2:05pm August 2, 2014

I’ve written about this before, and people have gotten the wrong idea.

They’ve gotten the idea that I think ableism is the most important form of oppression out there, or that it’s a more powerful form of oppression than other forms of oppression, and somehow nothing I say makes an actual difference as to these assumptions. But I will say I mean nothing of the sort.

What I do mean is that ableism is a part of every kind of oppression, and that this part is like a single thread wound through the core of each type of oppression.

Ableism in other forms of oppression usually takes two forms:

1. Declaring the oppressed group inferior in terms of abilities, and then treating the group (or those members of the group they have decided fit this idea) the same as they would treat disabled people.

2. Medicalizing some normal aspect of the group’s functioning.

So for women, there’s the long-held view that women are childlike, incapable, and physically and emotionally weaker than men. That’s type one. Type two is when women are put into mental institutions for being “maladjusted to the feminine role” – not being feminine enough – and then given “treatment” as if they are “sick”.

For black people, there’s the idea that they are categorically less intelligent than white people. That’s type one. Type two includes the old diagnosis of drapetomania, a mental illness that caused slaves to want to run away from slavery. And it also includes the diagnosis of schizophrenia given to black male leaders of protests and riots against racism, and the brain studies accompanying them.

You’ll find both types of ableism deep within every form of *ism there is in existence. And if you don’t root out the ableism, you won’t be able to get rid of either ableism or the ism you’re trying to get rid of. (Because most of the time when people confront these kinds of ableism, they don’t call them ableism. They just distance their own group from this kind of judgement and leave disabled people wide open to the same kind of judgement. Which does nothing toward dismantling ableism.)

So this is what I was trying to say before. I hope it’s clearer now. It’s not that ableism is more important than other kinds of isms, it’s just that it's intertwined with them in a way that can’t easily be separated out. And it’s not just intertwined as in “members of these groups can also be disabled”, it’s intertwined in the very ways that the oppression takes place. Look deep enough at any ism and you’ll find ableism somewhere in there.

And all I’m telling you to do is look. I’m not telling you to elevate ableism above other isms. I’m not telling you to think it’s more important. I’m not telling you it’s right at the absolute center, just that it’s inextricably intertwined with lots of things that are near the center. I’m not telling you anything of the sort. I’m just telling you to take a look and, when you do find it, try to react in a way that doesn’t just push the ableism off to a place where you don’t have to deal with it anymore, but disabled people do.

Try not to read anything into this post that wasn’t written there. That will save me a lot of headaches. Especially the sort of headaches that start with “I just get this feeling that sie actually meant ableism is more important, and I’m sick of that stuff..” because your feeling doesn’t mean I actually meant that, but people will read it as if I did.

Notes: