Week Five of Managing Spoons in 2020 features Derek Newman-Stille. I found myself nodding throughout this interview! Continue reading
Tag Archives: ableism
Internalised Ableism, Week 8: Ableist in My Mind
So, today, I decided enough was enough—I was doing the dishes. We have a dishwasher, so you would think it would be a breeze. Unfortunately, my particular injury makes bending painful, especially that halfway bend to load something above floor level. Then, in my infinite wisdom, I decided not to stop part-way through for a … Continue reading
Internalized Ableism, Week 3: All Better Now
I feel better these days. I’ve done and am doing a lot of things for myself: I’ve moved to a position with less stress and fewer hours at work; I’m seeing a lot of doctors; I’m finally on the right meds after years of trial and error; and, I’m eating better. My good mental health … Continue reading
Internalized Ableism, Week 2: DIY
Editor’s note: This is Pat Flewwelling’s first post with the Spoonie Authors Network. Welcome, Pat! Grampa used to park his car umpteen kilometers away from work and then bike the rest of the way. By then, his hip was about 75% disintegrated, and he used a cane. In his off-hours, he worked for Gideons and … Continue reading
Internalized Ableism, Week 1: I’m Too Young for a Mobility Device
Welcome to our first series of 2020: Internalized Ableism. In the upcoming weeks, a SpAN contributor will share about how ingesting ableist narratives has affected their life. So, a general content note about this series is that it includes themes of internalized and externalized ableism. For decades, I’ve managed some type of chronic pain. I … Continue reading
Internalized Ableism: A New SpAN Series
I am delighted to announce that we’ll have a new series starting on February 9, 2020 called internalized abelism. Several of our past contributors (and some new ones) will share with us how they’ve wrestled with their own ableism—which they might have also used against themselves—and how these attitudes have affected their lives. It’s really … Continue reading
We Are Not Broken
This week I’m getting my geek on a bit. I am now in the post-Game-of-Thrones era, and while I pretty much despised most of the last three episodes, there’s one thing in particular that rubbed me the wrong way. WARNING: This article is spoilery, so maybe stop reading now if you want to watch Season … Continue reading
“Are you the Gatekeeper?”
Rick Moranis’s character in the 1984 Ghostbusters movie asks everyone, “Are you the Gatekeeper?” When I first watched it in the theatre, for a measly $2.50 (and even that was free because my friend and I found a $5 bill outside the Sheraton Centre theatre), it was a fun plot piece. Now, 35 years later, … Continue reading
Disability Tropes 101: Chronic Complainers and Hypochondriacs
“With Edna, illness is a hobby.” Murder She Wrote, “Harbinger of Death” This is a trope that is likely familiar to most readers and TV viewers. It is one where anyone’s symptoms of illness or disability are rejected as hypochondriasis or a general attitude of “chronic complaining.” This trope constructs the disabled person as someone … Continue reading