5
Section one: The fundamentals
A)
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
Many of you are likely familiar with the concept of “ability inequity,” which the authors of this article define as “an unjust or unfair (a) ‘distribution of access to and protection from abilities generated through human interventions’ or (b) ‘judgment of abilities intrinsic to biological structures such as the human body’.”
However, they go on to identify the following “ability concepts” that are less familiar:
1) ability security (one is able to live a decent life with whatever set of abilities one has)
2) ability identity security (to be able to be at ease with ones abilities)
How prevalent are these forms of security among disabled people you know? Or, if you identify as a disabled person, would you say your social surroundings and community foster and support these kinds of security? Furthermore, while the focus of the article is on Kinesiology programs, it is also important to reflect on how academia in general accommodates for disability. If you feel comfortable answering this question, what has been your experience of postsecondary education to date?
-OR-
The authors also observe that “Ableism not only intersects with other forms of oppression, such as racism, sexism, ageism, and classism, but abilities are often used to justify such negative ‘isms’.”
What do you think this means? Provide an example.
| Its common knowledge that Trent’s arcitexture is notorious for being wholly unaccessable and at most times full of unesseary angles, stairs, random hallways, vamps, or stairs that are hazardous and most times lead no where. The community at Trent is aware and as a community I beleive want to do more, but in reality I don’t personally witness much action towards making campus more accessable, for the sole purpose of accessability.
Even academically, Trent does offer student accessability services, which I do not need to access, but I have witnessed other students who do who are constantly fighting through bureacratic processes just to get a mild set of accomadations, and must do so with each professor they encounter each semester all through their time at the university.
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Exercise 2: Implicit Bias Test
Did anything surprise you about the results of the test? Please share if you’re comfortable OR comment on the usefulness of these kinds of tests more generally.
| My results was moderate I think the word was perference for physically abled persons over disabled persons. My results didn’t necessarily suprise me, I feel like I hold less bias than the average person, and am aware that theres more work I need to do personally if I want to exist as an ally for disabled people in my communitities. |
B) Keywords
Exercise 3:
Add the keyword you contributed to padlet and briefly (50 words max) explain its importance to you.
| I was very interested in the medical model of disability as a concept, this model considered disability a medicial condition or ‘problem to be fixed’. In this definition disabled people are automatically othered all throughout the their interactions of reciveing medicial care and is a very damaging perseption of disability that removes disabled people from living freely or defining their life on their own terms.
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B) On Disability
Exercise 4: Complete the Activities
Exercise 5: Notebook Prompt
What do Fitzgerald and Long identify as barriers to inclusion and how might these apply to sport in particular?
Fitzgerald and long use three categories to identify barriers to inclusion and participation in sport. These three categories are logistical, physical, and psychological. Specifically in relation to sport this means barriers to inclusion in sport might be the location of a sporting event, lack of funding or accessable specific soprts, lack of funding for equipement in certain sports. Or lack of infrastructure or volunteer work dedicated to supporting disabled athletes.
C) Inclusion, Integration, Separation
Exercise 6: Complete the Activities
Exercise 7: Notebook Prompt
Choose ONE of the three questions Fitzgerald and Long argue disability sport needs to address and record your thoughts in your Notebook.
- Should sport be grouped by ability or disability?
- Is sport for participation or competition?
- Should sport competitions be integrated?
| All these questions have me wondering how they apply in what context? Can’t we just ask groups of people wanting to play together what they prefer? Why are we trying to standardize everything, when everyone will want something different on small and large scales.
2. This is specifically true for is sport for participation or competition; I beleive sport can be and is both. You get to choose and thats why so many people enjoy sports in so many different ways. But I do agree with the point the authors bring up that seperate division can result in certain ‘competitive’ leagues doing nothing to breed inclusion or integaration efforts because there is another league they can direct people toward.
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Part Two: Making Connections
A) Gender, Sport and Disability
Exercise 8: Complete the Activity
The paradox that sportswomen habitually face (as the authors observe, this isn’t confined to disabled sportswomen) involves the expectation they will be successful in a ‘masculine’ environment while complying with femininity norms in order to be recognized as a woman.
True or false?
Take a moment to reflect on this paradox below (optional).
B) Masculinity, Disability, and Murderball
Exercise 9: Notebook/Padlet Prompt
Watch the film, Murderball and respond to the question in the padlet below (you will have an opportunity to return to the film at the end of this module).
The authors of “Cripping Sport and Physical Activity: An Intersectional Approach to Gender and Disability” observe that the “gendered performance of the wheelchair rugby players can…be interpreted as a form of resistance to marginalized masculinity” (332) but also point out that it may reinforce “ableist norms of masculinity.” After viewing the film, which argument do you agree with?
a) Murderball celebrates a kind of resistance to marginalized masculinity
| D) I agree that Muderball celebrates a kid of resistance to marginalized masculinity and I also agree that Muderball does at times reinforce ableist norms of masculinity.
When describing a documentary based on people’s lives there is always going to be a need for nuance and I think thats exactly what this documentary provides. The men in this film are absolutely reclaiming their masculinity using wheelchair rugby, especially when many of them explained how they felt stripped of their masculinity because of their disability and the amount of support or assistance they may want or need due to their disability. The authors of the article make a good point of identifying this when saying that sport is a “special place where disabled individuals may ‘regain their masculinity'” (322) and I think this film sheds lots of light on the connection between disability, sport and reclaiming masculinity. As for how the film reinforces ableist norms, we see this when some of the US team players are talking about how they don’t like being compared to the Special Olympics as Paralympians. One player even uses the R slur to display his unhappiness with this comparison. John Loeppky addresses this in his article when understanding that just because someone is disabled that does not mean they are exempt from participating in the perpetuation of ableist notions. I really appreciated Leoppky’s point of view on this matter, and how his article interacted with Murderball by adding it to the module after viewing the movie.
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Section Three: Taking a Shot
A) Resistance
B) Calling out Supercrip
Exercise 10: Mini Assignment (worth 5% in addition to the module grade)
1) Do you agree with the critique of the “supercrip” narrative in this video? Why or why not? Find an example of the “supercrip” Paralympian in the 2024 Paris Paralympics or Special Olympics coverage and explain how it works.
| The video “We’re the Superhumans” is an advertisment for the 2016 Rio Paralympics. It depicts a diverse group of paralympians participating in their sports and is a beautifully crafted video showing athlete’s accomplishments while saying “Yes I can”. This video is critiqued for its use of the ‘supercrip’ narrative. The ‘supercrip’ narrative, described by John Loeppky, is “the perception that the achievements of athletes with disabilities means they are overcoming and transcending their abilities”. Loeppky considers this a view without nuance and I agree. The ad does carry the ‘supercrip’ narrative, just look at the title. Having athletes saying “Yes I can”, or considering them “superhuman” perpetuates a limit on disabled individuals abilities and removes parts of their self agency. What gives any other person the ability or right to create narratives like that around paralympians that did not ask of that? The ad would have been just as impactful if it simply just showed paraylmpians accomplishments in the same light as any persons accomplishments. Instead, like athlete Brian Bell says, the video makes the paralympics focal point athletes disabilty instead of their athletism.
I found an incredibily interesting article discussing paralympians concerns of some athletes cheating their classifications to gain a competivite edge. The articles explains that the athletes who raised concerns to paralympic boards were not being heard and told that, due to the paralympics ‘inspirational’ focus these allegations would not be focused on. This artice stands as an example of the ‘supercrip’ narrative as it belittles paralympian’s accomplishments for the sake of keeping the paralympics inspirational, as if fair competition didn’t matter because it is the paralympics and not at a level worth more thorough regulations. In this context, the ‘supercrip’ narrative is seen doing a diservice to the legitimacy of the paralympics for the sake of keeping the sport a inspirational event that focuses more on disability than athletic achievements. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2024/08/28/paralympics-cheating-classification-doping-disabilities/
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2) Does the film Murderball play into the supercrip narrative in your opinion? How does gender inform supercrip (read this blog for some ideas)?
(300 words for each response)
| I beleive the film Muderball does not fall into the supercrip narrative. The film displays the achievements of wheelchair rugby players as athletic acheivements to be marvelled at, but not because they are acheivements of disabled athletes. At the same time, I think there are instances in the film where disability is not fully considered, as if it is intentionally omitted from conversation or avoided, creating a scenario where accomplishments occur without the consideration of disability. My point in bringing this up is coming from the hope that we can get to a place where the norm is celebrating the athleticism and athletic accomplishments of disabled athletes while honouring their disability, not ignoring it to celebrate athleticism, and not ignoring athleticism because of disability.
To swithc tracks, as I consider how gender informs the supercrip I think, gender informs the supercrip narrative by adding another layer of identity to discussions surrounding disability and sport. While male athletes with disabilities use sports to regain masculinity they may have felt they lost, sports isn’t considered the same sort of outlet for women with disability due to sports being constructed as a masculine ideal. Women are masculinized in sport, they are not percieved as participating in sport to regain feelings of femininity, and this changes signals a gendered difference in interacting with sport. The supercrip narrative interacts with gender, or gender informs the narrative by furthering the dismissal of womens acheivements on a deeper level then just gender but also disability, and helps reinforce the idea that sport is not a space for women to be women but be masculine. |
