The Corpus of the Madwoman: Toward a Feminist Disability Studies Theory of Embodiment and Mental Illness

Disability scholars have critiqued medical models that pathologize disability as an individual flaw that needs treatment, rehabilitation, and cure, favoring instead a social‐constructionist approach that likens disability to other identity categories such as gender, race, class, and sexuality. However, the emphasis on social constructionism has left chronic illness and pain largely untheorized. This article argues that feminist disability studies (FDS) must attend to the common, chronic gynecological condition endometriosis (endo) when theorizing pain. Endo is particularly important for FDS analysis because the highly feminized and sexualized nature of endo pain is a major source of disability. Because medical treatments of endo enhance fertility rather than provide pain relief, those with endo must not only have access to medical services to manage their pain, but also demand better medical management of their pain as well as disability accommodations for their pain. Thus, I propose a pain‐centric model of disability that politicizes pain through social‐constructionist and medical models of disability by attending to the lived experiences of pain.

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Care, Disability, and Violence: Theorizing Complex Dependency in Eva Kittay and Judith Butler

Hypatia ◽

10.1111/hypa.12130 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 217-233 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Stacy Clifford Simplican

Keyword(s):

Disability Studies ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Judith Butler ◽

The Self ◽

Disability Rights ◽

Feminist Disability Studies ◽

Complex Dependency ◽

Planning Approaches ◽

Embodied Care

How do we theorize the experiences of caregivers abused by their children with autism without intensifying stigma toward disability? Eva Kittay emphasizes examples of extreme vulnerability to overturn myths of independence, but she ignores the possibility that dependents with disabilities may be vulnerable and aggressive. Instead, her work over‐emphasizes caregivers' capabilities and the constancy of disabled dependents' vulnerability. I turn to Judith Butler's ethics and her conception of the self as opaque to rethink care amid conflict. Person‐centered planning approaches, pioneered by disability rights activists, merge Butler's analysis of opacity with Kittay's work on embodied care, while also inviting a broader network of people to both interpret needs and change communities. By expanding our conceptions of dependency, feminist disability studies can continue the aim of both Kittay and Butler: to humanize unintelligible lives.

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Disability Studies Gets Fat

Hypatia ◽

10.1111/hypa.12126 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 199-216 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Anna Mollow

Keyword(s):

Disability Studies ◽

Personal Relationships ◽

Social Model ◽

Scientific Concept ◽

Scholarly Work ◽

Feminist Disability Studies ◽

Contemporary Politics ◽

The Social ◽

Health And Illness ◽

Interpretive Framework

This article invites disability scholars to “get fat,” that is, to support the goals of the fat justice movement. I argue that the contemporary politics of fatness can productively be read through the lens of disability studies’ social model. At the same time, I mobilize feminist critiques of the social model to push fat disability studies toward a more in‐depth engagement with the topics of health and illness. Additionally, I contend that feminist scholars’ accounts of our personal relationships to fatness and disability can make crucial contributions to our scholarly work. These arguments take shape within a new interpretive framework that I introduce: “setpoint epistemology,” which brings together the feminist disability studies notion of “sitpoint theory” and the scientific concept of “setpoint theory.”

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Disturbing bodies – reimagining comforting narratives of embodiment through feminist disability studies

Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research ◽

10.1080/15017419.2015.1063545 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 222-233 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Carolin Ahlvik-Harju

Keyword(s):

Disability Studies ◽

Feminist Disability Studies

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Novos diálogos dos estudos feministas da deficiência

Revista Estudos Feministas ◽

10.1590/1806-9584-2019v27n148155 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ruthie Bonan Gomes ◽

Paula Helena Lopes ◽

Marivete Gesser ◽

Maria Juracy Filgueiras Toneli

Keyword(s):

Disability Studies ◽

Feminist Disability Studies ◽

De Se

Resumo: O objetivo deste estudo foi o de caracterizar a produção recente dos estudos feministas da deficiência (Feminist disability studies), com o foco na intersecção entre gênero e deficiência. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura internacional na qual foram incluídos artigos publicados nos últimos cinco anos em revistas disponíveis no portal de periódicos da CAPES. Os artigos analisados ressaltam que os modelos de compreensão da deficiência têm efeitos sociais e políticos nas formas de se pensar em questões como a corporeidade, a sexualidade, o cuidado e a interdependência. Além disso, as produções estudadas apontam que a inclusão da deficiência como categoria de análise a ser considerada nos estudos e práticas sociais tem um potencial analítico e político.

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