Hi all. My name is Kay Olson (known in the past and in the archives here as Blue or Blue Lily) and I write over at The Gimp Parade about disability. I blogged here as a guest last year, but Amp has asked me to join Alas as a regular co-blogger and I’m thrilled to be here.
A little about me: I’m a 39-year-old Minnesotan. I live in the small rural town I was born in, though I went to high school in Naperville, Illinois, and got several college degrees at Arizona State during my 13 years living in Tempe. My degrees are in English, political science and public administration and wherever possible in my studies I explored minority or diversity issues — when disability wasn’t an available option, I studied race or gender or any intersection of these identities.
I was born with a rare progressive neuromuscular condition that falls under the umbrella of muscular dystrophies. I’ve used a wheelchair or scooter for all mobility since 1983 when I was in ninth grade, and for the past two years I’ve had a feeding tube, a trach and used a ventilator full-time for breathing. Technically, I am unemployed, but I spend much of each day with people employed to help me 24/7, training them, managing their care of my needs, helping with scheduling, medical supplies, etc. I am a source of income for two full-time LPNs and up to five part-time LPNs and RNs, not counting the agency I must go through for their state-paid assistance. I live with my parents in a house they were able to build with full accessibility in mind, though I very nearly ended up in a scary nursing home less than two years ago. As you might imagine, if you haven’t already visited my blog, I write a lot about my experiences with the medical community and how they are shaped by politics, bureaucracy and disability stereotypes and prejudice.
My hope here at Alas, other than writing coherently on a regular basis and learning from discussions, will be to bring current disability issues to a wider audience, put them into a feminist context when possible, and promote the writing of other disabled folks online. Mandolin’s lovely October post, “Feminism is not your expectation,” linked my blog as the sole example of disability in feminism but there’s an incredible variety of disabled feminist bloggers out there I’d love to see recognized.
So, although I don’t know if all these bloggers proudly identify as feminists, here is a list of some great disability bloggers that often speak to issues of feminism as well. Although this particular list doesn’t include any non-Western disabled bloggers and very few disabled male bloggers (the latter are either less likely to be making connections between being a woman and disabled, or I am less apt at seeing the connections they make), it is otherwise fairly diverse with regard to age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and disability:
Ballastexistenz
Big Noise
Biodiverse Resistance
Diary of a Goldfish
Disability Culture Watch
FRIDA (Feminist Response in Disability Activism)
Ms. Crip Chick
Moving Right Along
My Private Casbah
Pilgrim Steps
Retired Waif
Screw Bronze!
Wheelchair Dancer
Writhe Safely
Thanks for having me, Amp.
Cross-posted at The Gimp Parade
Yay! Welcome!
I *love* Ballastexistenz’s blog.
One reason I didn’t list her is that I wasn’t sure she identified as a feminist.
Also, welcome back! Yay. :)
Kay:
Glad to see you blogging here at Alas. And thanks for the link–it’s a thrill to be included in this group of feminist disability bloggers! :)
Mandolin: I don’t know if Amanda at Ballastexistenz identifies as feminist either (though I vaguely recall her once writing about her difficulty identifying abstractly with any group) but she does respectfully engage now and then with the feminist blogosphere and connect between experiences of gender and disability. That was pretty much my list criteria.
Hiya, and welcome! I’m looking forward to your contributions to the blog.
I also have a question for you (and anyone else who feels like answering): What’s your opinion on the use of words such as “crazy” or “insane” in contexts like:
It’s really insane to follow .
Is this ablist? I’m asking in all sincerity, because I’m interested in what people think about this topic. If I’m stepping over a line with this question, please let me know.
My example sentence above was eaten by the comment system, because I was unwise enough to try and use angle brackets. Here is that part of my comment again:
What’s your opinion on the use of words such as “crazy” or “insane” in contexts like:
It’s really insane to follow (political idea X).
Welcome!
Congrats Kay, this is great, I look forward to seeing your views here too – can you tell me the obsession with blue?
Also very much looking forward to seeing what you do here. Rock on!
ooh, kay, excited to see you here! i know you are going to put out some great points that gets everyone thinking.
to david— any term that ties disability to a negativity in the same way that “that’s gay” or “that’s ret*rded” can really be offensive and harmful. crazy and insane top my list of words that hurt my ears because it oppresses so many people and puts forth the myth that people with mental health disabilities are dangerous. words frame thoughts and ideas and ideas eventually influence the number of people institutionalized, etc.
David, there’s a discussion here about those terms used to ridicule or describe public figures. I’m less sure how I feel about use toward inanimate objects or situations, partly because I struggle myself to find alternatives. But I do struggle with it. One thing that really irks me is people who listen to a discussion of how hurtful the use of “retard” and “retarded” is to a whole class of people and then responding with “Well, I like the word and can’t be bothered to change.”
I’ve already purged “retarded” from my vocab.
Still working on “lame.”
I’m not sure how I feel about “crazy” and “insane.” I hear the argument against them, and I’m trying to purge — but as part of the demographic with mental illness (which is what, 35% of us?), I’m not actually offended by the terms in their usual uses. I need to find satisfactory replacements and haven’t done so yet.
Elizabeth: can you tell me the obsession with blue?
Not a particularly interesting story: Back in the mid ’90s when I first got online, I couldn’t find an AOL screenname that wasn’t already in use, so I started connecting random words I liked and ended up with Blue Lily. It was also Blue Girl for a while. My eyeball avatar photo (now part of my Blogger profile) was boring, so I made it blue. I’m afraid there’s no interesting obsession. I just couldn’t be bothered with sitting here at the keyboard until I thought of something more personally meaningful that worked.
Thanks for the welcome, everyone!
Hmm… What is the alternative to ‘insane’? It is not ‘stupid’. What word should
I use to suggest that an action goes beyond what can be explained by ignorance
and inability to think logically?
I think that asking people to purge their vocabulary of words like ‘crazy’ and
‘insane’ is … hmm. Something that expresses disapproval but is not offensive
to anyone. Including to the people who expressed this opinion earlier in this
thread. You know what, never mind.
I think that those are waters which I do not want to swim.
I love Blue. I just wanted to say that. :)
Petar, my best substitutes at the moment are things like:
irrational
disconnected from reality
…they lack a bit of kick, I fear. Quick — someone coin an asshat equivalent.
I’ve edited the original post a little per Shiva’s information in comments at TGP. Thanks again Shiva.
I love your blog! Glad to see you here too.
I’m also a Minnesotan (Minneapolis) so it’s great to have a voice from my area of the States.
I’m glad to see that you’re posting here now. I’ve always liked your posts & comments and now you’ve overcome my laziness. Yay!
Petar, what is the relationship in your mind between insanity and ignorance? People don’t lose their knowledge base nor education when they become insane. There are lots of other words to use for behavior that is ignorant and for behavior that seems illogical–illogical and ignorant for two. When you pair ignorance and bad behavior with insanity you slander people with psychiatric disabilities whether you mean to or not. I understand that some people with psychiatric disabilities feel okay with using these terms themselves, but I would ask whether this is similar to other terms that were “reclaimed” and now are being pushed back as contributing to the problem of prejudice in other groups?