Time: Saturday, August 24th, 13:00-14:30
Place: Gallerí
Chair: Kristjana Kristiansen
Paper Session 23: Gender & disability
Medicine, Gender and Disability: Disabled Women's Health Care Encounters
Name: Carol Thomas
Title: Dr
Organisation: Lancaster University
Postal Address: Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University, Cartmel College, Lancaster, LA1 4YL, United Kingdom
City: Lancaster
Country: United Kingdom
E-mail: C.Thomas@lancaster.ac.uk
Tel: +44 1524 594092
| This paper examines the intersection of gender and disability in the medical arena through a focus on disabled women's experiences of receiving health care. Drawing on the "social model of disability", it focuses on the attitudes and practices of doctors. Two sources of qualitative data are drawn upon: (i) a collection of disabled women's narratives gathered in 1996-7 (a data-set of 68 accounts), (ii) interview data on disabled women's reproductive experiences in the UK (17 interviews). The argument is that two forces of oppression are frequently, and interactively, in play: patriarchy and disablism. It is suggested that disabled women health service users are particularly at risk of experiencing oppressive medical practices as compared with both non-disabled women and men (either non-disabled or disabled). |
Women of easy virtue. About the Island Institution Sprogø in Denmark
and the Women Incarcerated There from 1923 to 1961.
Name: Birgit Kirkebæk
Title: Dr. pæd
Organisation: Historisk Selskab for Handicap og Samfund
Postal Address: Minervavej 74
City: København
Country: 2610 Rødovre, Danmark
E-mail: biki@get2net.d
Tel: +45 36707130
| The women on Sprogø, diagnosed, as "moral deficient" in 1923-1961 were deported from society as grown ups because of their deviant behavior. Most of them were looked upon as women of easy virtue. Professionals feared the consequences of these women giving birth to illegitimate children. They were also afraid of venereal disease. Most of the women have also had problems with their behaviour as younger persons. This was seen as a disease, not as unsafe ness and rebellion. There seem to be a line between Cesare Lombroso's description of the female criminal in the 1890s and the description of the women from Sprogø. In the light of the material of the cases representing 18 women - all incarcerated 1923 - I try to analyse the usage of the professionals. How are the life stories of the women told in a life perspective? What kind of metaphors are used, and did they change over time? I make different headings as "Incarcerated by the parents", "Mother of illegitimate children", and "Forgotten in the Institution through life". These headings seem to close round the point: Women of easy virtue were both seen as a burden to society and as dangerous because of their behaviour. If they got a marriage proposal the professionals refused it. The diagnosis "female moral imbecility" could not be abolished. |
Glidings on the Dance Floor: Reflecting on the Shifting Power Relations
in Wheelchair Dance Sports
Name: Hanna Väätäinen
Title: MA
Organisation: Åbo Akademi University
Postal Address: Department of Musicology, Åbo Akademi University, Piispankatu 17, 20500 Turku
City: Turku/Åbo
Country: Finland
E-mail: hanna.vaatainen@abo.fi
Tel: +358-2-215 3242
| Questions concerning activity, passivity, closeness and distance lie at the heart of feminist ethnography, disability studies and couple dance research. In my paper I examine some of these questions in relation to the construction of gendered disability identities in wheelchair dance sports. Between 1998 and 2001 I conducted a fieldwork among ballroom dancers in Turku, Finland, and concentrated on the activities of one particular woman dancing in a manual wheelchair. Gliding in a seated position forms the basis of the movement vocabulary of disabled dancers in wheelchair dance competitions and shows. In this paper I use gliding as an analytic concept which allows a multidimensional view on how gender and disability are performed in wheelchair dance choreographies and how power relations shift in fieldwork situations. In the analysis of my research material I noticed that dancers move between active and passive positions in relation to each other, the music and myself. What happens in these glidings that occur on the dance floor as well as on the side of it? How were my experiences of closeness and distance implicated in these glidings? I first discuss the positions of leading and following in the Tango after which I look at relations between music and movements of a female wheelchair dancer in the Samba. I then turn to the relationship between myself as a fieldworker and those couples I have observed rehearse and compete. |
Women who have learning disabilities "the third sex"
Name: Jan Burns
Title: Dr
Organisation: Centre for Applied Social and Psychological Development, Canterbury Christ Church University College
Postal Address: CASPD, Salomons, Broomhill Road, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN3 0TG
City:
Country: UK
E-mail: j.burns@salomons.org.uk
Tel: 01892 507669
| This paper will look at the issues surrounding the deprivation of a gendered identity. It will be argued that for many women with learning disabilities the primary identity imposed upon them is that of learning disabilities and that they are denied the opportunity to identify as first and foremost women. The deleterious effects this has in terms of their mental health will be explored and related to how some problematic/challenging behaviour may be re-construed as an expression of this distress. It will be suggested that this "gender deprivation" can often lead to a need for the woman to adopt extreme forms of gender stereotypical behaviour to compensate for this loss, and that this in turn leads to vulnerability typically in terms of sexual abuse. The tensions between feminist ideas of empowering women and reducing social equality and the need for women with learning disabilities to be at the very least included, albeit within an unequal social system, will be discussed. |
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