‘Imperfect Bodies?’ the politics of disability and ageing Week 4 Embodiment & Feminist Theory

Recap Considered how some bodies are ‘valued’ more than others Considered how feminist theory has developed our understanding of embodiment as an organising structure Look at how bodies are always markers of class, ‘race’ and gender

Outline Look at how the social divisions of ageing and disability impact on embodiment Consider to what extend disability is socially constructed and gendered (Morris) Consider how ageing is gendered (Arber)

Discuss with the person sitting next to you what you associate with the word disabilities

Victorian ‘Imbeciles’ and ‘Incurables’ In the Victorian period, people with disabilities were increasingly incarcerated –Inferior –Unproductive –Controlled for their and societies ‘good’ Asylums Special Hospitals Special Schools

Perspectives on Disability From the Victorian Period onwards two dominant perspectives on disability 1.disability as a tragedy which requires charitable assistance 2.disability as illness which requires treatment by professionals

Imperfect Bodies? Impairments are often focused on rather than seeing people with disabilities These bodies are constructed as constraining or imperfect Often they are seen as asexual

Mind and Body Mental or learning disabilities are often stigmatized more than physical ones But people with physical disabilities are often treated as having both –‘Does s/he take sugar?’

How does this match the ideas you had at the beginning?

Disability Movement In the last 40 years, people with disabilities have challenged these ideas –Separation of illness and disability –Push for independent living and civil rights –The social model of disability Successes include the Disability Discrimination Act and benefits paid directly to people with disabilities

The social model of disability This model argues that is not physical or mental impairments that disable but societies failure to cope with their needs –Physically through the build environment –Mentally through disabling attitudes

VrMhttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Br2dpFN3 VrM

Maintaining Control The Independent Living Movement has focused on the aim of control –Right to employment –Allowances for personal assistance Needs should be met without disempowering the person with impairments

Gendered disability Morris has argued decentring the body is an important move as it can overcome the emphasis on tragedy and illness The disability movement has made significant progress but it has ignored both the body and how disability is gendered This has led particularly to the overlooking of the concerns of women with disabilities

Gendering Disability The emphasis on assistance for work has overlooked women’s roles as care-givers and mothers –Women may want personal assistance to be able to care for their families –In terms of both housework and childcare

Young Carers Recently ‘young carers’ have been identified Much debate focuses on the ‘burden’ this places on young people and a need to offer support mechanisms Offers a picture of reversed roles with child as parent But ‘young carers’ only exist because of a lack of support to the parent with disabilities

Disability and Motherhood Women with disabilities are often discouraged from becoming mothers Up to the 1970s, some women were forcibly sterilisation

To what extend do you think that the experiences of disability are socially constructed?

Ageing Bodies Many of the ideas and attitudes towards bodies with disabilities also apply to our ideas about ageing. Increasingly ageing is something which we are all supposed to deny and/or refuse.

QgYhttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VP7cX8iX QgY

Gender and Ageing Older people are often constructed as a burden Crisis in health care Crisis in pensions Much of this debate focuses on women Women live longer then men Women are poorer in older age than men

Gender and Ageing Arber agues that there is a difference between: –Chronological Age retirement rules –Social Age perceptions of others/society –Physiological Age function of the body

Discuss for a moment the three different types of ageing. Do you think this difference is illuminating?

Gender and Ageing In employment, women are seen to be ‘too old’ earlier than men. Older women are sometimes freed from caring responsibilities, but many have to continue to perform this role The combination of sexism and ageing can leave older women with little autonomy

Summary Considered the social construction of disability and ageing Considered some embodied experiences Shown how feminist theory has highlighted the importance of gender

Next week Continue to look at how ideas about bodies are shaped by medical power and knowledge Consider how women’s bodies in particular are medicalised Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of surveillance medicine