: Disabled women's issues, experiences, and embodiments have been misunderstood, if not largely ignored, by feminist as well as mainstream disability theorists. The reason for this, I argue, is embedded in the use of materialist and constructivist approaches to bodies that do not recognize the interaction between "sex" and "gender" and "impairment" and "disability" as material-semiotic. Until an interactionist paradigm is taken up, we will not be able to uncover fully the intersection between sexist and ableist biases (among others) that (...) form disabled women's oppressions. Relying on the understanding that sexuality is one such material-semiotic phenomenon, I examine the operation of interwoven biases in two disabled women's narratives. (shrink)

Disabled women's issues, experiences, and embodiments have been misunderstood, if not largely ignored, by feminist as well as mainstream disability theorists. The reason for this, I argue, is embedded in the use of materialist and constructivist approaches to bodies that do not recognize the interaction between “sex” and “gender” and “impairment” and “disability” as material-semiotic. Until an interactionist paradigm is taken up, we will not be able to uncover fully the intersection between sexist and ableist biases that form disabled women's (...) oppressions. Relying on the understanding that sexuality is one such material-semiotic phenomenon, I examine the operation of interwoven biases in two disabled women's narratives. (shrink)

In this paper I take up a critical position in regard to the theme of debility around which this collection is framed. I argue that theorisations of ‘debility’ do little to progress theory and policy in regard to disability and share many of the problems inherent to the social model. I also suggest that the theorisation of debility is rooted in and reinforces ablebodied privilege. I begin with a critical analysis of the social model of disability and explore the dualisms (...) by which it either negates the body altogether or can only conceive the disabled body in negative terms. I then go on to explore how Puar's work on debility continues this negation of the disabled body. From this position I use the work of Inahara to excavate the foundations of ablebodied privilege. In Inahara's work gender is the analytic starting point, but for me white privilege is a much more effective mechanism through which to understand the impact and reproduction of ablebodied privilege— what McRuer refers to as ‘compulsory ablebodiedness'—which I argue underpins Puar's work. I conclude with some reflections upon how a critical analysis of ablebodied privilege might function and I reiterate its importance for a critical theory that goes beyond the mere repetition of binary structures of ablebodiedness and disability. (shrink)

The last decade has seen the emergence of a feminist awareness of old age and, in particular, a growing awareness of what has come to be seen as “the problem of old women.” Old women, it has been consistently demonstrated, are disadvantaged in a variety of ways in relation to old men. They are poorer, older, and sicker; they have less adequate housing and less access to private transport; they are more likely to experience widowhood, severe disability, and institutionalization. Taking (...) “the problem of old women” as its starting point, this article argues for a less phallocentric analysis of women in old age, which is less reliant on men as a relational category to define the conditions, experiences, and resources of older women. (shrink)

En las últimas décadas, se viene abordando, en el marco de los Estudios de Género, la invisibilidad de las mujeres como grupo y de forma vinculada, el posterior reconocimiento de la diferencia femenina. Se ha estudiado el proceso de discapacitación que ha afectado a las mujeres de forma colectiva. A este respecto, resulta de interés la observación de las mencionadas circunstancias en el colectivo de las mujeres con discapacidad, grupo que ha sido sujeto central de análisis en los Estudios de (...) Género. Con este objeto, se realiza un recorrido por las diferentes aportaciones al tema desde las teorías de género y a partir del análisis que combina género y discapacidad. Se menciona además el sentido y la importancia de las publicaciones que al respecto se han editado; se aproxima su línea de trabajo con la muestra de algunos ejemplos. La presente contribución pretende acercar la reflexión alrededor de la construcción de la diferencia en las mujeres con discapacidad, como grupo "minorizado" en la sociedad. (shrink)