Theme
4:54pm June 10, 2014

So the piece of ableism that is most bound up in the middle of all other oppressions.

Is the piece where people are compared to each other, and found wanting, on the basis of abilities.  (That’s not the best way to put it, but I’m not good at putting this into words.)  And that is an idea that is contained in the heart of every kind of oppression.  This does not mean that ableism causes all other oppressions, or that ableism is the one oppression that all other oppressions spring from, or that ableism is the most important oppression.  It just means that unlike oppressions that just happen to entangle with each other, ableism is almost deliberately entangled at the heart of any given oppression, so you can’t deal with any of them without dealing with ableism.  Not just because of ‘intersectionality’ in any usual sense of the word, but because ableism is a part of the very mechanism of oppression itself in a way that, say, sexism isn’t.  Sexism may be bound up with other oppressions, but sexism isn’t a part of how oppression works in general.  Ableism is a part of how oppression works in general.  That’s what makes it different.

(And I’m oppressed in at least six or seven different ways, so it’s not that I’m looking at other oppressions as lesser because I don’t face them or something.  This isn’t about greater or lesser, it’s about how entangled ableism is in the heart of all oppression, everywhere.  It doesn’t cause all elements of oppression.  It doesn’t cause all oppression.  But it’s part of all oppression, and it’s heavily entangled with all other oppressions in ways that most oppressions aren’t.  As in, the shape of the entanglement is completely different.)