Disability and Feminism: An Intersectional Reading of Skin Stories

Author: Ankita Jana

Abstract:

In this article, I intend to examine how Feminism despite its mammoth contribution could not accommodate the issue of disability in the first instance, thereby, finally leading to the emergence of Feminist Disability Theory which integrated disability issue into feminist concerns and transformed Feminist theory. This intersectional approach explains how disability is inextricably linked to other categories of identity such as gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age and class. Based on the analysis of the necessity for intersectionality between disability and feminism, I would discuss the tenets of Feminist Disability theory, and highlight how notions of ideal beauty, perfect body, sexuality and identity are culturally constructed which in turn evoke the disabled beings as minor and inferior. It is through the lens of Feminist Disability theory that I intend to interpret the personal narratives of women having different kinds of bodily variations, anthologized in the collection Skin Stories (2019), and unravel the need to re-imagine disability. These first-hand life narratives attempt to convey ‘disabled women’s distinct perspectives on sexuality, reproductive issues, appearance biases, and other shared struggle.’
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