Week 6: Disabled Youth

Karin, Barron (1997). “The Bumpy Road to Womanhood.” Disability and Society 12 (2): 223-239

Mark Priestley, Ch. 4 of Disability: A Life Course Approach

In the assigned readings they discuss the importance of the transition period between childhood and adulthood. As young children, we are oblivious to the world around us without a care in the world, but as we grow and interact with other people, we can see the changes that can or may occur throughout this time change. These next two articles compare and contrast disabled and non-disabled youth, reasoning around the unique transitions they experience based on their gender, age and cultural affects. It is evident in the readings that many societal constraints subject youth and women to certain stereotypes depending on the severity of their impairments.

The first article, The Bumpy Road to Womanhood by Karin Barron, describes the knowledge and experiences of young disabled women from Sweden. In the Swedish society they acquired a realistic approach in regards to disabled youth; they are expected to accept their impairments and remain independent. This reiterates the idea of independency and dependencies by showing young disabled women trying to live in a society that claims to be independent. Not only do they have to be independent they must accept their disabilities, and after all said and done they are described by society only as that, disabled, rather than a certain sex. I found this to be a very negative attribution, this not only devalues disabled individuals, but also this diminishes women as a sex. In Sweden’s society, much like Western society, autonomy for young disabled women is non-existent. These young women have to act together, ‘collective action’, and form as one to be listened to by decision makers in order to ensure certain rights. A profound example of collective action that I can think of is the Women’s Rights Movement; where many women collaborated together in order to reach an agreement for their rights and rights for all women. All the young women in the article are doing just that, trying to attain autonomy through civil disobedience, as one they are refusing to obey certain laws and avoiding certain stereotypes of not only women, but those with disabilities as well. Most women have a common dream of womanhood, growing up, getting married and having a family. We can see how society makes it difficult for these individuals to accomplish such a goal by labelling them as asexual. If an individual has a disability does that deny them the right to be sexual? Certainly not!
In this article, the body and youthfulness are both used to describe the norm of what is ‘acceptable’ socially. If the body is youthful it is accepted as beautiful according to society. According to the norm, people want to be ‘normal’ and have the ‘perfect’ body. This is not only evident by diets, but others workout on a daily basis in order to attain the ‘perfect’ body and to be physically attractive in a youthful image. I wonder how interesting life would be if we were all ‘perfect’ with nothing to differentiate between each other. This article describes another example where those involved in physiotherapy treatment, individuals with disabilities and their body are aimed to be ‘corrected’ in order to be ‘normal’ and accepted. These norms are a way of controlling these young women and setting the norm for femininity. Everyone has something different about them, whether its hair, weight, height, age etc. The best thing about difference is that it makes the world interesting and helps us learn about all facets of life.

In chapter 4, Mark Priestley’s Disability and Youth, discusses issues regarding age, cultural space and the body, much like the first reading. Many of the same issues from the first reading are tied together through similar ideas here. Agreeing to Karin Barron’s article, Priestley emphasizes the identity of youth and how it is distinguished by disability culture, offering the affirmation of identities. In other words, Priestley explains how society views individual’s disabilities as who they are, personally, not based on their personality but their disability. Our culture these days puts too much emphasis on individualism and independency, and this idea reiterates itself throughout the articles. We can see this in our society, where youth are living at home longer so they can continue to go to school and support themselves, eventually to attain a career to support oneself, a family and become independent. As read in the previous reading, the body is an important marker of ‘beauty’ and social norms. Priestley describes the culture and social structure of the body as a marker of youth. For instance, there are many forms of eating disorders and diets used to strive to attain the perfect body by means of purging and/or fasting. On the other hand, there are males trying to exercise and lift weights to have defined muscles and feel socially accepted as ‘attractive’. This can explain a high social value attributed to youthfulness through fitness and beauty. However, the myth of bodily perfection makes individuals with impairments seem of lesser value and unable to achieve ‘normality’ and ‘beauty’ because there body is not ‘perfect’ in societies standards. As we discussed in the first reading, we are introduced to the idea of young disabled women being asexual and the unfair recognition as non-sexual beings. Society is too concerned with eugenics and making the perfect human race, for example, sterilization was a way to keep disabled females from being sexual or reproductive. Still today, these young girls are denied their right to express sexuality because they are assumed to be at risk for sexual threats, more so than non disabled young women. A perfectly healthy woman can have a baby with the chances of the baby being born unhealthy; similarly, disabled women have the same probabilities. Everyone at any given time is at risk for threats no matter their sex, race or age; therefore the decision for women to have children should be made by the women themselves. This is very discouraging, as sexuality is very healthy and anyone denied the right to be a sexual being is denied their freedom of rights. Similar to the first study, the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities, led by disabled women and activists as a group worked as one on the emergence of a “sexuality and disability movement”. This movement offers a change in the lifestyles of individuals with disabilities and their ability to attain acceptance from others.
We can see how independency repeats itself within the two readings in a variety of factors. Managing the transition period between childhood and adulthood is essential to see what kind of adulthood young disabled people are prepared for. Throughout both readings we understand the structural categories of both youth and disabled women and what they have to endure throughout the transition period into adulthood are based on their ability to conform to the norm of society and become independent. Society could make it easier for young women to live in an environment and conform to others if we can all accept differences and the importance of each imperfection.