Disability and youth

Disability and Youth Comment Paper
Shannon Whelan

Barron, K. (1997). The Bumpy Road to Womanhood. Disability & Society, 12(2), 223-239.
Priestley, M. (2003). Disability: A Life Course Approach. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

The topic of the readings deals with the transition from adolescence to adulthood for disabled women. This topic was very interesting for me because I could relate to many of the examples about young woman’s transition to adulthood. Young women have a difficult time with this transition to gain autonomy when many individuals need continuous care throughout their lives. There are certain norms associated with womanhood which is hard to relate to when every person has individual difference and disability. This week there were two articles which discussed the topic of womanhood, youth and, disability that will be outlined throughout this comment paper. The aim of this paper is to discuss the themes that emerge from both of the readings.
The first journal article titled “The Bumpy Road to Womanhood” is very useful for our class because it displays women with disabilities thoughts and experiences while traveling through their transition in life. This piece of writing can be very liberating to many women as well as educative to understand young women with disabilities. This article explored characteristics of younger women such as gender roles, autonomy, physical beauty, and womanhood. When neglecting to take into account the impact and consequences of gender roles it indicates that disabled people are seen as asexual beings with many social obstacles (Barron, 1997). An example that indicated problems with gender roles for a woman with a disability was when a male teacher or care giver offers his assistance to go to the bathroom. This demonstrates that the male didn’t take into account that she is a young woman, he only paid attention to her disability, making her a asexual person. Gender is an important part of our identity, and not being seen as a woman reflects societal views on disability.
Since modernization the need for autonomy has become more prevalent in our society. Recently adulthood is associated with autonomy and individualism. Many people with disabilities require assistance in adult life, viewed as a passive recipient. A number of of these people really love working as collective groups to take action on disability rights and ensuring that all people receive equal rights. Disabled people have the most knowledge about disability because they live it every day, making them the most qualified people in this area of study.
When it comes to physical beauty as a means of control, physical impairment is apart from norms of acceptance and attractiveness. In media images of beauty, disability and impairment don’t exist, because mainly disabled people in our society is not as valued as those of “perfect youthful beauty”. Difference and uniqueness should be celebrated in our society.
The next reading is a chapter called ‘Disability and Youth’ which has many of the same contents as the previous reading about the transition of youth disabled people to adulthood. This chapter pays attention to “the production of youth as a generational category in technological and knowledge societies” (Priestly, 2003). The chapter has three main areas of study which are ‘thinking about youth’, ‘sex and sexuality’ ‘preparation for adulthood’.
The structural approach to youth deals with people with impairments becoming disabled through social organization and regulation of transitions into adulthood. Our society is organized for the “normal” or “able” bodied person. When thinking about how the school system is organized, social and friendship networks are formed, and the portrayals of media are all organized without the people with impairments in mind. In my high school, it was an older building (developed before the recognition of disability and accessibility) without any elevator or any programs for people with disabilities. These factors in our society in exchange create the notion of disability within our society.
The sexuality of young women is very important to their identity. When a disabled woman’s sexuality is denied, these women loose part of their identity. The part in the reading about sterilization of disabled women was terrible. I never knew that this was practiced even in our own country. This was thought to be a medical intervention to seek control of disabled woman’s or ‘dangerous women’ fertility (Priestley, 2003). It is hard to believe that this intervention from medical and legal persons had the right to take away this important factor in many women’s identity.
The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a complex process for many young women. For young women with a disability, the socialization of these girls is an important process in the transition to adulthood. It is important to embrace your gender, sexuality, identity and roles in life. Females with disabilities can have a very important role in this world to celebrate diversity and educate everyone about their disability.