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?
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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.
| When the authors refer to how abilities are often used to justify certain “isms” I feel that they referring to how many actions that are ableist, racist, classist sexitst etc. are justified because there is an underlying mentality and belief of “why should we spend time and money to make things equitable, cause they [the minority group] probably won’t succeed anyway”. I think this a belief many hold so that they can justify not putting effort into activities that make them inclusive to others, and by ignoring the steps to make things more inclusive, the idealized white, cis, able-bodied male continues to have the world produce activities and products that geared towards them.
For example, not having wheelchair ramp at the entry to a gym is making the assumption of “why should we put any effort to make this a wheelchair accessible building because people in wheelchairs cant succeed in the gym”
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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.
| The results of the test did surprise me as I received a “slight moderate preference for able-bodied people”. Going into this test I was ignorant to my biases hoping I would be able to show no biases for either side. If anything I was thinking I would show a preference for disabled bodies considering my mother is disabled with limited mobility. My mother has an auto immune disease called ankylosing spondylitis and one of the side effects of her disease is something called “bamboo spine”. Bamboo spine is the fusing of vertebrates in your spine meaning you can longer bend your torso. However, I also have to take in the nuances of clearly visible physical disabilities vs non clearly visible physical disabilities as my moms disability only becomes apparent when she attempts tasks like sitting down/standing up or picking things up from a lower surface. Those who have clearly physical disabilities that are noticeable as first sight would face more prejudices and stereotyping that individuals like my mom. |
B) Keywords
Exercise 3:
Add the keyword you contributed to padlet and briefly (50 words max) explain its importance to you.
| “deficit perspective” is a term used to refer to the viewing or categorizing of individual by their limitations. The deficit perspective is innately a negative way of viewing a person the individual is understood by what they lack in comparison to normal hegemonic standards. In relation to sports, the deficit perspective is often used when categorizing disable athletes, categorizing them by their disability before their sport.
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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 speak on structural barriers that are inplace for disabled people that create obstacles in terms of participation. These barriers refer to the obstacles that are in place on structural and systemic level that intertwines with other ableist structures. For example, lets say a wheelchair bound person wants to play wheelchair rugby. It then up to this individual is be able to pay for a $3000 rugby wheelchair. It also assumed that this individual should be able to drive or transport themselves to the gymnasium where the games are held. What if this individual does not have the funds to pay for a rugby wheelchair? what this individual cannot drive? what if this individual does not have a caretaker who can drive them? what if the individual does not have access to wheelchair accessible public transit?
Before this individual can even get to the gymnasium to play the sport, there are already other structural obstacles in place that assume that individual is of certain class status that they can afford a new wheelchair and there are assumptions this individual disability allows them to drive or live in an area with accessible public transit.
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?
| 3. I think that sport competitions should be integrated. By always creating separate spaces for able bodied and disabled athletes, there is a consistent othering of disabled athletes. Even though able bodied people are also kept separate from disabled sports, it is still the disabled group that is regarded as “the other”. However, I also do not think reverse integration is necessarily the answer either as there are flaws to that form of integration as well, which could be able bodies people taking over and dominating a disabled space. How I think this integration should look is that disabled sports and able bodies sports should be hosted within the same competitions and sports. While there games are still separate, their compositions are not. For example, rather than having a paralympics and an olympics, perhaps both can be merged into the same event, but able bodied sports and disabled sports still remain separate as to still protect disabled athletic spaces.
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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
| B) After watching Murderball, I feel the film both celebrates a kind of resistance to marginalized masculinity and reinforces ableist norms of masculinity. The wheelchair rugby players clearly exist in masculine spaces, playing at very high levels in their sport in very competitive, aggressive and masculine spaces. This scenes of rivalry between the Canadian and American team showcase the highly masculine environments these men compete in, like “testosterone hotspots”. However, all of this hyper masculinity being practiced is all done with the players (and some coaches) existing as disabled people. Existing as a disabled person challenges traditional hegemonic masculinity and the hyper-independance and able-bodiedness associated with it. These wheelchair rugby players challenge traditional ideas of hyper-masculinity by as existing both as hyper-masc people and disabled. Murderball represent how you it is possible to be a disabled man not have to sacrifice your masculinity, still competing in highly competitive and aggressive sports.
However, the documentary also reinforces ableist norms of masculinity through the players expressing their hierarchies of disability in sports. For example, one of the rugby players explains how the paralympics and the special olympics are separated because the special olympics “are just a just a participation medal for everyone” while the paralympics are a real competition. This notion reinforces ableist norms of masculinity as it implies the that those with intellectual disabilities cannot exist in masculine and competitive spaces in the space when paralympians can. |
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.
| I do agree with the statement that this commercial pushes the “supercrip” narrative. At one point in the commercial a high jump athlete removes his prosthetic leg before doing the jump. This perpetuates an idea that this athlete is “above” his disability and has overcome the need for a prosthetic leg. The ending card of the commercial which reads “we are superhuman” also pushes this narrative as further others disabled people from able-bodied people, assuming that because someone is both an disabled and an athlete, they are somehow not human. It feels as if they commercial is referring that disabled athletes are alien-like.
In the 2024 Paralympics, several paralympians including, Curtis McGrath, Amber Sabatini, Gustavo Fernandez took to social media to critique the language that has been used to refer to paralympics athletes. Often times, media outlets will refer to paralympians as “participants” and not “competitors”. While Olympians are referred to as “competitors”, paralympians are not and it others paralympians and implies that the paralympics are not as competitive as the olympics.
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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 do not feel the that the murderball film falls into the category of the supercrip narrative. While the newly quadriplegic wheelchair user, Keith, expresses that his goal is to eventually not need to use a wheelchair to overcome his disability, he is newly injured and I feel the yearning for his past lifestyle is natural and part of the process of learning to live as a wheelchair user. Like any significant life change, it is natural to hold some disdain to the change in the beginning and take some getting used to before learning to live happily with the change.
All of the athletes on both the Canadian and American teams do not seem to show any want for “overcoming” their disability. In fact, Zupan points out several times throughout the documentary that he is doing more and is more athletic as a disabled person then he ever was as an able bodied person. This points out that Zupan and the other paralympians do not yearn to be able-bodied or to overcome their disability. Gender can inform the supercrip, lending itself more to men and the ideals that are associated with the male body. Considering the traditional hegemonic masculinity idolizes independency and able-bodiedness, and so the supercrip narrative associates itself more with male athletes, pushing an ideology that male athletes always yearn to be able-bodied when in fact it is entirely to exist both as an extremely traditionally masculine man and be disabled |
