susan wendell

30

Upload: ammar-farooq

Post on 12-Apr-2017

89 views

Category:

Education


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Susan Wendell
Page 2: Susan Wendell

The rejected body:

Feminist philosophical

reflections on disability

Written by Susan Wendell

published in 1996

Page 3: Susan Wendell
Page 4: Susan Wendell

content  Introduction 1. Who Is Disabled? Defining Disability

2. The Social Construction of Disability

3. Disability as Difference 4. The Flight from the Rejected Body

5. The Cognitive and Social Authority of Medicine

6. Disability and Feminist Ethics

7. Feminism, Disability, and Transcendence of the Body 9. Conclusion References

Page 5: Susan Wendell

Introduction

Susan Wendell was born at November 13, 1945 (age 70 years)

In February of 1985, she was healthy. She was teaching philosophy and women's Studies, coordinating the women's studies program, working with graduate Students, writing academic articles, and enjoying the company of her Friends.

She was also exercising regularly eating reasonably well, and taking Her vitamins. One weekend, she came down with what she thought was the Worst flu she had ever experienced, high fever, coughing, nausea, light-sensitivity, perceptual distortions, and intense pain in her joints and muscles.

Page 6: Susan Wendell

Susan Wendell

Page 7: Susan Wendell

She spent her days on the couch or in bed and still Could not walk a block. A year after she fell ill, she had managed, by a tremendous

Effort of will and gentle, gradual exercise, to condition herself to

Walking five blocks on a good day In January of 1987, almost two years after falling ill, she returned to teaching half-time at the university. Reaching that point was the most difficult thing she have ever done.

Page 8: Susan Wendell

Her struggles now are not primarily with the disease. After ten years it has become a given, a somewhat unpredictable limitation around which she must plan as best she can.

She try to commit herself to doing only as much on any given day as she could do if she were going through a bad period of illness, since on any given day she might be in an her valley, but she make long-term commitments based on what she can manage on an average day.

she adhere faithfully to routines of acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and therapeutic touch, and she take pain medications and rest breaks, but her life does not revolve around the disease as it once did.

Page 9: Susan Wendell

It is probably sometimes obvious that she was having difficulty finding words or Remembering names, and her colleagues and students are good at supplying the missing pieces, but this is a weakness to which many of people who are over forty-five are susceptible.

Social analysis helps a lot. she have learned from other people with disabilities that most non-disabled people cannot wrap their minds around the possibility that someone can be disabled or ill and also work productively, have intimate relationships, or be happy.

Page 10: Susan Wendell

In 1990 she developed an undergraduate course on women and disability, Which she has since taught several times. The students in that course, many of Who have disabilities, have taught her a great deal more. She personally And intellectually interested in the lives of women with disabilities, and in Gender differences in both the experience of disability and the treatment of People with disabilities.

She focus on physical disability here, both because she know much more about physical disabilities than she do about mental disabilities, and because she particularly interested in attitudes towards the body.

she know that many people with disabilities have both physical and mental disabilities, and she interested in mental disability, of which she have some personal experience; but since it raises some different, additional issues, she discuss mental disability. She has tried, however, not to make any unqualified generalizations about disability without questioning whether they apply to mental disabilities.

Page 11: Susan Wendell

In her book she defined disability She focused upon the social and cultural factors that, in interaction

with biological differences, create disability. She examine the stigma of disability and illness, beginning with

Goffman's famous study of stigma. She also discuss some political issues among people with Disabilities. She concerned with the idealization and objectification of the body in

the commercial-media-soaked societies of North America. She discuss some of the consequences of the cognitive and Social

authority of scientific Western medicine to describe our bodies in the Societies where it holds sway.

She argue that the experiences and interests of both people with disabilities and those who care for people with disabilities are vitally relevant to the projects and issues of feminist ethics, including the attempt to develop an ethic of care and to balance it with a morality of justice, the critical re-examination of the ethical ideals of autonomy and independence, and feminist ethical approaches to abortion, euthanasia, and health care reform.

She devoted to what might seem like an esoteric subject—transcendence of the body.

Page 12: Susan Wendell

Who Is Disabled? Defining Disability

Susan Wendell have discussed in this chapter about who is disabled, which is not as easily answered as it might seem.

She consider definitions of disability, including the highly influential United Nations definitions of "impairment," "disability” And "handicap," arguing that neither impairment nor disability can be defined purely in biomedical terms, because the biological and the social are interactive in creating (or preventing) both.

She also examines the controversial question whether people with illnesses and people experiencing the frailties and limitations of old age should be considered disabled.

She then discuss who defines disability and for what purposes, and how their purposes may affect the definitions. Finally she turn to issues of identification—who identifies her/himself as disabled, who is identified by other people as disabled, and how these may be in conflict—and some political issues of disability identity, including whether "people with disabilities" is a meaningful category.

Page 13: Susan Wendell

She argued that neither impairment nor disability can be denned purely in biomedical terms, because social arrangements and expectations make essential contributions to impairment and disability, and to their absence.

The United Nations Definitions The United Nations definition of disability is widely used

and tends to be favored by disability activists and other advocates of greater opportunities for people with disabilities. It offers the following definitions of and distinctions among impairment, disability, and handicap:

"Impairment: Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function.

Disability: Any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.

Page 14: Susan Wendell

Handicap: A disadvantage for a given individual, resulting from an impairment or disability, that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal, depending on age, sex, social and cultural factors, format individual.“

Handicap is therefore a function of the relationship between disabled persons and their environment. It occurs when they encounter cultural, physical or social barriers which prevent their access to the various systems of society that are available to other citizens.

Thus, handicap is the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the life of the community on an equal level with others. (UN 1983: I.e. 6-7as cited by Susan Wendell)

Page 15: Susan Wendell

There are two things she likes about the UN definitions. First, they are general enough to include many conditions that are not always recognized by the general public as disabling, for example, debilitating chronic illnesses, such as Crohn's disease, which limit people s activities but do not necessarily cause any immediately observable disability.

Second, the definition of handicap explicitly recognizes the possibility that the primary causes of a disabled person s inability to do certain things may be social; they may be lack of opportunities, lack of accessibility, lack of services, poverty or discrimination, and they often are. It is this latter aspect of the definitions that makes them appealing to advocates for people with disabilities.

Page 16: Susan Wendell

There are several criticisms she has of the UN definitions that may throw some light on the nature of disability and the problems associated with denying it.

First, the definitions of "impairment" and "disability" seem to imply that there is some universal, biologically or medically describable standard of structure, function, and human physical ability. As we shall see, there would be important advantages to employing some universal standards, should we be able to agree on them. Yet surely what are "normal" structure, function, and ability to perform an activity all depend to some degree on the society in which the standards of normality are generated.

On the other hand, definitions of impairment and disability could be relativized too much to some societies. If most people in a particular society are chronically undernourished, that society's standards of "normal" functioning might become so low as to mask the widespread disability among its citizens that starvation is causing.

Page 17: Susan Wendell

The Social Construction of Disability

Chapter 2 she focused upon the social and cultural factors that, in interaction with biological differences, create disability.

These factors include social conditions that cause or fail to prevent damage to peoples bodies, social expectations of performance, the physical and social organization of societies on the basis of a young, non-disabled, 'ideally shaped/ healthy adult male paradigm of citizens, the failure or unwillingness to create ability among people who do not fit the paradigm, cultural representations and failures of representation, and the cultural meanings of disability.

She discusses how disability could be socially deconstructed and consider some obstacles to its deconstruction.

 

Page 18: Susan Wendell

Disability as Difference

In this chapter Susan Wendell examine the stigma of disability and illness, beginning with Goffman’s famous study of stigma.

she consider the concept of 'the Other/ developed in feminist theorizing, as a way of understanding the social position of people with disabilities, look at some of the symbolic meanings of disabilities and illnesses, and describe some consequences of being 'the Other' in this particular way.

She then turn to the possibility of regarding disability as a neutral or valuable form of difference that is, among other things, a source of knowledge.  

Page 19: Susan Wendell

she discuss the standpoint-epistemology question in relation to people with disabilities—whether having a disability gives a person access to a less distorted and more complete perspective on certain issues—in the light of recent criticisms of feminist standpoint epistemologies.

she also discuss some political issues among people with disabilities centering around the question whether to emphasize similarities to the non-disabled or differences from them, and some disputes about language—what to call ourselves and what changes in linguistic usage to promote.

Finally, she considers the question: If we value the differences of people with disabilities (as she does), what implications does that have for efforts to prevent or cure disabilities?

Page 20: Susan Wendell

The Flight from the Rejected Body

Chapter 4 is concerned with the idealization and objectification of the body in the commercial-media-soaked societies of North America.

These create demands that we control and attempt to perfect our bodies, which in turn create rejection, shame, and fear concerning both failures to control the body and deviations from body ideals, which in turn contribute to the stigmatization and 'Otherness of people with disabilities.

Refusal to come to terms with the full reality of bodily life, including those aspects of it that are rejected culturally, leads people to embrace the myth of control, whose essence is the belief that it is possible, by means of human actions, to have the bodies we want and to avoid illness, disability, and death

Page 21: Susan Wendell

she examine various contemporary versions of the myth of control, including those of scientific Western medicine, those of some alternative therapeutic practices, various versions of mind-over-body, and some theories about how people 'make themselves' ill or disabled by mismanaging their lives, their psyches, or their spirits.

she discuss the burdens of blame and guilt that are fostered by these versions of the myth and the widespread, profound reluctance to admit that bad things happen to people who do not deserve them, or seek them, or risk them, or fail to take care of themselves.

She do not advocate giving up all attempts to control the body or abandoning all aspects of the myth of control, but she do discuss how they might be changed to the benefit of people with and without disabilities.

Page 22: Susan Wendell

The Cognitive and Social Authority of Medicine

In chapter 5 she discusses some of the consequences of the cognitive and social authority of scientific Western medicine to describe our bodies in the societies where it holds sway. This authority affects how we experience our bodies, contributing its objectifying perspective to the alienation already fostered by other aspects of commercial cultures.

It affects how a society describes our experiences and validates or invalidates them, adding the burden of epistemic invalidation to many people's experiences of illness and disability.

It also affects how a society supports or fails to support our bodily suffering and struggles, for people who are ill or disabled without a medical diagnosis are not eligible for social programmes and are frequently abandoned by friends and family.

Page 23: Susan Wendell

The authority of medicine shapes and limits, through its effects on the flow of communication about bodily experience, what our culture knows about the human body. It also profoundly affects the relationship of medical practitioners to patients and the quality of medical care.

Those medical practitioners with the most authority tend to measure their success by the 'objective state of the patient's body and to regard death as their greatest failure, while patients are more likely to measure a healer's success by the quality of their subjective experiences and to consider medicine's greatest failures to be unrecognized, unsupported, meaningless, or hopeless suffering.

Page 24: Susan Wendell

She concludes by pointing out that philosophers of biomedical ethics have tended not to question the authority of medicine and to adopt medicine's preoccupation with life-and-death issues.

she give reasons for hoping that the emerging field of feminist medical ethics will produce a critique of medicine that speaks to the concerns of people with disabilities and people with unrecognized or incurable illnesses

Page 25: Susan Wendell

Disability and Feminist Ethics

In chapter 6 she argue that the experiences and interests of both people with disabilities and those who care for people with disabilities are vitally relevant to the projects and issues of feminist ethics, including the attempt to develop an ethic of care and to balance it with a morality of justice, the critical re-examination of the ethical ideals of autonomy and independence, and feminist ethical approaches to abortion, euthanasia, and health care reform

Page 26: Susan Wendell

By discussing the analyses arid concerns of people who have some experience with disability, especially those with feminist perspectives, she attempt to show how they must be included in any adequate treatment of these projects and issues.

She maintain that feminist ethics needs the insights of people with disabilities, that people with disabilities need feminist ethics that some people involved in disability ethics and politics are already practicing feminist ethics, and that more feminist ethicists should be practicing disability ethics.

Page 27: Susan Wendell

Feminism, Disability, and Transcendence of the Body

Chapter 7 is devoted to what might seem like an esoteric subject—transcendence of the body. In fact, for many people with disabilities, it is a practical matter of immediate daily concern.

Ideas of transcending the body have generally been rejected by feminists, partly in reaction to philosophies and religions that derogate the body (especially women's bodies) and partly because feminist theorizing about the body has not fully confronted the experience of bodily suffering.

she describe some strategies for living with pain, sickness, and physical limitation gathered from her own experience and the writings of other people with disabilities, and argue that a more complete feminist understanding of the body might include some concept of transcendence.

Page 28: Susan Wendell

Conclusion

The rejected body is a brilliant and original work that goes beyond the topic of disability and question the adequacy of feminist theories of embodiment generally.

Wendell combines her personal experience of disability with her knowledge of feminist philosophy to bring clarity to both. She validates invalidity.

The rejected body argues that feminist theorizing has been skewed toward non-disabled experience, and that the knowledge of people with disabilities must be integrated into feminist ethics, discussions of bodily life, and the criticism of the cognitive and social authority of medicine.

Page 29: Susan Wendell

REFERENCE Wendell, S. (1996). The rejected body:

Feminist philosophical reflections on disability. London: Routledge

 

Page 30: Susan Wendell

Thank you