It's About More Than Just Women

I have never read a more disturbing and upsetting article then Thomson’s “Theorizing Disability.” Period. End of story. For one thing, she herself is a woman, so why would someone want to bash themselves let alone their entire gender who has been striving for equality for years?

She starts off her insulting article with Aristotle, who has been admired by me until this point in time. “[A]nyone who does not take after his parents is really in a way a monstrosity, since in these cases Nature has in a way strayed form the generic type. The first beginning of this deviation is when a female is formed instead of a male” (19). Now, I might be reading into this a little more than I should be, but I’m getting the impression that women are a “monstrosity” or a “mutilated male.” Well, if that is certain, then Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul and women alike, are turning over in their graves. For decades, women have been saying that we need to join together as one gender and fight towards a common goal of equality, but it seems to me that we have a traitor on our hands, for lack of a better term.

Oh, but wait, it gets better…

By using the example of a women who is wheelchair bound, she [Thomson] goes on to say that “disabled women often encounter what Harlan Hahn as called ‘asexual objectification,’ the assumption that sexuality is inappropriate in disabled people.” Meaning that this woman shouldn’t really be considered a woman, because she is disabled. Is Thomson nuts? Not only is this discriminatory towards women, but all disabled individuals: men, women, white, African American, wealthy, homeless. It’s absurd! To say that one person shouldn’t be identified as a certain sex just because they are disabled, in my eyes, shows the ignorance of the author. She wouldn’t be purposing these theories if she were in the shoes of someone less fortunate.

This goes beyond the fight for women’s equality. This is for the fight for everybody’s equality. Why should certain people have privileges that others don’t receive? Why should Christmas candy be out in stores months before the actual holiday when Hanukkah candy or Eid candy isn’t put on the shelves… ever? Why can’t mentally disabled children sit in the same classroom as other students? Why can't low class families receive adequate health care? Why is it that it’s natural for humans to put themselves above others, when in reality, we’re all the same? It doesn’t make sense.

And it’s people like Thomson that make this fight for equality so damn hard.