Exile and Pride pt 2

Part two of a series of thoughts on Eli Clare's Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation, divided into the sections Clare uses. 

II. A Supercrip Story

Definition of supercrip: the disabled person in inspiration porn who does something “remarkable” for their disability: “They turn individual disabled people, who are simply leading their lives, into symbols of their inspiration.” (Clare, 2)

Clare notes that no one ever wonders what are the conditions are that make the disabled people's achievements seem remarkable, in society.

The mountain is both physical and metaphorical supercrip story, different from physically running a race, but she uses a story of climbing a mountain as the basis for the metaphor.

Clare describes the shaking hands and not being able to do certain things, but “I am not asking for pity. I am telling you about impairment.” The difference between factual impairments and people feeling sorry for us is very large, and also the difference between impairment and disability. (Clare, 6)

I (Kit) can't do [x] thing, and get told that it's a shame. I have dyspraxic hands and only learned to type through years of the internet and wanting to write stories. I never learned from being taught in school. Now I type quickly, and it took years. But it used to be hard enough that I didn't want to. I can't tie shoelaces properly. I can't hold a sewing needle. I have impaired vision perception and crash into things all the time and almost no conceptual awareness of my body in space. I cannot functionally argue or articulate in real time, without taking a lot of time – to process language fast enough to argue effectively. I may talk quickly, but actual articulation takes a while.

Are those impairments? Maybe. Pity? No. Just make sure that if I'm in those situations, it's accessible and bear with me.

Disability: society's reactions to Clare writing slowly, failing timed tests due to teachers not allowing Clare time to finish, and everywhere she goes, they get stared at. “I am not asking for pity. I am

telling you about disability.” (Clare, 6)

(Note: Clare does note that people think she's stupid for her slurred speech. This is an ableist usage).

It is hard to separate disability and impairment – experience of impairment has been heavily shaped by disability – that I have “trouble separating the two” (Clare, 7)

She writes: “to believe that achievement contradicts disability is to pair helplessness with disability, a pairing for which crips pay an awful price... the price is incredibly high” (Clare, 8).

And it is. Society refuses to pay for supports to even help us reach potential (us being generally disabled people as I cannot reclaim a term for physical disability). We are denied supports on the basis that none of us either deserve it, or will do anything with it. Why does being productive matter so much? We need to make sure disabled people can live as independently as possible.

“On the other side of supercripdom lies pity, tragedy, and the nursing home. Disabled people know this, and internalize the crap.” (Clare, 8) Clare had wanted to overcome her CP, and no one told her she had made the right choice by turning around on the physical mountain, and “the mountain just won't let go.” (Clare, 9)