Gendering Disability

edited by Bonnie G. Smith and Beth Hutchison
contributions by Adrienne Asch, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Bonnie Smith, Sarah Chinn, Daniel Wilson, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Carol Kaufman-Scarborough, Robin Adele Greeley, Kristin Lindgren, Allison Kafer, Corbett O'Toole, Georgina Kleege, Catherine Kudlick, Lisa Schur, Melissa McNeil, Thilo Kroll, Russell Shuttleworth, Sumi Colligan and Ann Fox

Rutgers University Press, 2004
Paper: 978-0-8135-3373-5 | eISBN: 978-0-8135-5656-7 | Cloth: 978-0-8135-3372-8
Library of Congress Classification HV1569.3.W65G46 2004
Dewey Decimal Classification 305.90816

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Disability and gender, terms that have previously seemed so clear-cut, are becoming increasingly complex in light of new politics and scholarship. These words now suggest complicated sets of practices and ways of being.

Contributors to this innovative collection explore the intersection of gender and disability in the arts, consumer culture, healing, the personal and private realms, and the appearance of disability in the public sphere—both in public fantasies and in public activism. Beginning as separate enterprises that followed activist and scholarly paths, gender and disability studies have reached a point where they can move beyond their boundaries for a common landscape to inspire new areas of inquiry. Whether from a perspective in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, or arts, the shared subject matter of gender and disability studies—the body, social and cultural hierarchy, identity, discrimination and inequality, representation, and political activism—insistently calls for deeper conversation. This volume provides fresh findings not only about the discrimination practiced against women and people with disabilities, but also about the productive parallelism between these two categories.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Bonnie G. Smith is Board of Governors Professor of History at Rutgers University and a past director of the University's Institute for Research on Women.

Beth Hutchison is assistant director of the Institute.

REVIEWS

"This compilation is a pioneering study of the 'borderlands' of the body. The diverse chapters speak to activists and scholars, as well as those less familiar with the issues of disability studies and gender studies. It will serve the academic and activist communities well, encouraging new insights into the ways we define ourselves and others."

— Susan Burch, author of Signs of Resistance: American Deaf Cultural History, 1900 to World War

"Gendering Disability is among the most intellectually stimulating books I have read in years. The stunning breadth of the discussion evokes personal experience with disability, elucidates the historical and social meanings of bodily differences, and places disability within other theoretical frameworks."

— Alice Kessler-Harris, author of In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizens

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Acknowledgments
Bonnie G. Smith
Introduction
I. Positions
Critical Race Theory, Feminism, and Disability: Reflections on Social Justice and Personal Identity
Adrienne Asch
Why the Intersexed Shouldn't Be Fixed: Insights from Queer Theory and Disability Studies
Sumi Colligan
Interpreting Women
Brenda Jo Brueggemann
Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory
Rosemarie Garland Thomson
II. Desire and Identity
Inseparable: Gender and Disability in the Amputee-Devotee Community
Alison Kafer
Fighting Polio Like a Man: Intersections of Masculinity, Disability, and Aging
Daniel J. Wilson
"Disability" and "Divorce": A Blind Parisian Cloth Merchant Contemplates His Options in 1756
Catherine J. Kudlick
Bodies in Trouble : Identity, Embodiment and Disability
Kristin Lindgren
Disabled Masculinity: Expanding the Masculine Repertoire
Russell P. Shuttleworth
III. Arts and Embodiment
Helen Keller's Love Life
Georgina Kleege
Feeling Her Way: Audre Lorde and the Power of Touch
Sarah E. Chinn
Disability, Gender and National Identity in the Painting of Frida Kahlo
Robin Adèle Greeley
"But, Mother-I'm-crippled!" Tennessee Williams, Queering Disability, and Dis/Membered Bodies in Performance
Ann M. Fox
IV. Citizens and Consumers
Employment, the "Double Handicap," and political action among women with disabilities
Lisa Schur
Integrating Consumer Disabilities into Models of Information Processing: Color-vision Deficiencies and Their Effects on Women's Marketplace Choices
Carol Kaufman-Scarborough
Women and Emerging Disabilities
Melissa J. McNeil and Thilo Kroll
The Sexist Inheritance of the Disability Movement
Corbett Joan O'Toole
Index

Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Women with disabilities Congresses, Sociology of disability Congresses

See other books on: Asch, Adrienne | Brueggemann, Brenda Jo | Smith, Bonnie G. | Sociology of disability | Women with disabilities
See other titles from Rutgers University Press

Nearby on shelf for Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology / Protection, assistance and relief / Special classes: