(In)visibility: accounts of embodiment of women with physical disabilities and differences

ISSN： 1360-0508

Source： Disability & Society, Vol.20, Iss.4, 2005-06, pp. : 389-403

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

This qualitative study explored relationships between contemporary western cultural representations of bodies and the experiences of women born with physical disabilities and differences. In multiple, in-depth interviews, 14 women described the ways their embodiments are shaped by cultural discourses of disability, difference and gender. The findings indicated myriad ways in which the participating women experienced their embodied selves, paradoxically as both invisible and visible across sociomaterial places. Given the narrow range of normative appearances and capacities of ‘acceptable' bodies, the women's bodies were frequently seen as undesirable whereas their subjectivities and lives were rendered invisible. The women articulated accounts of imposed ways of being seen by others and how these views structured and delimited their agency and resistances. This article highlights the fluid and multiple ways embodiment is produced, seen and experienced, and the importance of taking into account the interplay of gender with experiences of physical disability and difference.