“About Being Considered ‘Retarded.’” by Amanda Baggs gives a great perspective on how those who have a disability are considered to be inferior or less human due to them being different from the societal standard of “normal”. To Baggs the way she looks and processes information is normal however compared to standards that society has placed she is different. To me Baggs is conveying the message that we label individuals who are different in this case those who have a cognitive disability and segregate them being considered normal due to the label of retarded.…
In the passage, Mairs brings forth a tone of seriousness, while also explaining her reasoning as to why she calls herself a "cripple." She has accepted of her state of well-being. "As a cripple, I swagger," she says knowing that she is in a condition where she does not have control of some of her limbs. She does not let her disability her in a negative way. Mairs does not prefer the title, "disabled"…
Imagine having a disease that cannot be cured called multiple sclerosis. People are staring at you calling you handicapped and disabled. Just take a second and imagine you losing the full use of your limbs. Nancy Mairs has this heartbreaking condition. But, Mairs does not refer to herself as handicapped or disabled. In this passage, Mairs presents herself as "crippled."…
Instead of using the euphemistic word “disabled” or “handicapped,” she strictly chose the word “crippled.” She expressed that using other words, doesn’t clearly express her condition. She explains, “These words seem to be moving away from my condition, to be widening the gap between word and reality.” She doesn’t want to make the reader feel sympathy, instead she hopes they will view her as a strong woman. She feels as if “crippled” is the perfect word to describe how she feels. Mairs replaces the euphemistic words and phrases with much more brutal sounding phrases to show that she doesn’t feel pity for…
While other authors gave positive point of views for the ADA, Ruth Colker in her book, "The Disability Pendulum,”shows her disappointment for the disability rights community from the ADA implementation in first year. She traces the effectiveness of the ADA, and show how and why this key piece of civil rights legislation has fallen far short of the "high hopes and aspirations" of the disabled community and their advocates. She uses the metaphor of a swinging pendulum to symbolize shifting attitudes toward disability rights and the disabled. The book has chapters with two captures "two conflicting stories" regarding the law's progress through Congress: the first describes "unprecedented bipartisan support" for the rights of individuals with disabilities;…
One of Nancy Mairs’ aims is making a change regarding the association between media and people with disabilities. Although she, herself is a great consumer, she’s bothered that not many advertisements would include someone like her to represent their products. Even moving her to ask a local advertiser as to why. His reply was, that he didn’t want to give people the idea that the product were just for the handicapped. The author feels the true reason behind it is that people cannot yet accept disabilities as something ordinary, resulting in a subject to be effaced completely- isolated.…
Topic: Mia Mingus in her article “Changing the Framework: Disability Justice, How our communities can move beyond access to wholeness” advocates how the issue with society in regards to the treatment of the disabled community is not just about access, but also about understandment. She calls for her audience to question the stigma of disability and move to an integrated society. A society united with interdependence within various communities to be part of a collective disability justice movement. Argument: Mingus’ argument in her article is that the disabled community is often very misunderstood by the abled body community who do not face the same oppression and challenges.…
In Meghan Daum’s article “Using privilege as a weapon”, she tactically begins with insults thrown at her before. She says these insults in a brief and concise way. Furthermore, she makes being “an ugly hobbit” or “whore” not have much importance. Daum’s sincere response lets her audience know that she experiences“not-so-nice” insults in the past. Even so, insults do not define her nor matter to her. Daum’s main point for resurrecting past insults are not for comedic value, but for a bigger issue. Her success is attributed to “privilege” or being in “ a wealthy family”, but she comes from a “hardscrabble” background.…
Nancy Mairs's essay “Disability from Carnival Acts describes how the speaker, Nancy Mairs, lives every day with a disability. She reveals her view on the handicap and disabled. Nancy Mairs has multiple sclerosis, weakening of the bones, and she feels as if she is being judged and is inferior to everyone else. The audience is definitely aware of how she feels. She is very blunt about her feelings and everything else. She wants to make a stand for all the disabled people. The essay displays desperation, as well as hope. She is desperate to be equal and to no be judged; She has hope that one day all handicap will be equal. Nancy Mairs is a true symbol of how handicap people can persevere, stand through anything, and triumph over adversity. She lives a competent life filled with judgmental people looking at her poorly, simply because of her disability.…
Nancy Mairs starts her essay by describing herself as a crippled woman with multiple sclerosis. She talks about her condition and how she’s never seen a crippled woman like her in the media. Then she mentions some television shows about disabled people that focus almost entirely on disabilities and neglect the person’s character. Mairs states that although disability changes a lot in one’s life, it doesn’t kill him/her. She for example, can do what every other woman her age can do. And although she’s a great consumer, advertisers never choose someone like her to represent their products publicly; and the reason for that, according to Mairs, is that people cannot yet accept the fact that disability is something ordinary. The consequences of this situation are hash on disable people, for they might feel like they don’t exist. Finally, Nancy Mairs says that anyone might become disabled. But if one sees disability as a normal characteristic then it…
In the the year 2081, and all people have been made equal through the use of physical and mental handicaps. The United States Constitution mandates this equality in the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments, and the law is enforced by Diana , the Handicapper General.George Bergeron and Hazel Bergeron are watching ballerinas on television, so that their dancing is not too beautiful. Since George is naturally quite intelligent, he must wear a mental handicap radio in his ear it torments him with a variety of sharp noises every twenty seconds or so, so that he is never able to think too hard.When it occurs to him that the ballerinas should not be handicapped, his idea is immediately interrupted by the mental handicap radio in his ear. Two of the…
Throughout the essay, “Becoming Disabled” by Rosemarie Garland-Thomas, her main claim that she argues is that she wants the disabled community to be politicized in the eyes of society. First, Garland-Thomas talks about politicizing disabilities into a movement. She compares and contrasts movements for race and sexual orientations to the movements about disability (2). Disability movements have not gained as much attention as race or sexual orientation movements because so many Americans do not realize how prominent disability separation is in America. She wants people to start recognizing that disability is just as important as race and other movements. Next, Garland-Thomas speaks about different types of disabilities and how they aren’t always…
Berry brings up the example of two advertisements that talk about two different products, yet are actually discussing the same concept. That concept being, making ones life easier so that you can go on to do the things you like to do; and leave the thing you “hate” to someone else. The first advertisement is for a tractor that reads: “ Introducing a sound-guard body… A down to earth space capsule.” It talks about keeping the farmer free of dust, noise, heat, cold, storms, fumes, and keeps the farmer safe. The second advertisement is for a condominium housing development where you don’t do any of the upkeep of the property that you own. The work that you “hate” to do, the mowing, shoveling, painting,…
Cohen argues that marketing business has changed and so have the methods of hiring potential and experienced people. Cohen states that setting and image or hiring people to set the image is smart and it makes it easier for them to lure customers in. He says that having a walking billboard is better than having an employee that has experience in retailing and knows what goes on. The way that Cohen uses jargon is to cover up the way that he believes discrimination is right as long as you get money and the people “fit the image”. Not having skills, but being attractive is never good for anything or anyone.…
Society ultimately has made progress with its views, though the views are still prurient majority of the time. Photographs of the disabled can be repellent yet amazing at the same time, and Thompson explores the logistics of why and how this…