Identity In Nancy Mair's Essay 'Carnal Acts'

Katherine Haines implements numerous types of rhetorical techniques to convey readers of her point of view on woman’s body standard. Haines introduction definitely catches readers eye, because she started with a dialogue. The dialogue assists readers mentally picture

In this essay, the female body is described as something too absent to be true with beautiful words, intending to evoke sympathy from the readers. “Over time my injured friend’s feet have become blue and smooth from disuse. Their blue is the blue of skim milk, there smoothness that of a baby’s” (Nelson, 41-42), which is the description of her injured friend’s body. This part sounds melodic and beautiful for readers because of the use of words “skim milk, smoothness and baby” and they are all nice words used to depict the beauty of the female’s body. With the use of such words, it can be seen that Nelson basically appreciates the female’s image. In the meanwhile, Nelson also considers the female to be fragile and depressed with the use of words “blue and baby”. Undeniably, on one hand, blue stands for a kind of color; on the other hand, blue can be used to describe depression, suggesting that her injured friend

While most of these experiences are arguably universal to being human, they are repeatedly invoked to support a very limited idea of what it means to be a woman. Just as the experience of motherhood has nothing to do with my understanding of my own womanhood, other women might relate much more to the image of a champion body builder than two giggling girls on a bed (Lil-lets reveals the truths that drive SA women when buying personal products,

Disabled women in society are doubly marginalized; they are neither understood or accepted by mainstream heterosexual society or by feminist theorists. Indeed, according to Susan Wendell, their embodied social reality has been ignored by philosophers and feminist theorists. The main focus of Susan Wendell’s article on “Towards a Feminist Theory of Disability”is to use the power of her own experience of going from able to disabled to argue that the voice of the disabled is missing from the standard theoretical arguments that guide medical intervention, philosophical understanding and feminist perspectives. She offers the reader the novel perspective that disabled people know more about their problems and potential solutions than able

Stella Young’s TedTalk “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much” discusses the various ways in which those living with a disability are often viewed differently for doing the same mundane things those living without a disability do. In her speech, Young claims that people are lied to about disability. She tells a story about how she was teaching and a student raised his hand asking when she was going to begin her inspirational speech since the only interaction with a person with a disability prior to her class revolved around a person giving an inspirational speech. Young then goes on to state that the world is deceived by “Inspiration Porn” and which leads to the idea that those living with a disability are “objects of inspiration”. She jokes that no matter how long she sat at the bottom of the stairs having positive thoughts that would not get her to the top of the stairs. Young concludes her speech by saying she wants to live in a world where disability is considered the norm and not the exception.

Both Garland-Thompson and Leadbeater are writing to describe how to communicate to an audience that is unfamiliar with the subject of differently-abled people. Garland-Thompson talks about how people with disability should be identified (4). For decades, people haven’t acknowledged what to call

Judgements, a photograph captured by Rosea Lake, can be seen as an attempt to address the double standard women face when presenting themselves to the world. The photo depicts the back of a young woman’s leg with her skirt hem slightly lifted. Horizontal markings on the subject’s leg are reminiscent of those on a measuring cup or ruler. The markings on the woman’s leg are meant to be length markings, specifically the length of a woman’s garment hem. The horizontal markings don’t mark specific length measurements, such as centimeters or inches. Rather, the markings depict how a sexist mainstream society would react to seeing such skirt lengths on young women.

Through writing, Keller portrays her physical disabilities as a challenge she must overcome; Keller writes at a high academic level which proves to her audience that her external appearance does not reflect her mental ability.

However, the characters’ views of disability still evince complex, mixed emotions of disability. They do not fit easily within one specific era, instead looking ahead to the future, back at the past, and engaging with the present.

Johnson's book also confronts the untimely predictions of her death that she and other children with neuromuscular diseases hear, especially from the telethons. She writes about "being a little girl who knows she will die" and right from kindergarten pursues an educated, engaged life as she accepts that knowledge. That she lived, as her title reminds us, decades beyond childhood--she died at age fifty in 2008-suggests the value of her engagements. Harriet McBryde Johnson offers an important account of the experience of living with a disability. Her personal stories argue urgently for social justice and remind medical caregivers that her interpretation of the experience of being human matters.

Although fundamentally different in nature, both of the women who composed the aforementioned essays— Nancy Mairs and Judith Ortiz Cofer— relay anecdotes pertaining to their experiences with obstacles. Mairs discusses society, dependence, and independence in her memoir of her experience with Multiple Sclerosis, On Being a Cripple. She writes about claiming the word “cripple” for herself, noting, “Some realities do not obey the dictates of language” (260). Through this, she denounces the term “disabled” by explicating upon her numerous abilities and completely full and adequate experience of life, alluding many times to her need to actually accommodate those around her in their discomfort towards her condition. Similarly, Cofer addresses the common stereotypes applied to

Within society, there are very rare instances where we truly hear or understand the experience of an individual who is disabled from their own point of view. In fact, the majority of the time, we tend to hear about the experiences of able bodied individuals who have family members or friends with a disability and how they go about helping these individuals with the things they need. Moreover, the dominant ideology in society influences people to believe that these individuals are incapable of living a “normal” life and therefore, are incapable of achieving happiness. Both articles by Oliver (1990) and Ladd (2005) place their focus on the medicalization of disabilities and how able-bodied and able-minded individuals hold the power to medicalize

“Lily Brown”, a short story by Diane Goodman, follows the working life of a young woman with an apparent disability. Working as the voice of the short story, this young woman describes her various working positions and the numerous accounts that follow. Each job position she holds further reveals more about her internal well being, struggling with her disability.

For thousands of years, women are expected to conform to the roles each society gives to them. In “Homage to My Hips,” written by Lucille Clifton, the speaker expresses her love for her body, even though her big hips don’t fit other people’s standards. The speaker explains the confidence she feels, which all women can relate to. “Cosmetics Do No Good,” written by Steve Kowit, has a speaker who feels the need to conform to the roles that society gives to women. The speaker attempts to satisfy other people rather than being comfortable in her own skin. Both Clifton and Kowit develop their speaker’s identities by using symbolism, repetition, hyperbole, and simile in order to portray how women have different notions about their own body.

The humble white, polished dress allows her to convey a sense of grace and purity, creating an angelic and idolized presence. Additionally, by positioning her arms behind her back and crossing her legs, Caitlyn further elaborates to the presence she displays by not showing everything which tells the audience that there still are aspects that she is not willing to display and by doing such, she is limiting the observers power by not giving the audience every little detail. An additional detail that contributed to her presence is how Caitlyn’s legs are slanted down, thus making it seem as if the camera is above her and allowing the audience to further observe her body. Connecting back to Berger’s idea of presence, Caitlyn’s presence defines that we can observe and appreciate her, but we know we cannot fully analyze her because of her closed, wary body position. Economic and Political Weekly’s scholarly article, “Gender Rights” could help us focus on the transgender significance of this magazine cover.