Heterosexuality and able-bodiedness has been defined not by what they are, but by what they aren\u2019t. To give meaning to homosexual and disabled, it has been written down as deviations from the norm. In this case the norm being heterosexuality and the able-bodied. Much like Audre Lorde often focuses on the intersectionality of her many characteristics, these four categories rely on their other, to exist; you cannot have one without the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is much similarity in the LGBT\nmovement as there is in the Disability movement. Both have roots in the\nconstant normalizing of what makes them different. Both have terms used\nprevious as harmful and derogatory, now at the face of their theories (queer\nand crip.) However, most importantly they define what it means for society to\nbe normal. Society requires these definitions so that they can label and pursue\nand prosecute the \u201cabnormalities\u201d from a \u201cperfect\u201d society to stabilize\ninstitutions that were thought to be in jeopardy from this deviance. Queerness\nwas defined in the 19th<\/sup> century as an oddity. Eventually defining it\nas a homosexual, which is the defined as someone who deviates from the \u201cnorm\u201d\nand has relations with a member of the same sex (discluding women at the time,\nbecause of course they cannot be trusted with the knowledge that they can have\nrelations with other women.) The definition was morphed into many different\nterms like gross indecency, or sodomy, or my personal favorite \u201csomdomite.\u201d The\npoint being that without defining what queerness is, you cannot have these\ninstitutions like the law governing it, which is what society wants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Society wants to govern personal\naspects of life, so that life runs more smoothly. In theory, the more people\ndeviate away from that norm, the more chaos it causes. With disability, society\ndefines it as someone with a body unable to function \u201cnormally.\u201d This normal\nbeing that someone is not hindered by how society has created buildings, jobs,\nschool systems, government, etc. To deal with this deviance, instead of working\nto make these institutions and places more accessible, society created ways of\nmoving them out of these environments. For example, literal institutions were\ncreated to move them away from society itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 McRuer says in his introduction\n\u201cAccording to the flexible logic of neoliberalism, all varieties of queerness \u00ad\u2014\nand, for that matter disabilities \u2014 are essentially temporary, appearing only\nwhen, and as long as, they are necessary.\u201d (29) He is calling attention to the\nidea that definitions are not all encompassing. Where it is considered a\ndisability in one setting, it can be the norm in another because nothing is\nbeing hindered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The \u201cnorm\u201d is personal. My norm is different than my roommate\u2019s norm, or my professor\u2019s norm. My norm is different than someone with a disability. This does not make someone else lesser of a person. A queer woman with down syndrome is just as important as the next. The fault is with the way that people with disabilities are ostracized because they cannot conform to the way society wants, because their norm is just too different than the mass population\u2019s norm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Word Count: 516<\/p>\n\n\n\n I Pledge: Rebecca Hinson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Heterosexuality and able-bodiedness has been defined not by what they are, but by what they aren\u2019t. To give meaning to homosexual and disabled, it has been written down as deviations from the norm. In this case the norm being heterosexuality and the able-bodied. Much like Audre Lorde often focuses on the intersectionality of her many … Continue reading “Rebecca Hinson\u2019s Response to Robert McRuer\u2019s \u201cIntroduction: Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer\/Disabled Existence\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-reading-response"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-h2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}