Research On Queer And Disabled Feminist Activism

During this week, I was responsible for reading over and watching a film that had to deal with Queer and Disabled Feminist Activism. A topic that is normally looked over was a huge part of this week's learning task. Being able to look deeper into this topic informed us of another minority group that needs their rights just as much as a normal feminist group does.

Starting this week I first look at the article, Disabled Women Organize Worldwide, and was able to look at how disabled people are treated. Opening this article Laura Hershey stated her goal was to get disability rights and queer liberation. This is because “women with disabilities are some of the most oppressed members of many societies”. Women with disabilities are known to have less access to education (both lower and higher education), jobs, power (within jobs or our country), community support, and choices about their own life. It is also a known fact that because of these disadvantages disabled people deal with most live in poverty and isolation among their community. These are only some of the disadvantages that both men and women have to deal with growing up as a child to a full adult. Many groups, such as, 1996 International Leadership Forum for Women with Disabilities and 2001 Societies for Disability Studies conference worked to create opportunities for women to meet one another (for support, friends, etc. ) and to love themselves for who they are even though they have different struggles.

I then followed to the Ted Talk, The Future of Disability Rights Activism is Female, I watched and read about a young girl Emily Flores, 15, who lives in Austin, Texas that has muscular dystrophy. She shared her struggle to feel unconfident in herself based on the fact that her clothes did not make her feel confident in her body. Flores states that the fashion industry is missing out on a huge demographic of disabled people solely based on the clothes they do have are “unfashionable”. Her goal is to make a fashion line for people with disabilities to get fashionable clothes that are easy to wear independently.

After the Ted Talk I began to read, Women Disability Activists Front and Center in Resistance. This article helped open the eyes of the reader by stating statistics about the disabled community and the African American community. The article states that 20% of people have a disability (may be physical or mental) and of that 20%, 13% of the population is in the African American community. The author of this article Heather Watkins discusses that they struggle to find good health care (Medicare/Medicaid) that helps with everyday protection. At the end of this article, Watkins states, “Disabled lives are an everyday occurrence. Not recognizing this fact is not only disrespectful but dangerous”. This was a powerful phrase to end this article on because it can be taken in many different views. However, I believe this means that disabled people will never go away, therefore not allowing them to get the help they need can make it dangerous for their mental and physical health.

I then read the article, 10 Badass Disabled Women You Should Know About, about how these women helped shape our United States. Some of these women fought in our army, some were teachers, some were activists, and some have important projects in place to help disabled people everywhere. Finally, the movie Political Animals dealt with the growth of the LGBTQ+ community and the laws that have been put into place. Four openly gay lesbians were elected in the house of representative (Jackie Goldberg, Christine Kehoe, Sheila Kuhl, and Carole Migden) and change began to occur. They have fought for safety among young LGBTQ+ children in school, same-sex marriage, etc. Looking deeper into this movie is very important!

This movie brings up the fact that many representatives did not want these laws (gay rights) to be passed based solely on their personal views. It was even stated that Church and State did not apply to many representatives in this decision. For example, there was a Bible brought into the room and verses were said about how a man and women should only be together. Now looking even closer on the articles, Disabled Women Organize Worldwide, The Future of Disability Rights Activism, and Women Disability Activist Front and Center in Resistance. These articles took a deeper look directly on the disabilities and the disadvantaged people with disabilities face every day. A very important issue that was brought up was Double Discrimination. Double Discrimination is something that women that are disabled face due to the fact that 1. they are women and 2. they are disabled. This is an important topic to bring up because these women are having to face not one but two different types of judgments and they also have to deal with the poor healthcare conditions. As stated before, health care providers don’t give the best benefits to people that need it and it's hard to be diagnosed with a disability due to the fact that healthcare providers don't give the best assistance.

Another topic that these articles brought up was the fact that disabled humans need better educational advantages. Many people with disabilities are illiterate and need the proper services to get a basic to a higher education. Finally, these articles brought up the idea that our society is promoting a social stigma around having a disability, therefore, it is creating longer and harder obstacles for both men and women.

This week's topic is building on all of the topics of the first, second, and third waves. In the first wave, it dealt with the civil right (discrimination based on sex, right to vote, etc), while in this week's topic discusses discrimination and the right to marry. However, this week’s topic of discrimination was based on disability rather than sex and being married (a man and a woman) rather than a man and a man or a woman and a woman. These needs are just as important are the ones that were fought in the first wave because it deals with the same topic, but just from a different viewpoint. In the second wave, it dealt with bodily needs (abortion, birth control), while this week’s topic discussed how people with disabilities have a harder time trying to get what they need to live a day to day life. They have poor health care, or their providers did want to diagnose someone with a disability. This could be considered in the second wave because they are fighting for what they deserve body wise! They need a certain medication, wheelchairs, therapist, etc. In the third wave (we are still in) is fighting to reform our society and to alter our foundations. Since we are still in the third wave, everything that was talked about in this week is in the third wave!

The United States is fighting for disability rights and LGBTQ+ rights. While going through this week's topic I felt a huge connection to the LGBTQ+ side of it, because I am apart of this community. Therefore watching the movie this week made me feel very emotional based on the fact that I watched how the House of Representatives went through on passing these bills. Now having all these rights for the LGBTQ+ community it feels empowering, but we still have a long way to go based on discrimination. While reading more into how our health care providers treat people with disabilities makes me very upset! I want to know why they aren't getting the resources they need, why they are having to beg to get their medications, and why are doctors wanting to diagnose people with a disability (mental or physical). Overall these topics need to be talked about in either a convention based setting, small meeting, public speakings, etc. These problems can be fixed, the question is when, and how will our society go about it?