FEM 2104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Heterosexuality, Heterosexism, Mobility Aid

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: FEM 2104
• Professor: Emilie Dionne

Document Summary

Reflections on heterosexuality and able-bodiedness alison kafer. Often we encompass all sorts of impairments from cognitive, psychiatric, sensory, and physical: the issue of identity and its attendant problems because the kinds of questions it sparks . Who is excluded from such an identification: i found myself repeating mcruer"s substitution of such words as disabled, able- bodiedness, and able-bodied for rich"s use of lesbian, heterosexuality, and. Heterosexual. : compulsory able-bodiedness works in two ways: first, through the use of physical force, and second, through what rich calls control of consciousness. Even questioning them would they rather die. According to rich, under the logic of compulsory heterosexuality, lesbian- ism is not recognized as a valid choice for women; rather, it is seen as a sign of arrested development or deviance. The larger culture"s heterosexism and homophobia are thus reproduced within the disability community: disability appears only as the negative other.