Publisher Description

Disability and gender, terms that have previously seemed so clear-cut, are becoming increasingly complex in light of new politics and scholarship. These words now suggest complicated sets of practices and ways of being.

Contributors to this innovative collection explore the intersection of gender and disability in the arts, consumer culture, healing, the personal and private realms, and the appearance of disability in the public sphere—both in public fantasies and in public activism. Beginning as separate enterprises that followed activist and scholarly paths, gender and disability studies have reached a point where they can move beyond their boundaries for a common landscape to inspire new areas of inquiry. Whether from a perspective in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, or arts, the shared subject matter of gender and disability studies—the body, social and cultural hierarchy, identity, discrimination and inequality, representation, and political activism—insistently calls for deeper conversation. This volume provides fresh findings not only about the discrimination practiced against women and people with disabilities, but also about the productive parallelism between these two categories.

Author Biography

Bonnie G. Smith is Board of Governors Professor of History at Rutgers University and a past director of the University's Institute for Research on Women.

Beth Hutchison is assistant director of the Institute.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction / BONNIE G. SMITH
PART I. Positions Critical Race Theory, Feminism, and Disability: Reflections on Social Justice and Personal Identity / ADRIENNE ASCH
Why the Intersexed Shouldn't Be Fixed: Insights, from Queer Theory and Disability Studies / SUMI COLLIGAN
Interpreting Women / BRENDA JO BRUEGGEMANN
Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory / ROSEMARIE GARLAND-THOMSON
PART II. Desire and Identity Inseparable: Gender and Disability in the Amputee-Devotee Community / ALISON KAFER
Fighting Polio Like a Man: Intersections of Masculinity, Disability, and Aging / DANIEL J. WILSON
"Disability" and "Divorce": A Blind Parisian Cloth Merchant Contemplates His Options in 1756 / CATHERINE J. KUDLICK
Bodies in Trouble: Identity, Embodiment, and Disability / KRISTIN LINDGREN
Disabled Masculinity: Expanding the Masculine Repertoire / RUSSELL P. SHUTTLEWORTH
PART III. Arts and Embodiment Helen Keller's Love Life / GEORGINA KLEEGE
Feeling Her Way: Audre Lorde and the Power of Touch / SARAH E. CHINN
Disability, Gender, and National Identity in the Painting of Frida Kahlo / ROBIN ADLE GREELEY
"But, Mother I'm crippled!": Tennessee Williams, Queering Disability, and Dis/Membered Bodies in Performance / ANN M. Fox
PART IV. Citizens and Consumers Is There Still a "Double Handicap"?: Economic, Social, and Political Disparities Experienced by Women with Disabilities / LISA SCHUR
Integrating Consumer Disabilities into Models of Information Processing: Color-vision Deficiencies and Their Effects on Women's Marketplace Choices / CAROL KAUFMAN-SCARBOROUGH
Women and Emerging Disabilities / MELISSA J. MCNEIL AND THILO KROLL
The Sexist Inheritance of the Disability Movement / CORBETT JOAN O'TOOLE
Notes on Contributors
Index

Review

"This compilation is a pioneering study of the 'borderlands' of the body. The diverse chapters speak to activists and scholars, as well as those less familiar with the issues of disability studies and gender studies. It will serve the academic and activist communities well, encouraging new insights into the ways we define ourselves and others." -- Susan Burch * author of Signs of Resistance: American Deaf Cultural History, 1900 to World War *
"Gendering Disability is among the most intellectually stimulating books I have read in years. The stunning breadth of the discussion evokes personal experience with disability, elucidates the historical and social meanings of bodily differences, and places disability within other theoretical frameworks." -- Alice Kessler-Harris * author of In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizens *

Long Description

Disability and gender, terms that have previously seemed so clear-cut, are becoming increasingly complex in light of new politics and scholarship. These words now suggest complicated sets of practices and ways of being. Contributors to this innovative collection explore the intersection of gender and disability in the arts, consumer culture, healing, the personal and private realms, and the appearance of disability in the public sphere?both in public fantasies and in public activism. Beginning as separate enterprises that followed activist and scholarly paths, gender and disability studies have reached a point where they can move beyond their boundaries for a common landscape to inspire new areas of inquiry. Whether from a perspective in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, or arts, the shared subject matter of gender and disability studies?the body, social and cultural hierarchy, identity, discrimination and inequality, representation, and political activism?insistently calls for deeper conversation. This volume provides fresh findings not only about the discrimination practiced against women and people with disabilities, but also about the productive parallelism between these two categories.

Review Quote

"This compilation is a pioneering study of the 'borderlands' of the body. The diverse chapters speak to activists and scholars, as well as those less familiar with the issues of disability studies and gender studies. It will serve the academic and activist communities well, encouraging new insights into the ways we define ourselves and others."

Description for Reader

Bonnie G. Smith is Board of Governors Professor of History at Rutgers University and a past director of the University's Institute for Research on Women. Beth Hutchison is assistant director of the Institute.

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