Intersectionality and invisible cripple culture
In my cerebral palsy support group on Facebook, someone asked if we have ever faced intersectional discrimination from other disabled people.
This was my response.
Yes. "You don't look disabled enough. Are you sure you even have cerebral palsy?"
After I explain that I have two dozen visible and invisible disabilities covering every system, the other disabled people grow silent and still and appear embarrassed. Then one of them says the inevitable "But you just don't look so disabled! How do you deal with it all? I would be curled up in bed sobbing." My response is always Zen Vulcan. It's just how it is. I was born like this so it is everything I know and relate to. I view my disabilities as part of my defined identity. And then there's the argument about how you are not your disabilities blah blah.
I live my life as an autistic pagan pantheistic polytheistic pansexual non-practicing Jewish woman with heritages via Sicily, Greece, Russia, Mongolia, Romania, Moldovia, with multiple disabilities both visible and invisible that allow me to walk freely with and without a cane depending on my bodybrain balance and pain and fatigue levels. I am a writer of suburban paranormal futuristic fantasy stories featuring disabled characters. These are what define most of me. My defined identity tends to rotate so I dont pin anything down.
But to have other disabled folk deliberately deny or ignore or make accusations is a punch to the gut. I spent my childhood passing for able by not showing my palsy because the therapist said it would hurt me. Now as an adult, I don't care and will palsy night and day because it feels comfortable. And I have noticed that the more visual I am, the more polite people are in their disability assumptions.
This was my response.
Yes. "You don't look disabled enough. Are you sure you even have cerebral palsy?"
After I explain that I have two dozen visible and invisible disabilities covering every system, the other disabled people grow silent and still and appear embarrassed. Then one of them says the inevitable "But you just don't look so disabled! How do you deal with it all? I would be curled up in bed sobbing." My response is always Zen Vulcan. It's just how it is. I was born like this so it is everything I know and relate to. I view my disabilities as part of my defined identity. And then there's the argument about how you are not your disabilities blah blah.
I live my life as an autistic pagan pantheistic polytheistic pansexual non-practicing Jewish woman with heritages via Sicily, Greece, Russia, Mongolia, Romania, Moldovia, with multiple disabilities both visible and invisible that allow me to walk freely with and without a cane depending on my bodybrain balance and pain and fatigue levels. I am a writer of suburban paranormal futuristic fantasy stories featuring disabled characters. These are what define most of me. My defined identity tends to rotate so I dont pin anything down.
But to have other disabled folk deliberately deny or ignore or make accusations is a punch to the gut. I spent my childhood passing for able by not showing my palsy because the therapist said it would hurt me. Now as an adult, I don't care and will palsy night and day because it feels comfortable. And I have noticed that the more visual I am, the more polite people are in their disability assumptions.