Disturbing bodies – reimagining comforting narratives of embodiment through feminist disability studies
Abstract
The world responds to us because of our embodied selves, and we respond to the world through our embodiedness. Some bodies are admired, some are rejected. Some are perceived as normal, some as abnormal. Hence, bodily differences are not neutral facts. In society there are normative standards of embodiment that people ought to live up to, and anyone who does not is stared at, ignored, feared, or in various ways marginalized through oppressive practices. These practices are legitimated by dominant systems of representation and by cultural narratives that shape the material world, inform human relations, and shape our sense of who we are. This article discusses and challenges the dominant cultural narrative – the normalcy narrative – that makes the able-bodied, rational, male subject the normative standard in society. From a feminist disability perspective, narratives of embodiment are rethought, reimagined, and re-conceptualized.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2015.1063545 | Journal eISSN: 1745-3011
Language: English
Page range: 222 - 233
Submitted on: Oct 31, 2014
Accepted on: Mar 19, 2015
Published on: Jul 3, 2016
Published by: Stockholm University Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
© 2016 Carolin Ahlvik-Harju, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.