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Major Paper/Project Write-Up

There is this restrictive ideology that those who are disabled, whether physically and/or mentally, are incapable of obtaining an ideal future for themselves. This mentality often robs the disabled community of many opportunities for them to follow and succeed in their aspirations. However, it does not completely prevent the many different communities of those with disabilities from achieving their dreams. For this assignment, I focused on the members of the autistic community. My goal was to create digital art posters depicting people on the autism spectrum who are leading active and successful lives whose contributions have enriched society. I hope to further convey to those who view these caricatures that the neurodiverse community are capable of so much than the limiting predetermined futures of “pain, isolation, and bitterness” that the neurotypical majority predicts (Kafer 2).

All the steps leading up to the final results were integral to the authenticity and significance of getting this message across. The first part of the process required research of famous autists. I expanded the field to throughout history, countries, and occupations. Finding autistics in the past turned out to be a lot harder than anticipated. Autism did not become a term until the early 1900s, so while there were many examples of prominent figures who have done extraordinary things in their lifetimes and that were speculated to be on the spectrum, I could not choose them as a focus on any of the posters since there is no way of officially diagnosing them. Even after the 1900s, where diagnosis of autism and access of information about it became more readily available to the public, I also could not pick those who self-diagnosed themselves. Unless they were officially diagnosed by a credible medical professional, I could not consider them for this project as a viable representation of those with autism “leading an engaging and satisfying life” (Kafer 2). After much research, I decided to illustrate Temple Grandin, Satoshi Tajiri, and Greta Thunberg. Once I had decided on who my muses would be, the next step of the process was to examine various photos of them to give me a few ideas for their sketches. I would then draw a few rough sketches that depicted them, and other props related to their respective professions. When I was satisfied with the concepts, I would then create the final sketches to be used as references for the digital drawings. Each of these individuals featured on the posters come from different places around the world and have unique jobs. Temple Grandin is a “professor of animal science” from Boston, Maryland who has reformed the methods conducted at slaughterhouses to make them more humane to the treatment of cattle (UMSL). Satoshi Tajiri, from Tokyo, Japan, transformed his hobby of bug collecting into the beloved world of Pokémon that continues to evolve and bring joy to all ages. Greta Thunberg, an environmental activist from Sweden, confronted the world leaders at the United Nations about climate change and the dire need for action against it.

The significance of the final results of this project is that it removes autism from the “medical framework” that disability is often boxed into with this idea that whatever the impairment is must be cured or a “problem” that has “to be eradicated” (Kafer 9). Instead, the posters highlight the autists’ achievements within the frameworks of politics and social involvement. These posters are my counter-argument to those who are neurotypical and think that people on the autism spectrum have nothing but these “grim imagined futures” of being “abandon[ed]” by friends and family, “drug addiction,” and “suicide” (Kafer 1-2). People with autism are more than capable of making a lasting positive impact in society as well as leading their best lives.

Works Cited

Kafer. “Imagined Futures.” pp. 1–24.

Temple Grandin, www.umsl.edu/divisions/artscience/Temple%20Grandin/tempgrandin.html.

Break Out Group 4/6/21

Group Members: Katherine Blair, Keona May, Emily Kile, Madison Simpson, Taylor Boris

E: The article was hypocritical. It argued that disabled people had rich lives beyond their disability, and then also argued about how the child August’s experience was centered around the able-bodied perspective.

KM: It is hypocritical. The section on page 268, how the “passing as non-disabled” is somehow a compliment and that ties into your identity.

T: I thought that this article was harder to digest compared to her previous topics like feminism and sexuality.

KB: It talked about eugenics and the “inevitable”, but the experience of those who were born with the disability versus the experience of those who were not.

KM: The section mentioned before is about the privilege of those who decides who is “worthy” or “how disabled you are”.

KB: Absolutely, other disabilities are a normal thing and just because you don’t see as often doesn’t make it less important.

M: I wondered if anyone had written about this article, and I was curious if there was an exploration of the using of disability, specifically the narrative resource is the stereotyping of disability.

E: I do agree that disability is a resource, but not just in economic settings but in the social and interpersonal setting. Various identities can be a resource but that’s a capitalist idea that everything has a purpose.

KM: I agree, how many identities we occupy is important to take into account too. Always have to consider multiple identities; it’s almost inevitable.

T: I liked the idea of that comment about capitalism in relation to identities. Society has a need to put a label on everything and I think that relates to what everyone else brought up.

breakout group 4/8/21

Faith, David, Lily, Karlie

Faith: what Yessie did was irresponsible but I think she handled that very well

Karlie: a lot of development that kind of flip flopped a bit. I fear what she did is gonna keep Jimmie from adopting her

David: I think the ending hinted that she did. My response is just anger. “Oh yes the death was tragic but a reasonable amount of deaths”

Kalie: “how many deaths are reasonable?” “however many we have” really?

David: complete dehumanisation . Also shocked Teddy died.

Karlie: I knew something was going to go wrong, I was expecting it.

Faith: It had to happen though, to trigger what Yessie did with the protest

Karlie: Worried for Yessie at first because of what the repercussions are, but then more people joined.

Faith: I liked how Access Now joined in.

Karlie: Mia started supporting herself which was really cool.

Faith: Yeah, and we found out she was abused by her mother

Karlie: Reading that upset me.

Foss: Do you think she is getting to a place where she can talk about it? Willing to confront her past? Silver-lining.

Karlie: she is developing a mature view on the world and at a young age, that’s disheartening

David: One character Michelle had a weird ending, like no payoff?

Karlie: I liked her ending, she seemed one-dimensional at first. She became more human when she saw the wrong doings and quit

David: instead of empathy she had apathy.

Faith: I wanted her to do more about it, but I’m glad she quit and realized her job wasn’t helping people.

David: when she thought about reporting the conversation of the boss and then said “it doesn’t matter” that bothered me.

Karlie: What did you think of Jimmie adopting Yessie?

Faith: I liked how she saw her as an adult not her child, just roommates.

Karlie: Keeping the friendship alive

Faith: the way Teddy died didn’t sit well with me. Like shows disabled people can’t do things on their own after all.

Karlie: there was something wrong with the pipes too.

David: She could have checked it before leaving though.

New breakout room

Faith: the WHO defined disability and impairment as a disadvantage in the workplace and that irritates me because how are they supposed to get jobs if no one will advocate for them? They need work, too.

David: 79% of disbaled adults prefer to work but only 38% get to work. Even with the ideas of “no discrimination” in the workplace there is still a barrier for them.

Faith: it sucks that they are three times more likely to be below the poverty line

Karlie: a lot of things in that article annoyed me. Just goes to show that our society is not willing to work with disability

David: ableism is ignored and not dealt with upfront these numbers, aren’t presented often enough. The main thing that stuck out to me were the numbers. They are completely brand new to me. A severe lack of information to the public.

Foss: A lot of these stats are viewed from the census. Especially hard for disabled people from ethnic backgrounds because they find themselves incarcerated school to prison pipeline

Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts on “The Right Way to Be Crippled & Naked” by Jonathan Mack

With his short story “The Right Way to Be Crippled and Naked,” author Jonathan Mack introduces to readers, a character that is not only struggling to accept his sexuality, but his physical disability as well. In fact, the character is struggling with the former so much, that he decides to become a Jain Monk at the Digambara as a way to attempt some type of homosexual conversion on himself. What is perhaps most interesting about Mack’s piece, is the relationship the character has between his physical disability and his homosexuality. It becomes immediately evident that our main character despises his physically disabled leg, as when describing it, he says that he “tries not to look at it” and that it remind him of a “half dried wishbone. Like it was meant to snap.” however, as I said it’s more the relationship our speaker has between his disability and his homosexuality that is perhaps the most intriguing part of the story to dive into. Our speaker mentions not only that he believes his disability to be the reasons no other men are interested in him, but he also believes that he was given this disability as a punishment from karma for being gay. The fact that this is the first thing our main character thinks about when he thinks of his sexuality and his disability is very telling about or society and the way it applies negative connotations not only towards individuals with a disability and the way it makes them feel ugly or like a vicim, but also about how a large portion of our society is unable to accept people’s different sexualities, as evident by the way our speaker feels immense pressure to change who he is simply because he feels like an outcast in our world. This is only further backed up in the closing statements of mack’s writing, where the character apologizes to his family for doing harm and being an embarrassment to them, simply because of who he is. Mack’s piece manages to not only portray to readers what it is like for someone who is struggling to accept themselves because of their differences, but also sheds light on issues in our own society that allows these individuals to feel this way.

Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts on Dickinson’s A Little Madness in the Spring and Much Madness is Divinest Sense

With her poem Much Madness is Divinest Sense, author Emily Dickinson seeks to portray to readers the parallels of being considered “mad” and having the “divinest sense.” In the poem, Dickinson seems to paint the two as two sides of the same coin. She states that being mad is seen by those who have “a discerning eye,” is the same as having “divinest sense.” In this comparison, Dickinson essentially argues that what is seen as madness in someone is more often sense within the person, but most people don’t see it like that. To further explore this theme, Dickinson includes the line “‘T is the majority / In this, as all, prevails.” This line essentially indicates that Dickinson is telling her readers that these individuals who are labeled as “mad” are actually quite the opposite, but society fails to recognize it that way because society tends to just blindly agree with the major opinion on matters such as these. By doing this, and pointing this out to readers, Dickinson’s poem arguably challenges the viewers to see the minority viewpoint in the discussion as opposed to blindly following the majority opinion as the rest of society does.

With her second poem we were assigned for the day, Little Madness in the Spring, Dickinson once again touches on the concept of madness and the connotations associated with it. Here, Dickinson uses seasons as a way of comparing to one’s mental state. She uses the unpredictability/(madness) of spring as a way of saying that this unpredictability/(madness) is okay at times, even for an individual such as the king. Dickinson builds on this by saying that the while the king himself doesn’t seem to understand this, there are in fact others that see this scene but these other individuals are seen as “clowns” in our society. In point this out, Dickinson brings this poem and its themes back to her previously mentioned poem Much Madness is Divinest Sense in the way she compares those who not only embrace madness but are able recognize madness as being outcasts or clowns in our world.

If I left anything out or if anyone interpreted Dickinson’s poems in a different way, I would love to hear your comments on what you thought of the poems for today.

breakout group 2

Brianna, Faith, Arden, Lily

Arden: I hate Jerry.

Faith: My favorite has been Ricky; he gives off an in-between perspective where he isn’t sure how they should change but knows it’s wrong what he’s witnessing

Lily: Joanne has been my favorite; she inputs and questions things that should change. The electric wheelchairs are not applicable to everyone.

Arden: All the employees “it is what it is” and “we’re teaching them” but they aren’t, they are teaching them to be in an institution their whole life.

Arden: I really liked Jimmie. I like how she’s trying to be friends with Yessie and takes her out to the concert. So far a good person.

Brianna: Joanne is my favorite because she appears to be the protagonist even though there’s multiple characters. I would like to see more from Yessie.

Arden: So far Michelle isn’t great. She says anything to get recruits even if it might not be the best for them (like Cherri’s case).

Faith: I think it’s odd that Joanne is the only employee with a disability and can relate to their situation. Do you think jimmie was given a good character role because she is a lesbian and therefore can relate to their treatment (kinda)?

Brianna: kind of like the island of misfit toys when they can all be different but understand each other from the treatment they received

Arden: Do we know what Joanne was like before her disability? If she was not disabled, would she be fighting this hard for their rights?

Brianna: And that’s kinda the sad way to see it; people don’t care about certain things until it affects them somehow. She wouldn’t have been exposed at this level (childhood).

Arden: I’m glad she doesn’t have self-loathing on her disability. She doesn’t hate herself, it’s just a part of her life now.

Faith: she’s definitely a good role model; she has a job and now a relationship with Ricky.

Arden: Ricky is thankfully not sexualizing her disability, he clearly states he loves all of her.

Room (?) Discussion

Karlie, Alaina, Daniella, and Nathalie

Karlie: It’s a fast read for me, the chapters are short, and the characters are interesting for me.

Alania: I want to crawl through the book and protect Mia.

Karlie: I got so pissed at that chapter with Mia.

Alania: I understand some healthcare facilities are not the best but that is just not okay.

Karlie: I think he is going to get caught.

Alania: How old is Mia again?

Karlie: I think she is seventeen.

Alaina: Then she is still a minor – If he was an adult he could get into real trouble and get locked up.

Karlie: Well I mean Jerry is way older than what I thought.

Foss: Jerry is one of the workers.

Karlie: Yeah, that scene left a really bad taste in my mouth.

Alania: Yeah, and I feel bad for teddy since he has no clue what’s going on.

Karlie: It’s sad that she is going through something so traumatic, and she hasn’t told anyone so no one can help her.

Alaina: – (I missed it. I’m sorry!!!)

Karlie: that scene in the book when he takes the bungee cord and spins her around is so sweet and cute.

Alania: Yeah, it is.

-I missed a little-

Alania: And the way that they talked about the lawsuits really gives the impression that they don’t care.

Karlie: I think it’s interesting that the main guy tom is going away and having vacations while others are trying to figure out ways to solve problems and the financial issues with the center. It’s like the center is a blip on their spectrum which is a shame because they obviously need more help with things.

Karlie: I hope Mia gets her justice.

Alania: I know she’s a fictional character, but I hope this isn’t based on a real story. Either way they all have their own backstories. The trauma Mia is going through is definitely real.

Karlie: What are your thoughts on Michelle?

-cue silence-

Karlie: My thoughts alone I can’t tell if she’s a good person doing bad things or if she is just a bad person doing her job.

Alania: I think she might have moments where she is a good person but… she can have the right thoughts, but she just dopes them the wrong way.

Karlie: That is fair, but I don’t know. She’s a bit of a confusing character for me. She’s money hungry and her character is almost spiteful about things.

Alania: I see that. She just seems like such a flat character now. She neither good nor bad.

Karlie: She’s very one dimensional.

Alania: I did enjoy the moment when the title was mentioned in the dialog.

Karlie: Yeah, I love it when that happens in books and movies.

Nathalie was the scribe.

Room 2 Discussion

Jessie: This is the first book I’ve read that has this many characters that have a disability. I listen through an audiobook and the voices bring a new light to the characters that really connect to the emotion of the story.

Sonia: Yeah Mia’s story is really difficult to read, but the intersectionality of trauma and disability that is presented here is something important to see, especially with the POV writing, which really connects you to the characters.

Maddie: The representation of Disability and Romantic relationships is also something that is really important to see, instead of the hypersexualization that we viewed previously.

Emily: I wish that there were less narrators, but I feel really drawn to a few of them. The representation of some of these characters having an angry personality and opinion is different from disabled stereotypes that are presented.

Sonia: The representation is also totally valid, they give a healthy viewpoint of justified anger.

Jessie: I appreciate Ricky and Jimmie. Having it read to me assists with my own disability and allows me to follow their story. Giving the different perspectives gives a different view of the world the author has created. Joanne’s perspective vs the other disabled “kids” vs the parents (who are dealing with having to provide for these kids what the facility can’t) vs Michelle and how she is struggling with her role in the corporation. Getting to see all of those factors together is really rewarding. It’s super complex, and presented in a wonderful way.

I personally believe the story is centered around Joanna and the way that the surrounding characters are going to help her improve the facility.

Sonia: The multiple narrators has to be done right, and I think that this author does. The speaking styles change for each character. They are all unique and it works really well, demonstrating their personality through narration styles.

Jessie: I agree, some books have really flat characters that don’t develop or change, but this novel is able to change and demonstrate development and gives you an image that you can see.

Maddie: I do think sometimes though, characters don’t change for reasons and teach intentional lessons that not changing has consequences. In this book, the growth and change are intentionally placed to see how trauma develops and shapes those with disabilities and also gives credit to representing those with disabilities as able to grow and change given resources and opportunity.

Emily: That’s why I think that the character selection here is also important, otherwise it could very much be a conversation about “poor disabled kids and the good adults who take care of them”

Sonia: There also a huge capital lens through Michelle’s character, which makes you doubt her intentions.

Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts on Tulips by Sylvia Plath

So I think by now it’s certainly becoming apparent to my classmates that I am a massive poetry fan, as the poems we read are usually the reading that I share my thoughts on each day. I think my fascination with poetry coms from the various ways that the poem format allows authors to convey how they are feeling and their thoughts in a vast variety of ways. So allow me preface this by saying I know it’s no surprise, but the reading I chose to talk about today was Tulips by Sylvia Plath, because it’s a beautiful poem.

Readers are immediately introduced to the speaker, who is explaining her experience with getting some type of surgical procedure done. However, the true beauty of this poem lies not in the way that the speaker describes the events of the surgery, but in the way that Plath plays with tension and contrast and how they relate to the speakers feelings throughout her experience. The speaker, throughout the poem describes the hospital room she is in as “white,” “peaceful,” and says that in a room full of nurses, “nobody watched” her. She describes wanting to not stand out in this room and instead wanting to “to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.” Her description of the room combined with how she describes her emotions in the state, portrays to readers that our speaker longs for the release of death. However, Plath introduces tension into the poem when she reveals the existence of the tulips. Contrasting with the calm whiteness of the hospital room, the the speaker describes how the tulips not only scream bright red, but also demand her attention while she is merely trying to embrace death. The speaker explains how the tulips go so far as to almost anger her, as they interrupt her calmness “like a loud noise” and are calling to her and demanding that she hold onto reality rather than let go, allowing Plath to create the tension of life versus death in the poem. This is of course further evident by the color choice in the poem, as white is oftentimes associated with the heavenly afterlife and red is usually associated with the color of blood and of life. By doing this, Plath presents readers with the question of will our speaker choose to accept death and embrace it with open arms, or will she take on the challenge of the tulips and take on life once again. While readers are never given a direct answer as to what happens with our speaker, Plath decides to end her poem with the woman describing how these previously “white,” calm walls “seem to be warming themselves.” I would argue that this line of the last stanza insinuates that our speaker does in fact choose to hold on to life rather than to embrace death, as red is considered a very warm color so to have these white walls begin to warm up, almost as if they are turning as red as the tulips, leaves readers to believe that the woman decided to give life another chance.

I’d love to hear anyone else’s thoughts on the poem if I missed anything or if you interpreted it a different way so feel free to drop a comment!

STRUCTURE OF GOOD KINGS BAD KINGS

Hi everyone. I was wondering what was everyone’s opinion on the structure/layout of this story? I read another story in a previous english class called “There There” by Tommy Orange which featured a similar layout in the sense that each chapter was told from the perspective of someone new and which is something I had not come across before. To my surprise I actually loved this style of writing because not only does it somehow make reading the text less overwhelming for me, but I really enjoy the change of narration because it gives us an opportunity to view events from way more points of view than we would receive from only one narrator or if the story was told in one point of view. Is anyone having similar experiences or perhaps disagree with me and would prefer the stability of sticking to one person’s perspective?