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Feminist Thoughts on Freedom and Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2012

Nancy J. Hirschmann
Nancy J. Hirschmann
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

My contention in this brief essay is that disability is a feminist issue with particular significance for freedom. There are two “models” for understanding disability. The “medical model of disability” has been the dominant view since the Enlightenment, when advances in science and medicine created the realization that humans can intervene in the body to overcome disease (Stiker 1999). In this model, disability is seen as an individual condition arising from a flawed body, which presents a “problem” that must be “fixed” or “cured.” The problem is intrinsic to the body, which must adapt to the preexisting environment. Disability is viewed as a loss, even a tragedy, that the person wants to escape, the appropriate response to which is pity; the less appropriate but more common response is repulsion.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 216 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2012

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References

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