Category Archives: disability studies

Concealed Carry Supporters are not “nuts”

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According to a  report in Inside Higher Education that legislation in Missouri and Texas that would allow students to carry concealed weapons on college and university campuses.  Meanwhile, students on my campus and at UConn are joining nationwide “empty holster” protests.   I share the same concerns raised here and here, yet I’m just as disturbed by comments that refer to gun supporters as “nuts.”   This is insulting to both gun enthusiasts and to persons with mental illness.  It perpetuates  myths that only “crazy” people want guns, and that all “crazy” people are potential killers.    Although I disagree with the arguments made in favor of guns on campus, they aren’t “insane.”  Furthermore, it’s naive to think that only a “nut” would shoot a professor or fellow student.  The Craigslist killer case shows all too well that  “clean cut, nice (i.e. white) college guys” can be cold-blooded killers, and their reasons for killing — e.g. spurned affections, bad grades, gambling debts — are quite rational.

So, let’s stop using “nuts” indiscriminately, and focus on these facts about college mental health issues.

Lizzie Simon at CCSU: Stigma Busting Par Excellence

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detour Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending a talk by  Lizzie Simon

author of Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4D.  The talk was organized by the Central Access and Student Development office at CCSU, NAMI On Campus, and the Farmington Valley Chapter of NAMI-CT.   She started with describing how she explained mental illness to a hockey team — the person with mental illness is like the goalie, but instead of one team charging towards him/her, there are three: the disease itself, the mental health system, and stigma.  So, the goalie needs support from the rest of his/her team.  Great analogy!

I wish some of my students from my disability history class had been able to attend.  I think it would be helpful for them to see a young person  who is more typical of the majority of students with mental illness — i.e. neither violent nor weird.  Maybe her book will be as useful as Clifford Beers’ memoir from the early twentieth century.

Respecting Choice

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Since my work is on contraception, not assisted reproductive technologies (ART), I’ve been hesitant to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Nadya Suleman.  Since this has come up in my course on disability history — in the context of eugenics (especially sterilization of women deemed “feeble-minded”) and “freak shows” (step right up and see “Octuplet Mom” folks), I thought I would just make some comments.   Two recent posts at GlobalComment and Reproductive Health Reality Check express most of my thoughts on the issue e.g. it revives the “welfare Mom” stereotype, and echoes historical discussions about who is fit to reproduce.

To these I would add the various strains of disability prejudice — e.g. that Suleman has “cheating” on her disability claims, that if she is disabled, why is she reproducing, she must be “crazy” to have so many children,  and so forth.    It seems that little has changed when it comes to the sexuality of women with disabilities.

Post Oscars disability blogging

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Media dis&dat has some great posts on disability themes in oscar-nominated films, as well as excellent coverage of the protests against the humanitarian award for Jerry Lewis.   I haven’t found any substantive commentary on the Oscar-winning performance by Penelope Cruz in “Vicky, Christina, Barcelona,” so will say a little bit here.

First, I have to say that I was surprised that Cruz was nominated at all — it was not her best performance although it did stand out because the film as a whole was so dull.  By giving her the best supporting actress award, I think the Academy is validating a stereotypical view of persons with mental illness.  Then there’s the underlying current of misogyny that runs throughout this characterization — but that’s become pretty common for Woody Allen nowadays.

I thought Ann Hathaway’s character Kim in “Rachel Getting Married” was a much more nuanced view of a person struggling with addiction and emotional problems.  We get to see raw emotional pain and the family conflicts that ensue — but she’s not demonized either.

Anyway, I’d be interested in hearing other reactions to these performances and others I missed (e.g. “Revolutionary Road” and “The Changeling.”)  As to the Oscar ceremony — BORING!!!!  The only entertaining part was the bit with Tina Fey and Steve Martin (Ben Stiller’s impression of Joaquin Phoenix was entertaining for a bit but got old fast).  I think Fey and Martin should  host next year.

Scientific Fraud in MMR/Autism study

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Media dis&dat reports that  Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who published a study allegedly linking MMR vaccine and autism, has been accused of “cooking” the data to fit his theory.  Wakefield’s findings led to a sharp decline in the percentage of children receiving vaccinations for MMR and other childhood diseases, leading to a resurgence of these diseases in areas where herd immunity is lower than optimal.

I just received a copy of Paul Offit’s book, Autism’s False Prophets, which I hope to read soon (after the pile of papers I just received from my disability history class!)

Book Club: Deaf Sentence

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This week, book club finally met to discuss David Lodge’s excellent novel, Deaf Sentence (we had to postpone a month due to various schedule conflicts).  The protagonist, Desmond Bates, is a middle-aged linguistics professor who has retired from his job because of high-frequency deafness. Lodge’s description of Desmond’s condition is based on his own experiences with hearing loss. He has a number poignant quotes about the experience of deafness:  e.g. “although blindness is tragic, deafness may be comic, ”  or at the very least lacking in poetry.  “The blind have pathos” he writes. “Sighted people regard them with compassion,” while the hard of hearing are regarded as lazy and dim. Desmond watches his wife Winifred’s career as an interior designer flourish while he languishes in a boring routine interrupted only by concerns about caring for his elderly father Harry. Adding to Desmond’s troubles is Alex Loom, a clueless and utterly strange graduate student who hopes Desmond will guide her dissertation project on the linguistic aspects of suicide notes.  At first, I feared this set-up would degenerate into slapstick, but Lodge balances out the comedy with frequent literary allusions and reflections on the human condition.  This is certainly one of his best novels — I wasn’t really impressed with the last few — so it was nice to see him return to the grace and wit he showed in Changing Places and Small World.  Highly recommended — and a good choice for holiday reading given his hilarious send-up of the joys and horrors of family Christmas celebrations.

P.S. Now that I think about it, Lodge’s comments about blindness are rather disturbing.  I have friends and colleagues who are blind — they don’t consider this a tragedy, nor do they like being seen as “helpless” or even poetic (remember, even positive stereotypes are still oppressive).

Also, forgot to mention the next selection — Connecticut native Wally Lamb’s new book, The Hour I First Believed.

Heath Ledger and Bipolar Disorder

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In yet another shameless effort to boost my blog stats, here’s a comment on Trouble With Spikol’s recent post on the possibility that Heath Ledger had bipolar disorder.  According to a new biography, Heath’s uncle Hadyn has bipoloar disorder and suggests that the young star may have been as well.  Spikol says she hates these speculations, but I think that Hadyn makes a good point when he says that the diagnosis is nothing to be ashamed of. He told the author of the biography,  “I don’t mind people knowing I have bipolar disorder, and it’s a shame that it took this long to be diagnosed.”   You got it.  As the blogger at Mental Health Humor writes, there’s much we can learn from this example.

October is ALSO Disability Awareness Month

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But it gets buried under the flurry of pink crap products that get carted out for Breast Cancer Awareness Month every October. Yet Disability Awareness Month has been around longer — indeed, this is the 20th anniversary of the month, and a whole week for the “physically handicapped” was created in 1945. As Rosemary Garland-Thomson shows us, there are linkages between the “extraordinary bodies” of breast cancer survivors and persons with disabilities.  Yet, because the pink stuff is such a big business, and persons with disabilities are still such an object of horror and scorn (see the new film “Blindness” — wait, don’t see it!) it’s really no wonder that the disability awareness gets lost.

Even someone who should no better, i.e. me, has not done anything to celebrate disability awareness month on campus.  Why?  Because I’ve been buried neck deep in assessment crap — our NEASC Reaccreditation site visit is coming up the week after next.  Also, we have a two major events for WGSS coming up in the next two weeks.  Do I compete against myself?

I suppose it’s not too late, but where am I going to fit this into all the stuff that’s already going on around the U?  Besides, shouldn’t the disability office be taking the lead on this?  Oh right, they don’t take the lead on anything! In fact, they are very reactive not proactive, i.e. they don’t do outreach to students, they just wait for students to come to them, and then make it really burdensome for students to get the accomodations they need.  For example, I had a hearing impaired first-year student last Fall who had to wait three weeks to get an FM receiver she requested before she got there.  This year, I’m having problems getting adequate services for a visually impaired student.  In general, the office is not very user friendly and the director takes a rather disciplinary approach, i.e acts as if a student is trying to get away with something.