When we think of people with disabilities, we tend to conjure up images of people in wheelchairs, blind people, or people with autism. And while such people are certainly victimized by ableism, they are not the only ones. Let me give but a few examples of other ways that ableism plays out.
Children as young as two are now commonly diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, ODD, LD, and other “mental disorders”. From the age of two until they graduate or drop-out of school, they are marked as stupid, as troublemakers, as unworthy of the teacher’s and others’ positive attention. Instead, they will be ignored and expected to drop-out. In my experience, teachers often seem to hope that these students will either get expelled or drop-out. Either way, they don’t want to have to look at them. Children are unique beings. Some require more stimulation, freedom, or one-on-one time. But just because they may require a little more variation than the “ideal” student, does not mean that we must condemn them. For many of these students, the problem was simply that they could not function in the confines of standardized testing or highly-structured/restrictive schedules. Let’s face it, we aren’t meant to spend six hours a day for the beginning 16 years of our life sitting at a desk indoors. Perhaps its time we see these children as worthy of our love and attention and instead of outcasting them and heavily sedating them, we can search for alternative teaching methods that work in a variety of ways to fit the needs of the unique children.
AIDS has long been connected with systems of heterosexism, racism, and sexism. In conjunction with these systems of oppression, people with AIDS find themselves the victims of ableism. They are considered less-than-humyn as the world turns a blind eye to the millions who are dying. They are usually denied treatment. Many who get treatment, receive inneffective medications or find themselves with multiple side affects. People with AIDS are treated as though they carry with them the plague that will wipe out all of humynity. People are afraid to touch them, to befriend them, to play sports with them, all because of misconceptions about the disease.
A teenager comes to realize that they don’t identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth. So they start to change their presentation to match their gender identity. The teenager soon find themselves locked up in a mental institution, labeled as suffering from Gender Identity Disorder or Gender Dysphoria, and being crammed full of so many drugs that they can’t even remember who they are. Society locks them away and attempts to pump them full of enough drugs that they either comply with their gender assignment or they develop a real mental disorder that allows them to be locked up for the rest of their lives. Either way, society doesn’t have to look at a gender-variant child who challenges the binary gender system.
Bipolar Disorder runs in my family. Every one of my immediate family members suffers from it in one degree or another. And yet until VERY recently we have NEVER talked about it. BD is serious. While slipping into deep depression (and i’m not talking about sadness, i’m talking about can’t-get-out-of-bed constant-thoughts-of-suicide type of stuff), it can be difficult to fulfill required day-to-day tasks. If we can’t get to work, we can’t pay bills, buy food, etc. If we can’t get off the couch, we don’t eat. If we take a lot pills or slit our wrists, we may die. The consequences are very serious, so you’d think it would be something that a family would want to talk about in order to support one another. But no. We are taught that depression is our fault. We are made to feel guilty. We learn very early that depression is something you have to hide and just “get over”. To talk about it and admit that you need help is not only a sign of weakness, but it is a bright shining sign that everyone in the room should get the fuck out or soon enough you may start feeling depressed too.
My mom’s best friend just had a double masectomy because of tumors found in both breasts. While recovering from the surgery, my mom pushed her friend around in a wheelchair wherever they went (and they are always attached at the hip). For my mom’s friend (and to an extent, for my mom), this was a huge learning experience. As they went through stores, L, my mom’s friend, noticed that no one would look her in the eye. Every sales rep that came up to them spoke only to my mom. And nobody would move out of the way so that they could get by. L learned that while she was in a wheelchair, she did not exist.
Ableism has a pattern of playing out. We don’t want to recognize that our bodies ARE temporarily abled. Its true that at any time we could lose a limb, find ourselves chronically depressed, blind, living with AIDS, living with Alzheimers, living with cancer, and so on. So we make those with disabilities non-existant. We are made invisible by never speaking about our own disabilities. We are made invisible by never speaking out against ablism. We are made invisible by accepting diagnoses and prescriptions as mandated from a higher power. We are made invisible by sitting by as millions die. We are made invisible because we are not doing enough to end ablism. We are made invisble.
This post was written for Blog Against Disablism Day. I have only begun to touch the tip of the iceberg.
[tags]Blog Against Disablism Day[/tags]
