I follow quite a few blogs and websites, each of them unique in their content and presentation. It was actually reading all these blogs that got me the inspiration to start one of my own, even if it had no particular focus and was for just writing down anything I wanted. :P
These are a couple of links I found interesting in the past week. Hope you enjoy.
[Content Note: rape culture; sexual violence]
Fashion advive for non-normative bodies almost always comes with the same mandate : hide what you have. Fat folks and the disabled are usual targets for this. - S. E. Smith writes
I try my best to feel proud of my country even though I happen to be born here by nothing but chance. But then I hear this: India ranked worst G20 country for women - FeministsIndia
Skepchick gives an excellent response to the European Commission on Research and Innovation's highly disappointing teaser for the campaign to promote science among girls. The intention might be well meaning but ''pinkifying'' science does more harm than good.
Lara Croft's origin story in the new Tomb Raider game and the ''Rape Turns Ladies Into Superheroes'' trope - Shakesville
Accessibility is Not an individual problem, neither is it a favour the non-disabled do.
These are a couple of links I found interesting in the past week. Hope you enjoy.
[Content Note: rape culture; sexual violence]
Fashion advive for non-normative bodies almost always comes with the same mandate : hide what you have. Fat folks and the disabled are usual targets for this. - S. E. Smith writes
I try my best to feel proud of my country even though I happen to be born here by nothing but chance. But then I hear this: India ranked worst G20 country for women - FeministsIndia
Skepchick gives an excellent response to the European Commission on Research and Innovation's highly disappointing teaser for the campaign to promote science among girls. The intention might be well meaning but ''pinkifying'' science does more harm than good.
Lara Croft's origin story in the new Tomb Raider game and the ''Rape Turns Ladies Into Superheroes'' trope - Shakesville
Accessibility is Not an individual problem, neither is it a favour the non-disabled do.
I liked the last article a lot - it's so true that we need to look at social SYSTEMS rather than seeing it as an individual problem. As she says in the article, society tends to be "able-identified" i.e. "able" is always assumed as the default, while disability (the word itself is a clue as DIS-anything involves some othering) is a special, optional, negotiable inconvenience that has to be accommodated only if really necessary. I don't think it's about numbers either ("Why should we take these steps for only N% of the population" etc. etc.) - that's just an excuse people like to give. It's a fundamental othering, a marginalisation.
ReplyDeleteI recently bought Allan Johnson's "Privilege, Power and Difference" - http://www.flipkart.com/privilege-power-difference-0072874899/p/itmczyzcqgmhzkzc?pid=9780072874891. This is an updated edition; in the intro he notes that the earlier edition did not talk about ableism. He blames himself for it - someone asked him why it was missing, and he realised that he simply had not realised that it was a social system just like the others. (And in a major bit of irony, he uses an ableist term in that very sentence - he says he was "blind" to this fact!). Will let you know what the book was like once I'm done with it; I regard him quite highly after The Gender Knot.
You're right. Numbers wouldn't matter if it was seen as a normal thing to do, just another part of the planning that cannot be compromised.
ReplyDeleteToday morning I got a suggestion to read The Gender Knot, now
I'm seeing about another book by Allan Johnson. :) Sure, I'd like to know what you think of it after you finish. I'm going to try getting The Gender Knot in the meanwhile.