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9:03pm April 30, 2013

➸ Janna's weird crap: Just looked at Canadian disability studies programs again.

karalianne:

Why are most of the disability studies programs geared toward non-disabled people and people who work in or want to work in disability services?

Why are the two programs that sound like something I would really love to do (partly because they specifically mention that they were designed to…

A lot of what passes for disability studies is just another word for various courses aimed at the “caring professions”, as in not really about real disabled people at all.

Of course, a lot of what passes for disability studies created by disabled people is also over-academic analysis of disability oppression. Which then gets seen as the end all and be all of fighting that oppression. Which is highly obnoxious. But then the same is true of women’s studies and most other “* studies” departments. It gives people a language for discussing such things, but a language that shuts other people out and isn’t usually the best means of fighting that oppression. But it gets seen as not only a good means of fighting oppression, which it already isn’t, but also sometimes the best or even only means of doing so. And it gets elitist without people involved realizing it – the reaction they often have is “oh wow finally a language for discussing this,” without actually noticing that maybe it’s not the best language for discussing it, maybe it even does some harm, maybe it messes things up for people who won’t or can’t be academic about it. Which is why I’m highly leery of “* studies” in general, whether it’s within actual academia, or the same thing happening outside it. I understand the attraction but I also understand the dangers.

I’m not trying to tell you what to do, though, just stating my own opinion on the matter, because it has come up recently. I recently saw a tumblr post where someone discovered that the language a lot of overly academic (whether in academia of not) people on tumblr use to discuss oppression, is actually what real academics talk like. Which that person seemed to believe made it not only legit but wonderful. And… that seemed to me like a big part of the problem, not the solution. But nobody said that at the time, and I wasn’t feeling well enough to take it on. Not that I’m feeling great at the moment, but better than then.