Disability & my Life

While reading Thomson and thinking about the life writing project, I started thinking about the disabilities I have encountered in my own life. I do not have a physical disability but, as Thomson says, “Many parallels exist between the social meanings attributed to female bodies and those assigned to disabled bodies.” (Thomson 19).  Seeing as though I am female, (which comes with its own set of disabilities, as Thomson says) I have still experienced disability. In this blog, I want to explore my own intersection of gender and education and try to understand how this has lead to my own disabilities.

            I grew up in a typical, conservative, Ohio small town and went to school with many camouflage wearing, tobacco chewing, God fearing students. Needless to say, I did not really fit in with the majority crowd at my high school.  And I was not the only one who did not fit in. One homosexual classmate (who was a senior when I was a freshman) killed himself during his senior year. Another homosexual student a grade below me (who was a foster child and from a bad family) was bullied so badly because of his sexuality that he had to change schools when we were in 8^th grade.

            Thomson says, “Because disability is defined not as a set of observable, predictable traits—like radicalized or gendered features—but rather as any departure from an unstated physical and functional norm, disability highlights individual differences.” (24). If Thomson would have seen my life in my high school, she would have argued that I was disabled because of my departure from the functional norm. For instance, I caught a lot of flak from my classmates in 2008 when I canvassed and volunteered for the Obama campaign. It was also very unusual to apply to colleges other than the local branch of Ohio University.

            All in all, I have just been pondering my high school days while brainstorming for our life writing. It was interesting (Coincidence? Fate?) that we began talking about disability while I was thinking about my old memories. Of all the theories that we have talked about