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An ableist culture that glorifies "beating" and "getting over" sickness has ushered in the grotesque carnival we are going to be subjected to in the coming days.
The conflation of strength with wellness as a virtue, and the pejorative framing of illness as some kind of more failing, permeate America (across time, across party lines). Patriarchal, yes. Ableist, yes. The architecture for the narrative of triumph which is to come.
Saying you "beat" your disease—and that "lesser," "weaker" people failed to do so and thus their deaths were their own fault—is one of the crudest forms of virtue signaling
To my knowledge, the most read thing I have ever written (about 15 million times) was an essay I wrote about how giving advice to people with cancer about how they can beat it tortured my late sister, Dr. Sharron Thrasher https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/26/do-not-tell-cancer-patients-cures-they-could-be-doing
I got so many responses from ppl around the world who felt ashamed bc they (or someone they loved) had been made to feel like a loser bc they couldn't "beat" their disease.
Trump is an extreme form of the viciousness of ableism, which extends across parties, borders & time.
Trump is an extreme form of the viciousness of ableism, which extends across parties, borders & time.
Language frames how we think & how we act, and ableism has long permeated our language in ways which make certain populations (LGBTQ, disabled, elderly) seem disposable. A great primer on this is @SFdirewolf’s edited book DISABILITY VISIBILITY https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617802/disability-visibility-by-alice-wong/
....and, pitchless essay commissioned by a publication I quite like for which I have never written before based upon this thread, coming soon. Stand back and standby.
...and BOOM! Here I am up in Scientific American ( @sciam), writing about how Trump exemplifies our ableist culture https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-trump-exemplifies-our-ableist-culture/
As I wrote in the piece, it’s rare to see disabled voices centered in mainstream publishing, but thankfully @VintageAnchor has with the excellent @SFdirewolf edited collection Disability Visibility https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617802/disability-visibility-by-alice-wong/
I also wrote about how accepted ableism is that, while @Marketplace fired Lewis Wallace for not being “objective” for raising the kinds of anti racist questions many media companies have now raised, @kairyssdal uses “lame” as a slur so comfortably, he won’t even talk about it
Re writing for @sciam under @laurahelmuth’s editing: I appreciate that Scientific American made a POTUS endorsement, wasn’t afraid to use the verb “lied” about Trump & acknowledged the inherent politics of producing & reporting on scientific knowledge https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientific-american-endorses-joe-biden1/
I also feel happy & relieved that @sciam let me not only use this highlighted line but left it in italics.
Scientific inquiry & journalism are highly subjective—& we needn’t pull all anger, outrage, play, humor & humanity out of our attempts at knowledge & truth telling
Scientific inquiry & journalism are highly subjective—& we needn’t pull all anger, outrage, play, humor & humanity out of our attempts at knowledge & truth telling
