last month bfp linked to this lecture by Chimamanda Adichie. if you have time, please watch… so much to process here. questions in my head: how do the stories we tell create the Other? how is challenging single stories related to media justice? storytelling and other cultural activism often get painted as abstract and sidework, but how connected is the work of breaking the single story to fighting for freedom? h/t to raven’s eye for getting me thinking.

(click subtitle button below video for captions. youtube video is available below the cut in case this is not compatible with screenreaders.)

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moya, caitlin, and mia bring a disability justice analysis, a queer critique, and an understanding of the way that the bodies of people of color are criminalized by the media to talk about all the ways that wrong is not caster semenya’s name. please click the link and read the whole thing.

We write to right wrongs done to someone whose only crime was daring to be all that she is…

for caster semenya:

What happens to Caster Semenya is connected to and impacts all women of color. After all, women of color’s genders (and bodies) are always under surveillance. Caster Semenya is not the first and she will not be the last. Santhi Soundarajan, an Indian athlete, also lost her 2006 Asian Games silver medal for failing a gender test and also found out the results of her gender test from newspaper and television reports. The twisting and wringing of individual women of color’s gender (in the U.S. and globally) reinforces the violent racist gender stereotypes about all women of color and leaves us all hung out to dry.

As disability justice activists, we must connect how ableism gets leveraged in service of heteronormativity, in service of white supremacy, in service of misogyny. Ableism gets used all the time to divide us and we must fight it at every turn. How do we begin to understand that it was Caster’s extraordinary able-bodied and gender-non-conforming abilities that threatened ableist notions of gendered bodies and propelled the exposure of her gender through the use of a medical “gender test” to expose her sex. This is not just about defining what a “woman” is, it is also about defining what a “normal body” is and what “able-bodied” is and what it is not; it is about defining what “intersex” is and what it’s not.

We must understand how the medical industrial complex and science are being used to profit off of our bodies and medicalize our genders, our abilities, and render, in this case, an 18 year old intersex South African black woman a spectacle for the world to stare at, gawk at, and examine—at her expense. We must see how this spectacle is connected to the spectacle made of disabled bodies everyday behind closed doors, in sterile white rooms, under florescent lights, in homes, at family dinners, birthday parties, a trip to the mall, to the park, down the street.

As reproductive justice activists, we must challenge the notion that women are only as valuable as our wombs and the children we are expected to produce. We must challenge definitions of “woman” and “reproduction” that exclude intersex people and work to create a movement and framework that integrates an intersex analysis in to our work.

Where are the radical women of color feminists, building homes with fierce intersex poets, forging alliances with trans and gender queer immigrant gardeners, eating dinner with queer disabled dancers, making music with southern artists? Where are our voices, bringing an intersectional, multi-issue, multi-lived politic and analysis to all of this—amidst the white media frenzy, gender binary enforcers, medical experts, athletic officials and government heads? We need more than just a gender analysis, or a nationalist racial analysis. These are opportunities to speak across the lines and tiny definitions of ourselves that keep us self-righteous, isolated and apart.

Our voices are crucial because people who reflect Caster Semenya and reflect us are listening and learning what it means to have extraordinary bodies….

-for caster semenya

this is why i believe in disability justice, why i am invested in us being our whole selves….

“i believe we need to be on a need-to-know basis with our bodies and lives. not rely on state mandates, not rely on the medical industrial complex to tell us what “wellness” look like. their system of wellness was never based on what we might desire for our bodies or our right to be well, it was based on our bodies being expendable and less than human. it was based on queer, women of color bodies, trans bodies, people with disabilities— based on that we were already seen as perverse and expendable. this public health system has built wellness on our back, on testing on our bodies. we need to exist in our whole spiritual emotional physical bodies. loving our many selves, redefining our power, redefining our sovereignty, our autonomy, our self-determination. to know and name our wellness, our desire, our safety, our collective power— that is what i believe we are here to do.” -cara page

A few hours after the Autistic Self Advocacy Network
wrote to the Autism Society of America York Chapter (ASA York) about a billboard that dangerously compared autism to a national kidnapping emergency and uses puzzle piece symbolism [not being a whole person], they received a response saying that the billboard would be taken down.

Excerpt of the letter ASAN sent to ASA-York:

As we, Autistic adults and youth ourselves, attempt to assert our voices in the national conversation about us, we find ourselves characterized by those who often speak on our behalf as burdens on society, as not fully present within our own bodies and as individuals devoid of the full measure of personhood and humanity. Such mischaracterization threatens our efforts to be included in our homes, our schools, our communities and our collective society. By making the autism message one of fear, stigma and hostage-taking rather than one of civil rights, inclusion and support for all, our desire to be recognized as full and equal citizens in our communities is hurt.

Picture of the billboard:

Reads: If 1 in 150 American were kidnapped, we'd have a national emergency. We do. Autism.

Last year it took 21 disability organizations campaigning together via blogs, mainstream media, and thousands of phone calls and letters to have similar billboards taken down. In a time where disabled people are the last to be seen as experts of their own lives and where the public understanding of autism is strongly shaped by those with eugenic “cure”- oriented perspective (e.g. Autism Speaks, Jenny McCarthy), let’s celebrate self-determination being recognized and autistic self advocates being heard!

The response to ASAN from ASA-York President Amy Wallace:

Dear Friends in the Autism Community,
Regretfully it has been brought to the attention of the Autism Society of America – York Chapter – that our recent billboard campaign has caused undesirable confusion within the community. The intention of the billboard campaign was aimed at generating awareness to the general public and was in no way created to cause a malicious stir within the community. As a parent of a severely affected nine year old with Autism I can truly understand your passion regarding advocacy and respect for our children.

We thank you for your thoughts and concerns. I apologize for the misunderstanding and want you to know we will promptly remove the billboard posting.

Respectfully yours,

Amy Wallace

To email Amy and thank the ASA York chapter for taking the billboard down, email her at amywallace3@gmail.com

Big ups to ASAN and autistic independent media makers (Joe, Abfh, Nicocoer) who made this happen!