Problematising rhetorical representations of individuals with disability – disabled or living with disability?

Abstract

Antagonism to difference is a ubiquitous human phenomenon. The resulting denigration renders different as abnormal. Individuals perceived to belong to a different norm are usually associated with ‘otherness’. Most women living with disability are rendered both invisible in their societies and represented as the ‘other’ by both the patriarchal system and the majority of those who are able-bodied. This reinforces a simplified idea of ‘disability’ as only physically determined, leading to the rhetoric of ‘able’ and ‘disabled’ bodies. This open forum critiques the South African media – including some activists’ language – and problematises rhetorical representations of individuals living with disability as being ‘disabled’ in that it constructs and totalises the whole person as disabled, ineffective and incapable and reduces her/his agency by depicting the whole person as non-functional. Gender and disability intersect in that they both speak to bodily, social and cultural constructions, as well as hierarchy, identity, discrimination and inequalities.