of disabled autonomy. However, the passage that was most intriguing was the author’s set-up of a fake dialogue between the characters of Rosa and Antonio. In this I say characters, because as the piece cheerfully admits, the real disabled people lost to history are simply being acted by the author. In focus is the single conversation they are allowed to have, and the direction it steers. This passage makes a larger point about the visibility of privilege and what constitutes privilege for the person experiencing it. In their dialogue, Rosa wonders if she has gotten to her high rank in the Socialist party because of, in the author’s words, her “de-gendering” (115). She is of course referring to the system of ableism that constructs the disabled body as less sexually and romantically desirable, even sexless. This construct allows those with disabilities to be othered further within society, but in a key twist here, subverts a system of misogyny. The pressure to be desirable—literally available for sex— is a trait forced on women by a patriarchal structure. A woman seen as sexless within social perception is less of, or not at all, a woman. Therefore Rosa is enjoying the freedom that she feels by not being seen as feminine within society, giving her a masculine boost in a masculine world. This freedom, however, should not be interpreted as a privilege. It stands on shaky ground, as evidenced by Antonio’s initial interruption to her sentence, saying “de-sexualization” instead of Rosa’s preferred language (115). She thinks that after being viewed as nonsexual for so long, and gaining some benefits from it, “his words [made] her a bit prickly” (115). I interpret this as a telling stab of fear. By insisting on the language of gender instead of sex, she is using a less charged concept, and shifting the conversation into her comfort zone away from any discussion of desirability. The mere reference to sex by a man makes her uncomfortable. Rosa, as a character, and I would assume the author, as a woman, know what I am referring to here. Her “privilege,” as it is, is not in fact a gift because it is always accompanied by fear. It is always followed by the persistent what if. Privilege by definition is invisible, it is not something that the person of higher status ever needs to think about, and therefore it is sometimes hard-pressed to be acknowledged by the privileged person. Disprivileged people are the ones who must navigate the world with more caution. The concept that her “luck” might change is not something Rosa can forget, it is extremely visible to her even as she tries to ignore and deflect from it. It cannot be considered an actual gift. There are many small complications to the system of privilege/disprivilege such as this one fictionalized scenario. Another example might include the “privilege” of a transgender person who can pass as cisgender within the binary structure, as opposed to a transgender person who cannot or does not want to. The person in this scenario, like Rosa, must always worry about the possibility of perception and the harm that might come with it. Essentially, the point remains the same: an actual higher standing of privilege is not, at least initially, invisible to the person who possesses it.
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Word count of paragraph excluding citations: 590
Pledge: “I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.” -Lauren C. Magee
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Works Cited
Finger, Anne. “Comrade Luxemburg and Comrade Gramsci Pass Each Other in the Congress of the Second International on the 10th of March, 1912.” PDF file.
