On Being A Cripple Summary

In Nancy Mairs’ article for The New York Times, “Disability”, published in 1987, she expresses her distaste with the media's representation of handicapped people. Mairs, who struggled with multiple sclerosis herself, clearly and sharply conveys this disgust by stating, “I’m not, for instance, Ms. MS, a walking, talking embodiment of a chronic incurable degenerative disease.” (Mairs 13), and that she is actually, “the advertisers’ dream: Ms. Great American Consumer. And yet the advertisers, who determine nowadays who will get represented publicly and who will not, deny the existence of me and my kind absolutely”(Mairs 14). Mairs is greatly upset that disabled people are defined by their disabilities and, therefore, are underrepresented in public media. This might lead to one asking themselves, but why are they? And the answer, according to Mairs, is quite simple, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life”(Mairs 14). Mairs concludes by pointing out how this effacement could have dangerous consequences for both disabled people and, as she called everyone else, TAPs (Temporarily Abled Persons) alike. Treating disabilities as an abnormal characteristic (as opposed to viewing them “as a normal characteristic, one that complicates but does not ruin human existence” (Mairs 15)) can cause one of these repercussions, as it makes the

She talks about the progression of MS throughout her life, and gives numerous examples of other people she knows who are also afflicted, and different ways she reacts to them. She ranges from the aforementioned two older women to another friend, Michael (243), providing her readers with a variety of people to identify with. Once she has them seeing themselves in the piece, they are also able to see themselves in her. By seeing the good and bad aspects of Mairs’

In the book, The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney’s thesis is that there is more to people than their disabilities, it is not restricting nor is it shameful but infact it is beautiful in its own way. With a plan to travel the United States, Mooney decides to travel in a Short bus with intentions of collecting experiences from people who have overcome--or not overcome--being labeled disabled or abnormal. In this Mooney reinvents this concept that normal people suck; that a simple small message of “you’re not normal” could have a destructive and deteriorating effect. With an idea of what disabilities are, Mooney’s trip gives light to disabilities even he was not prepared to face, that he feared.

In “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs, an American poet and essayist, describes her personal battle with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system with no known cure. She begins with a personal account of falling into a toilet because she loses control over several motions. Mairs prefers to be called a cripple rather than a disabled or handicapped person, although she acknowledges that this is not the same as others’ preference. She explains her journey from being a young, active child, to losing control of her body and developing a blurred spot in one eye in her late twenties. As her body continues to break down, Mairs tries to stay involved by participating in activities like bridge and

An accepting statement she uses is in the third paragraph when she makes a point, but doesn’t attempt to control the audience. She says “But call me “disabled” or ‘handicapped” if you like.” Here she gives a tone of tolerance by accepting people’s fear of the word “cripple,” and how they want to replace it with a more widely used term. Mairs does this to show that, even if she’d like it to happen, she knows the world won’t change the way they see things, and she accepts this. Still, Nancy Mairs effectively uses rhetorical devices to execute her purpose of making a misinterpreted word become an accepted word for her

Author of disability Nancy Mairs who’s a feminist and a cripple, has accomplished a lot in writing and teaching. Her remarkable personality shows in many of her essays especially in Disability which was first published in 1987 in the New York Times. In this essay, Nancy Mairs shows how disabled people are constantly excluded, especially from the media. By giving out facts and including her personal experiences, Mairs aims for making some changes regarding the relationship between the media and people with disabilities. Mairs thesis is shown implicitly in the first

The article “introducing disability Studies” by Ronald J. Berger was an eye opener in uncovering the past history of negative stigma associated with having a disability. Through history people have felt the need to stare at people with disabilities or to turn away in fear of maybe contracting the “disease”. This negative attitude was positively reinforced by ordinances such as the Chicago “ugly law” in which a person with physical deformities would have to pay a fine for simply being too “disgusting” looking to other citizens. This law was in place from 1880 to 1973, which is pretty recent in history. However there are positive glimpse in history when it came to uncovering and defining disabilities. Men like Leo Kanner and Asperger have dedicated

Additionally, Mairs continues to discuss the role of society in her struggle with multiple sclerosis. Though she has a relatively positive perspective of herself, Mairs admits that her self- perception often wavers not only because of the realities of MS, but also from societal pressures. “Part of the pressure arises from social expectations. In our society, anyone who deviates from the norm had better find some way to compensate.” Because of this, Mairs intends to be a “good cripple” and live life to the best of her ability. She recalls her adolescent conflict with self-alienation that was due to the influence of society’s version of an ideal woman, and how those feelings resurged in response to the devastation diagnosis of MS. “Like many women I know, I have always had an uneasy relationship with my body...the self-loathing I feel is neither physically nor intellectually substantial. What I hate is not me but a

In her essay, Mairs describes how society uses different terms to describe people’s appearance such as disabled, handicapped, and cripple. She claims that society’s poor use of language and meaning has resulted in the way society thinks on the terms disabled, handicapped, and cripple. An example of this is when Mairs uses the word cripple as she claims that people wince at the word when they hear it. She says the word makes her appear as a tough customer as she is want to been seen as someone who can face the harsh reality of her condition. Mairs argues “Society is no readier to accept crippledness than to accept death, war, sex, sweat, or wrinkles”(Mairs p.241) which states that society isn’t willing to acknowledge people with disabilities as they are put at a disadvantage. She also states that society doesn’t want to acknowledge the fact that a disability could potentially be worse than death as she uses her own experience to show her audience that the evil of humanity is not only death. She claims that society doesn’t take the issues of disabilities seriously as they treat those with disabilities differently rather than acknowledging them for who they are.

C). Nancy Mairs keeps readers engaged by telling about everything that happened in her life. In addition, she engaged me by learning new information about her MS conditions. She describes the changes of her life from a normal life style since she was young until she become a cripple. The writer used reality examples and details that happened in every day’s life. For example, she has many sharp comments about

Mairs starts the essay by telling us about the incident where she became unbalanced and fell in the restroom, which led to her writing the essay. She admits to us how she fully accepts her disease and is not ashamed of it. She says, “ I am a cripple. I choose this word to name me.” From this, we can see that she wants people to identify

Even as Mairs still suffers, she has learned to handle herself in the face of adversity. She is forced to handle the fact that there is little that she can do to combat her condition. In contrast to her feelings at the beginning of her journey when she focused on the amount that her disease was ruining her life, she became able to not let that define her. She is aware of

Author of disability Nancy Mairs who’s a feminist and a cripple, has accomplished a lot in writing and teaching. Her remarkable personality shows in many of her essays especially in Disability which was first published in 1987 in the New York Times. In this essay, Nancy Mairs shows how disabled people are constantly excluded, especially from the media. By giving out facts and including her personal experiences, Mairs aims for making some changes regarding the relationship between the media and people with disabilities. Mairs thesis is shown implicitly in the first and last

In lines 8-9 she explains on how people show more discomfort and discontent to the word “cripple” more than other words such as “handicapped” or “disabled”. Mairs starts to discuss about how she might like the feeling people get when they hear the word ”cripple”. She states in lines 10-12 that “I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom

In the two essays, “ On Being A Cripple” by Nancy Mair and “ On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner they both share their experiences and their thoughts about the life they have. “ Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner was about a guy who described his experience as a scavenger, the way he benefits from dumpster diving. Eighner describes the ways of identifying between good & rotten food. On the other hand “ On Being A Cripple” Nancy Mairs her life struggle with multiple sclerosis (MS). She begins by talking about her life and why she refers to herself as "crippled." Pretty much both characters undergo obstacles in their lives but they find a positive attitude and are confident day through day, It may be that they weren't expecting this drastic change but they make the most out of it. Furthermore the characters feel content with what they have achieved even though one is crippled & the other one does dumpster diving for a living,