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FEM2104Week2.pptxFEM2104: Gender, Disability, and Health
Week 2: Disability Justice and Britney Spears
Disability is socially constructed
Who defines what qualifies as disability?
Like race or gender, disability is socially constructed
Without disability, there would be no “normal” body
Every body has limitations;
I can’t fly
I can’t read an entire book in an hour
I can’t reach the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard
Disability as a social identity
Reclaiming “Cripple” or “Crip” as a point of pride
Disability culture as its own culture
Disability becomes intertwined with other forms of identity, like gender, race, sexuality, and class
Disability Rights models
Disability Studies as a field grew out of the activism for disability rights that culminated in the 1990 passing of the American Disability Act (ADA)
However, even 31 years after the ADA passed, ableism still exists in America
Recently, Canada passed the Accessible Canada Act (2019)
However, ableism didn’t disappear in Canada
Are Rights enough?
Many disability activists have argued that rights frameworks are limiting because they require individuals to claim their rights
Rights frameworks also depend on states to help the marginalized, erasing those marginalized by the state
Rights frameworks are also limiting because they depend on single-axis understandings of identity: i.e. intersectionality is rarely integrated into legal/rights-based frameworks of liberation
Quick definition of intersectionality
Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a Black feminist legal theorist
Examines the overlapping realities of systems of oppression like how ableism depends on sexism, depends on racism, depends on cissexism and heterosexism… etc.
Disability Justice
Challenges and expands on rights-based models
Focused on collective liberation and intersectional identity
Connects ableism to other systems of oppression (like sexism, racism, cissexism, heterosexism, etc.)
Recognizes that we all have limitations in our bodies
10 tenets of Disability Justice (according to Sins Invalid, pg. 26-29)
Intersectionality
Leadership of those most impacted
Anti-capitalist politic
Cross-movement Solidarity
Recognizing Wholeness
Sustainability
Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity
Interdependence
Collective Access
Collective Liberation
Britney Spears
Under conservatorship since 2008
Initially in 2008, Britney was found incompetent at making decisions
All major decisions are now made by her conservators, including financial, health, and relationship decisions
Recently, Britney came before a court to try to cancel the conservatorship, arguing that she wants it to end without another psychiatric evaluation
Britney Spears (continued)
Jamie Spears, Britney’s father, agreed on August 12 to “step down when the time is right,” remaining her main conservator.
Conservatorships are in place for the best interests of the person under the conservatorship; who knows better than what is in her best interest than Britney herself?
Your first assignment: Disability Justice and Britney Spears
What is Disability Justice?
Why is Disability Justice necessary when considering Britney Spears’s case?
How does Britney Spears’s case compare to the experiences of other disabled people?
500-750 words (please do not go over 750 words) to answer these questions
Due: October 15 at 11:59pm
