Tuesday, November 20, 2007

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.

4 comments:

Lorisa said...

I agree with Shannons comments about how many people do not look at the fact that even wtih a disability, you are still a young women or man trying to find your way to adulthood like anyone else. Some people overlook the gender and look at your diability and act upon your disability, making us oblivious to how we should really treat the person and the situation. Shannon also makesa great point by saying that difference and uniqueness should be celebrated in our society. This should be a very important, without question and valued followed by respect. Shannon also makes good comments about how our society is made for the "able" bodied people and how are people with disabilities going to be able to do everyday things or conquer their goals without obsitices for women. These things make it hard for women to find their identity. Shannons paper was very informative and made good points which we should all take into consideration more in our everyday lives.

Leslie Ng said...

I agree with Shannon and how when seeing a woman who is disabled, many only see the woman as disabled and forget everything else about her. This is very true of today's society because we are so fixated on the able bodied and physical appearances that it is hard to see someone in a wheelchair to be beautiful or a sexual being. It is very rare to see an ad of a disabled women in a beauty magazine because society has a preconceived notion that to be beautiful is to be young and healthy. A woman's identity, like Shannon mentioned, is very important to a woman because it defines her. I believe a woman who has had a mastectomy would feel a loss of identity, one of a woman, however, will she still be viewed as a woman or a woman who has no breasts?

jbpooh1 said...

Is there not a phrase or saying out there that if we were all alike we would be very boring. So I also believe that we need to have different bodily changes so that we would not be like clones. Not that I want someone to suffer from a disability or should they suffer, but they make the world more interesting. It is important that we understand that those with disabilities should first be seen as a person not as a person who can not see, hear, walk or talk, for that is not the whole person, that is only their impairment. If people were to give those individuals their friendship and their support maybe this world would be so much more loving and giving instead of hating and taking.

andriko.l said...

Vickie Loisel - Comment

I agree with the comments made that many young women with disabilities are challenged throughout their process into adulthood. Society's view on what beauty and sexuality are for women make it more difficult for women with disabilities to find their social identity. It is true that society tends to look at a person that is disabled as a "disabled person" rather than just a "person". Disabled women should be seen as women first and this will no doubtly make it easier for a young disabled woman to grow into adulthood. This comment paper states informative comments that point out challenges that young women experience on their way to adulthood and educates us on how to acknowledge these facts so we can act upon situations with a better knowledge of disability.

Vickie Loisel - Comment