Bringing disabled women together, mobilising
and sharing through lived experiences
Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year
We have had a great year!
We were part of the WOW Festival in the Southbank, we were in Leeds and London with AccSex documentary with Shweta Ghosh, we were also took part in the Feminism in London Conference and the Youth Action Festival.We were campaigning with Million Women March and Sisters Uncut. We took part in social justice events such as Sparks in London. Sisters spoke at the Woman Up event and the UK Disability History Month and had a great workshop on Sexuality and Disability.
Thank you for your support and please continue in 2016. Have a great festive season and Happy New Year!
Julia Daniels: On the Subject of Voice
Thank you to Julia Daniels for allowing us to reblog this.
For lots of other people, this ‘blog writing’ malarkey seems to come so easily… and writing as a way to express my emotions has become a very precious process…so why is it that the words; ‘developing an on-line presence’ seem to invoke such terror in me?
Maybe it’s because I’m a bit of an introvert, naturally seeking enjoyment out of quieter pastimes like reading, yoga and, to be honest, blissfully day-dreaming about anything and everything. And maybe (I think this is the crux of it) it is due to the tangled mess of emotions that prevent me from speaking – the fear that I will have nothing of value to contribute to the world. Fear, also, of being exposed as the worthless waste that I know myself to be, or that living in this ableist world has taught me that I am. Fear of exposing myself to public ridicule by using the last remaining method I know to express my thoughts to a select few of my fellow academics.
For I do use writing to express myself, but always under the cloak and relative protection of academia, twisting and cultivating glimpses of my private, personal life into theoretical and political concepts in order to fool people into thinking that I do indeed have the flair and proficiency to be a successful PhD researcher. I fear that by writing a blog like this, I will be caught out, recognised as an imposter. Nevertheless, I feel the time has come for me to ‘speak out’, as it were.
Maybe for you to understand where I’m coming from, I first need to tell you a little bit about my life. 15 years ago, I was involved in a car accident which left me with an assortment of broken bones to my upper body, a paralysed right arm, a severe head injury and damage to my vocal cords from incubation. 6 operations later, I still have a peculiar, breathy-sounding, very quiet voice. This compounds with the damage to the language and memory sections of my brain to make communication quite difficult for me. I have trouble processing auditory information, so it takes a while for me to fully comprehend what is being said in a conversation. Teamed with my natural tendency towards inhibition, this leads towards a potentially isolated existence. Whilst I do enjoy meeting new people, the dread of the, ‘what’s wrong with you, then?’ questions, or even worse, the grabbing of the throat and trying to mimic my voice makes me want to SCREAM (but, ironically, I can’t physically do that. Bugger). This makes me silently shrink away, back into the close circle of friends that I know and love.
It is taken for granted that the spoken voice is an accurate depiction of who you are as a person. If you are articulate, reasoned and comprehensible, this is taken as evidence that you are well-educated (whatever that means). This presupposition leaves no room for the disfluent speakers who stutter and stumble over their words, or for people like me who’s words push and shove together in a maddening array to get out, leaving me so confused that none end up getting expressed. Is it possible to imagine a world where disfluent speakers are equally validated? Where the non-disabled population appreciates and respects that the answer to those, ‘what happened to you, then?’ questions is something a disabled person might not actually want to go into on first meeting? We can hope, that’s for sure.
By increasing the voices – however they are expressed – of disabled people, we can hope to destabilise hegemonic practices and move together towards a better world. I hope to contribute towards this move with my research. To be continued…
Julia Daniels is a PhD researcher at the University of Sheffield. 15 years ago she was in a car accident which resulted in a head injury and paralysed right arm, but it was years before she got involved with critical disability studies. Now her research interests involve feminist approaches to disability, Voice Relational Methodology and the biopolitics of disability.
Together! 2015 Disability Film Festival 11-13 December, Stratford London
As part of Disability History Month, we are happy to participate in the Together!2015 Disability Film Festival.
The programme is on the Together! 2015 DFF website.
There are many good discussions to be had and great films to discover – we recommend Margarita with a Straw (Saturday night 6.30pm) in particular.! Some of us were there at the premiere last year and met some of the cast and dinner with Malini Chib.
But also Sunday night when we will be discussing Chocolate and other films depicting disability in films.
6.30pm: Chocolate ( Prachya Pinkaew; 89m; 2008). This feature-length drama from Thailand stars Yanin ‘Jeeja’ Vismistananda in her debut film performance as Zen, a young girl with autism who becomes a martial arts expert in her efforts to protect her family. Unsuitable for children and anyone who is sensitive to depictions of violence.
Followed by Let’s Talk about Disability Film with the Sisters of Frida at our café-bar partner Gerry’s, opposite the Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Venue access
The Old Town Hall, 29 The Broadway, Stratford, London E15 4BQ. Nearest tube, overground and DLR stations: Stratford (fully accessible).Bus routes include 25, 69, 86, D8, 104, 108, 158, 238, 241, 257, 262, 276, 308, 425, 473, N8, N86, 010, A9, 741 & UL1.
Parking: Blue Badge holders can pre-book parking; others are advised to use the (old) Stratford shopping centre carpark.
- There is no need to pre-book unless you are a group of 5 or more (email bookings@together2012.org.uk or phone or text
07973 252751). - All screenings are ‘relaxed’.
- The venue is wheelchair-accessible.
- There is an induction loop for hearing aid users.
- Many films are captioned; some are in BSL too.
- Please contact us if you require audio-description
Staysafe East on Providing Support to Underrepresented Groups and Communities Affected by Domestic Violence in London
There was a networking event organised by Safer London on 25th Nov – Providing Support to Underrepresented Groups and Communities Affected by Domestic Violence in London.
Ruth Bashall from Staysafe East gave a presentation on the work that they do. Sisters of Frida has many links with Staysafe Eastand supports the great work that they do.
Here are some of the notes from her presentation
Disabled people in general are 3 times more likely to experience violence than non-disabled people
• Disabled women 2 to 5 times are more likely to experience sexual violence than non-disabled women
• 50% of disabled women have experienced violence in their lives, 33% of non- disabled women
• Disabled children are 3 times as likely to be sexually abused than non-disabled children (most likely for disabled girls)
• Worldwide, 70% of women with learning difficulties report being victims of sexual assault (20% of women without earning difficulties) (UN). Sanction detection rates are very low.
• Disabled men are more likely than non-disabled men to be victims of domestic violence
• Hate crime and harassment, and institutional abuse are a common life
She also pointed out that there are many barriers
- Disbelief – “how can anyone to that to her? she is so vulnerable, Her family want what’s best for her”
- A ‘vulnerable adults’/adults at risk framework that does not protect disabled victims
- Inaccessible information and communication
- Limited access to support services e.g. short term IDVA or counselling support, no 24 hour support in refuges, wheelchair access, BSL access, ‘don’t meet the criteria’
- Housing, social care, access to mental health support etc
- Discrimination in the criminal justice system
To support disabled women survivors of domestic violence, she offers this advice
- Be prepared and willing to support disabled and Deaf women
- Provide disability equality training to staff and volunteers
- Provide accessible support
- Include disabled and deaf women amongst paid staff and volunteers
- Ensure peer support is provided by disabled women to disabled women
- Ensure accessible information is provided
- Actively raise public awareness about violence against disabled women
- Train other professionals about issues around violence against disabled women
- Collaborate with disabled people’s organisations, including disabled women’s networks
Most importantly she uses the social model of disability approach, that is to say -not to focus primarily on impairments but the role of the environment and society in disability. She would also push for inclusive practice so as to develop the peer support needed..
Other organisations represented there which gave presentations were Imkaan, Muslim Womens Network, Stonewall Housing, St Mungos Broadway
Karin Hitselberger writes Why We Need to Talk About Kylie Jenner
Many thanks to Karin Hitselberger for permission to reblog this – first posted on Karin’s own blog Claiming Crip.
I never thought I would say this, but we need to talk about Kylie Jenner.
We need to talk about Kylie Jenner posing on the cover of Interview Magazine in a wheelchair. We need to realize that this is not a simple conversation. I cannot talk about Kylie Jenner posing in a wheelchair in a simple way, because this conversation is anything but simple. This is not just about whether it is okay for able-bodied people to use mobility aids and disability as edgy props to shock people. No, this is about so much more.
Kylie Jenner’s photo and the conversation around it made me uncomfortable as a disabled person, but not just because she was using a wheelchair as a prop. I was uncomfortable when I read Tweets that suggested that the wheelchair was used as a prop to symbolize the “limitations” Kylie Jenner experienced through being famous. That made my skin crawl. A wheelchair being symbolic of limitations, because the reality is that couldn’t be further from the truth. We need to talk about what a wheelchair really is.
For me, a full-time wheelchair user, my wheelchair does not represent limitations and restrictions; it represents freedom. Without my wheelchair I wouldn’t be able to leave my house, or even my bedroom. Without my wheelchair, I never would’ve been able to go to school or study abroad in England. Simply put, without my wheelchair, I would not have a life. My wheelchair is not restricting; it is the thing that allows me to have some determination about the way in which I move through the world. I am limited by inaccessible environments, ableism, discrimination, and inadequate access to things like personal care, accessible housing, employment, and accessible, adequate medical care. I am limited by a world that does not see disabled people as being fully equal to non-disabled people. We need to talk about the limitations and restrictions that exist in the world for disabled people, in this case, wheelchair users in particular, but we also need to realize that it Is society and social structures that cause these limitations, not the wheelchair in and of itself.
We need to talk about Kylie Jenner. We need to talk about privilege. We need to talk about the fact that for Kylie Jenner a wheelchair was nothing more than an edgy, sexy prop. We need to talk about why I cringe every time I see an able-bodied person use a wheelchair in this way. I promise you it’s not because I don’t think wheelchairs, and the people in them,can be beautiful and sexy, I know they can. Trust me when I say that I know that being in a wheelchair does not make you any less beautiful, sexy, or awesome than anybody else, but I also know that we live in a society that often times has a hard time seeing it. We need to talk about the fact that Kylie Jenner, a conventionally beautiful able-bodied woman who fits societal standards of beauty in almost every way is allowed to be sexy and edgy in a wheelchair, when that reality is so often denied to many wheelchair using women. We need to talk about the fact that disabled people, real disabled people, are still largely missing in media representation, especially media representation around beauty and sexuality.
We need to talk about the fact that Kylie Jenner is allowed to look edgy and sexy in a wheelchair but she has never had her ability to consent to sexual activity questioned because she was disabled. She has never had her sexuality interrogated by random strangers and put on display simply because she was sitting in a wheelchair. That wheelchair has never made her an item on a sexual bucket list that people want to try just to see what it would be like. Kylie Jenner has never heard the words, “You’re so pretty… For someone in a wheelchair.” She’s never experienced unwanted fetishization that seems to be so common for disabled women. She’s never had to balance feeling beautiful, and sexual and being sexually attractive in a world that sees you as anything but that.
I’m not saying that Kylie Jenner has never experienced anything difficult in her life, but she is not experience what it is like to live and love as a disabled woman. Kylie Jenner has so many different privileges that I cannot list them all, and because of that she has a responsibility to realize that not all stories belong to her to use as edgy, provocative props. There is nothing wrong with realizing that wheelchairs can be beautiful, but one must also realize that they are not simple chairs.
Experiencing life in a wheelchair comes with a unique set of challenges that cannot be ignored. Being a wheelchair user means that you live in a world that is not set up for you. Being a wheelchair user means you experienced spaces on a daily basis where you are not meant to fit. Being a wheelchair user means learning to be proud of who you are in a world that tells you that you would be better off being almost anybody else. For most people, being a wheelchair user means learning to accept the scars or the spasms and the parts of your body that don’t work the way everyone else thinks they should. For me, being a wheelchair user means learning to see beauty, strength, and yes, even sexiness, where most people see brokenness. It means learning to define myself outside of societal standards of beauty, and being comfortable with who I am regardless of what everyone else thinks.
We need to talk about Kylie Jenner because this is not really about her. It is about how disability can be considered cool when used as a prop, but so often the lives of actually disabled people are seen as a terrible fate. It’s about the fact that so often disabled women are not given the opportunity to be seen as sexy and beautiful outside of the realm of fetishization. It’s about the fact that it is difficult to see a wheelchair as nothing more than a prop when it is so intertwined with the way that many people experience and move through the world.
I am not ashamed to be in a wheelchair. Being a wheelchair user is a complicated and beautiful experience filled with challenges, beauty, and a unique perspective on life. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that wheelchair users can be beautiful, strong, sassy, and sexy just like anybody else, and I don’t need Kylie Jenner, or any other able-bodied person to show me that.
———————————–
Karin Hitselberger is an American currently getting doing her Masters degree in disability studies from the University of Leeds in England. She firmly believe in disability rights, and that disability is not simply something that needs to be cured, but rather a valid life experience.