By Siobhan Taylor — 2020
No one has to be ashamed of any part of themselves; for each of us is much more than just our physical characteristics.
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Society has also conditioned us to believe eating disorders afflict only young, white, thin, and affluent women. But in reality, they can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, or weight.
We’ve been taught to refer to people with disabilities using person-first language, but that might be doing more harm than good.
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What I’m hoping to do here is help portray the incapacitated form in an optimistic light and defy the labels enforced upon us by society.
Alex Dacy is a strong voice on Instagram for disabled body compassion and equality.
As a woman with a physical disability, I am usually glaringly aware of how my body is the polar opposite of what is deemed the norm.
I no longer care about my body being perfect. It’s taken a long time to get here, but I’ve realized my body has been through too much to spend time and energy caring about losing that extra 10 pounds or minimizing my scars.
I always had one goal in mind, which was to be able-bodied again.
Internalized ableism occurs when disabled people internalize stigmatizing messages in society, like the low expectations that are often placed on those with disabilities. These expectations usually present in two ways.
With each diagnosis, knowing her life hung in the balance, she was “stunned, then anguished” and astonished by “how much energy it takes to get from the bad news to actually starting on the return path to health.”
A grassroots civil-dialogue movement creates a new kind of safe space: one that invites students from across the political spectrum to discuss controversial issues, including policing, gender identity, and free speech itself.