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Katie Blair’s response to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a story about a woman who’s described by her husband as having “nervous depression.” Although the main focus of the story is the woman’s fixation with the yellow wallpaper, the aspect that interested me the most was her husband’s belief that she wasn’t sick. This reflects the issue that many people still believe mental disabilities don’t exist, or just don’t take the time to understand how intense they can be. The woman describes her husband as “practical in the extreme” and that he “he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.” Many doctors are stereotyped as being more factual than theoretical, and this is definitely seen through the husband. However, I want to focus on their husband-and-wife relationship as well, rather than just the doctor-patient one.

With the presence of mental disabilities in a family, the recognition and response from the family is an important factor in the person with the mental disability’s life. Unfortunately, mental disabilities such as depression and nervousness are still neglected by many people. While the issue of mental disability awareness is growing tremendously, there is still a lot of work to be done; The Yellow Wallpaper does a great job of portraying this issue. Along with the wife’s husband’s belief that her sickness isn’t real, his opinions are also seen through his treatment choices. It seems as though he wants to hide her away from everyone, as if he was ashamed of her mental disability, by bringing her to the country estate house to “rest” for the summer. Especially since the woman says herself that she personally disagrees with that form of treatment and that “more excitement and change would do [her] good,” it is clear that the husband ignores her input, possibly to hide her mental disability from others. Also, the husband’s lack of understanding is evident since he discourages the things that make the woman happy, such as writing. Although the husband remains loving and caring towards his wife during the whole story, his lack of understanding for her mental disability is apparent through his stubborn treatment, causing more pain for his wife.

It is impossible for someone to make judgements about those with a disability that they don’t have themselves, yet this is exactly what the husband does. One line that particularly stood out to me was when she said her husband told her, “no one but [herself] can help [her] out of it, that [she] must use [her] will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with [her].” This line angered me tremendously because it is basically like telling someone with depression ‘not to be sad’, which is insensitive and arrogant to assume that overcoming an illness such as depression is a ‘simple’ task to do. These misconceptions about how impactful mental illnesses can be in people’s lives is a problem that needs to be fixed because it is why so many people with mental illnesses don’t get the help that they need. If the husband would’ve listened to his wife’s needs and didn’t hide her away in a room for a full summer, she might have been able to get her mental disability under control, however his decisions ultimately made it worse for he in the end. At the end of the story, it is even more clear that the husband chose to ignore the state of his wife’s condition because he was so shocked to see how intense her mental illness had grown that he fainted.

Overall, The Yellow Wallpaper is a great example of the issue of people not understanding mental disabilities and how they affect those who have them.

Word Count: 623

A Poem for Easter

With Easter coming up I thought I’d share this poem by Vassar Miller, a poet who lived with cerebral palsy. Some observations/my favorite aspects of the poem-you can really hear that “lift” in line 2 when you read it aloud, you kind of have to yank it up with your voice to make the rhyme work. And the rhyme scheme (ABBA ABBA) really enhances the theme, recalling Christ’s cry on the cross (Abba, Abba/Eloi, Eloi). Also, if there are any Sufjan Stevens fans out there, I suspect this poem might’ve inspired some lines in John My Beloved, but I’m not sure there’s any evidence for that. Hope you guys enjoy and Happy Holidays

The New Icarus

Slip off the husk of gravity to lie
Bedded with wind; float on a whimsy, lift
Upon a wish: your bow’s own arrow, rift
Newton’s decorum—only then you fly.
But naked. No false-feathered fool, you try
Dalliance with the heights, nor, plumed with metal, shift
And shear the clouds, imperilling lark and swift
And all bridal-bowered in the sky.

Your wreck of bone, barred their delight’s dominions,
Lacking their formula for flight, holds imaged
Those alps of air no eagle’s wing can quell.
With arms flung crosswise, pinioned to wooden pinions,
You, in one motion plucked and crimson-plumaged,
Outsoar all Heaven, plummeting all Hell.

March 20: Break out room

Didn’t feel like anything new other then the historic stuff
We liked the ADA information
Since it is being repeated it sucks that things are seen everywhere
- The over sexualization of disabled people or telling that they are asexual
We like the part about “how would the government define disability? How could they?”
Ana didn’t want to claim disability if it was temporary of invisible because it doesn’t affect her as much
Companies would take people to court because of the ADA because of their invisible disabilities
Disabilities can be temporary
The idea of comparing people with disabilities to children isn’t the way to do it they are human too
- Having to be in private to be able to have sex is something that is harmful
- This relates back to the thought of people that have disabilities are seen as asexual because of the idea that they are “unwanted, or childish in nature” which relates back to the forced child mindset
- They are adults they should be able to have sex in their own way with their wants
- It shouldn’t be our business
The idea of consent may be skewed due to the fact people want to interfere because they don’t think they can consent
- It almost seems compulsory because of the fact they were “always together” or “always touching” they just didn’t want to be separated

Please excuse grammar or spelling mistakes typing fast doesn’t always make things make sense lol

Daniella’s Response to Susan Nussbaum’s “Good Kings & Bad Kings”

When it comes to the contents of Good King & Bad Kings, I didn’t have much prior knowledge as to what I was getting into. Even as a person who’s read quite a varied amount of literature, I’ve never actually read that many books where disability has been a major focus. From the kinds I’ve read, I consider them to be light in nature compared to the contents of Nussbaum’s novel though, far from it in actuality. Good Kings & Bad Kings is a far more realistic approach to disability, and pulls no punches in letting you know what you’re getting into.

Nussbaum manages to craft a so far realistic portrayal of the modern world, and tackles disability in a way that slowly begins to unravel a darker portrait of the character’s situations. There’s a pretty varied cast of characters, all with differing challenges, whether it be mentally, physically, or both. They’re not exactly defined by it either, something that not only happens in different forms of media, but something that we as a society seem to generalize as well. Each character has a distinct personality that makes them stand out, which is quite good given the book’s extensive cast of characters; and it’s not just that either, all the characters are where they are for different reasons, and although we don’t know every detail given how early we are into the novel, the way characters act and are treated not only make them distinct as said earlier, but gives us details that allow these characters to feel human.

For example, the character of Yessenia is the first character we’re introduced to. From her point of view, she tells us that she is physically challenged, however, Yessenia flips expectations on the head through her abrasive personality. While I wouldn’t consider her to be a morally bad character, it’s clear that she considers herself to be quite independent. Because her aunt was a large figure in her life, she’d gain much influence from her, especially when it came to standing her own ground, which in turn resulted in her being sent to the ILLC to begin with. The characters themselves may experience disability, but there’s more to them being where they currently are then simply their own ailments; and in turn, that rawness is what makes these characters so captivating this early on. It’s clear that we’ll learn more about them as the events move forward, but establishing these people as their own is key in any story, and is especially good given the subject matter being discussed. The characters aren’t portrayed to be perfect either, having noticeable flaws as I discussed earlier with Yessenia’s introduction. It could be argued that making these characters flawed could digress this sort of representation, but that’s far from the case here. If anything, having characters of certain archetypes constantly portrayed in a set way only limits the means of how diverse representation itself can be, and here, Nussbaum takes these niche ideas and drives forward with them, not only giving the reader something refreshing, but as someone who has mental disabilities themselves, it’s nice seeing something so raw in it’s message that’s willing to take these steps without trying to pander to the kind of disabled stories that we’re normally so used to seeing.

Word Count – 548

Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts on Beauty and Variations by Kenny Fries

Usually when it comes to our biweekly discussions, I tend to try to talk about at least two of the assigned readings for whatever day it is. However, this week for Tuesday, one of the readings we were asked to check out was Beauty and Variations by Kenny Fries, and quite frankly, it stood out to me so much that I actually just wanted to share my thoughts on this reading alone today.

With the poem Beauty and Variations, author Kenny Fries portrays to readers how the societal standards for beauty can affect someone with a disability. Specifically, we as readers are introduced to a speaker that has an unspecified physical disability that is struggling with recognizing their own self beauty. This is realized in the very first line of the poem, when the speaker asks “what is it like to be so beautiful?” The speaker is admiring their lover and recognizing their physical beauty but through this, failing to see how their own body can match that of their significant others and be considered beautiful. This is echoed by the way the speaker describes their lover’s body as having “sculpted thighs” and “smooth skin” but then aggressively contrasts this to his or her own body by describing it as “twisted,” “deformed,” and filled with “wounds” and “scars.” This ferocious comparison highlights how disabled individuals, while being beautiful people, oftentimes fail to see that due to the negative connotations that society associates with disabled individuals.

What perhaps pushes the poem to an even more emotional level, is the fact that in an attempt to simply get someone to understand how they are feeling in the present moment, the speaker actually wishes harm against their significant other. While it is not out of ill intent, the speaker tells their lover that they want to “break your bones.” However, the speaker immediately follows this up by saying that they wish to do this so that their legs “look like mine.” The choice to follow up an aggressive thought with one of innocence not only parallels the message of the poem, but also shows, on a deeper, more intimate level, how an individual with a disability might be feeling in these situations. We as readers must assume that societal beauty expectations are made to feel so important in our lives that the speaker wants to do harm on their lover only to make them understand how they feel.

While this is barely scratching the surface of the poem by Fries, it is also a glimpse at the depth and layers that included within it and i would love to hear what other readers thought of the reading and how they perceived the poem and what they got form it.

Taylor’s Response to Kenny Fries’ “Beauty and Variations”

In Kenny Fries’ poem “Beauty and Variations”, there is an open discussion of beauty in relation to the human body as well as a disabled body. As the title suggests, the poem describes two lovers exploring the nature of physical beauty between one another. From the start, the tone of the poem is one of pure wonder and sensuality as the narrator compares their body to their lover’s. The word ‘beauty’ is thrown around quite a bit as the poem explores the deeper meaning to it. The narrator expresses the desire to discover if beauty is equally easy to find inside as it is outside. One particular line points to the main question in the text, “What is beautiful? Who decides? Can the laws of nature be defied?” (Fries). The narrator struggles with their physical image compared to their lover’s, who is beautiful from birth. While exploring their physical beauty as they continue to love and touch the narrator, the narrator wonders at how this interaction has come about. In the narrator’s mind, beauty can not consist of twisted limbs and missing bones. But in the lover’s mind, these aspects do not change their affections. They can touch and kiss and love like any couple would, but the question lingers in the narrator’s mind even as they are intimate together. While the open discussion of beauty between them takes place mainly within the narrator’s thoughts, there is a certain demonstration of the value of beauty occurring between them. It is clear the narrator believes physical appearance holds a lot of power in the defining of beauty in society. Furthermore, the narrator believes that the crooked body that makes up their anatomy is not worth as much as the natural beauty their partner possesses. The narrator goes as far as stating that they believe their flaws will cause physical harm to their lover, “My hands would leave you scarred. Knead the muscles of your thighs” (Fries). This is a good example of equating disability with pain. Assuming that someone with a disability can only cause or feel pain to a certain degree is a misconception that Fries explores with this open discussion. Another significant feature of the poem is its sensuality. Too often, those with disabilities are associated with a life lacking in sexual or otherwise physical activities. Another misconception that is exposed and is further denied by this Fries poem. The narrator and his lover are active in more ways than one in this poem, exploring their physicality and mentalities with one another. Sensuality takes one more than one meaning in this poem. The narrator’s thoughts are lined with the sensuality they feel with their partner, combined with the sensuality of being intimate with someone who is unlike them physically. Kenny Fries combats the negative notion of the disabled community being incapable or without sexual interactions, as well as further open up the discussion of sensuality between disabled and non-disabled partners. All around, this poem raises awareness to the interactions that the disabled community may have as well as how it relates to today’s standard beauty norms.

Small Group Notes 3/25

Danielle, Lily (note taker), Shane, Nathalie, Nicholas

Nicholas- On page four when sign language is mentioned but there is no mention of why this was detrimental to use in terms of the deaf community and was a bit shocking to read- the rational behind this thinking would be interesting to read more about

Lily- There are so many variations within the deaf community in terms of what is preferred or how people chose to be involved so it was interesting reading this point of view especially since everyone has such a different perspective

Nicholas- Can anyone think of any more current acts of xenophobia that are rooted in the fear or suspicious fear of spread of illness?

Nathalie- Recently there is certainly an outbreak of xenophobia towards Asians and Asian Americans in response to Covid-19 and is unfortunately the reasoning behind a great deal of violence and discrimination within our own country

Shane- Part of the “fear” towards immigration is the sheer cost of the situation, with the amount of immigrants that are moving into any given society those with xenophobic ideas are more worried about possible crime outbreaks and the toll it will take on the society with the introduction of more individuals

Lily- There is no doubt that many of the so called “fears” are rooted deeply in racism and xenophobia where people are just grasping at straws for reasons they can bring to the table in order to keep immigrants out of our society, which is disgusting in it of itself that these individuals are discriminated against so harshly and looked down upon based solely on their immigration status

Shane- The term “otherness” can be described in categories as small as accents, different clothing styles or mannerisms…

Dr. Foss- Even their taste in music

Shane- I think it may even be harder for immigrants to find a sense of community in a new place when they are leaving all that they know and everything they are familiar with behind in order to start a new life in a new area

Thoughts on “Old Questions”

This poem is one of my favorite pieces we have read in this class. The feeling of emptiness throughout the poem, with the speaker halfway responding to the italicized thoughts, essentially creating a representation of staring of into space while someone else is talking.

The last line with “She has found the back of his knees,” is so shocking. The emptiness that has carried through the poem, and her attention to what is going on in other rooms shoes the wanting to be normalized. She doesn’t want to be recognized for her disability, but wants to be able to just be a girl in another room.

Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts on some of the readings for 3/25/2021

Some readings that really stuck out to me for today were Douglas C. Baynton’s “Introduction” from Defectives In The Land and Jillian Weise’s “The Old Questions.”

With his introduction, Baynton touches on and introduces evidence of the negative connotations and stigmatizations associated with society and its views on individuals with disabilities and how they are present in the medical field during the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One piece of this evidence provided to readers is a medical certificate issued to one Delphi, that states “I hereby certify at Delphi, age 23 years, native of India, who arrived this day per S.S. Pennland is a mute and freak and unable to take care of himself.” Following immediately behind this, a second medical certificate is shown to readers. This one being issued to someone by the name of Jugernaut, states that “I hereby certify that Jugernaut, age 16 years, who arrived this day per S.S. Pennland, has loss of arms and legs. He is unable to care for himself.” These word choices and claims that are used by the medical professionals are not only shocking, but they show that the discrimination and negative views of disabled individuals reached all corners at the time. While of course or society has grown past using such words to describe an individual with a disability, Baynton’s piece paints an interesting picture that we can use as a mirror to hold up to our own modern society and see where we not only have improved but where we also have fallen short.

With her poem “The Old Questions”, author Jillian Weise sheds light on how people’s questions can come off as insensitive and be a lot emotionally for her. One such example that Weise provides is when she states “do you sleep with it on? I forgot / there would be this conversation.” Here, Weise not only gives an example of the types of questions she is often times asked, but also provides her response, showing how not only caught off guard she was, but also how she herself doesn’t see her disability as making her different than anyone else, its only the people asking the questions that see her as different. Weise follows this up with “do you bathe with it on? / I need to rehearse answers to these questions.” With this example, Weise is echoing just how often she is asked these invasive questions. In fact, she states that it happens so many times that she should just start to rehearse responses to them. These examples by Weise provide commentary on how we as a society oftentimes ask disabled individuals insensitive questions without even considering how they make the individuals feel. Begging us not only to ask ourselves if we have ever done this, but to also encourage ourselves to not do so anymore if we have.

If anyone has any thoughts on the readings I mentioned above, or even if they want to discuss some of the other readings that we had assigned for today, I would love to hear other people’s thoughts.

Zachary Welsh’s Response to Laura Hershey’s Working Together

The poem Working Together by Laura Hershey not only fully embraces her disability and the lifestyle that is associated with it, but she also places it fully in the light for readers, demanding that this part of her life be known and recognized by society. What is perhaps very striking about this choice of direction by Hershey, is that it goes against the norm in the fact that a majority of authors and poets that do in fact have a disability tend to hide their disability from the reader or even leave it out of the text completely. However, Hershey argues this by not only reinforcing the belief that the ordinary, every day parts of her daily life should be recognized and discussed, but also that these every day activities are in fact the exact opposite of ordinary. Hershey provides specific examples from the very get go, as in the opening lines of her poem, she describes the regular activity of brushing one’s teeth. However, Hershey expands upon how her disability affects the way she does this by breaking down the simple task into two jobs, one for her to do, and one for her caretaker to do. This is evident in the way that she states “her job: brisk bristle circle on teeth / my job: sneer / open wide.” Hershey immediately follows this up with another example of how her disability plays into how she gets ready in the morning. This time, introducing the idea of how her and her caretaker work together with her disability to get a bath, stating “her job: apply soap / loofa / hot spray / my job: how hot / say stop.” The third example that Hershey uses in her poem, is one of how she moves from one point to another when not in her wheelchair. Yet again, Hershey is discussing a simple task but she is placing on full display for her readers, how her disability plays into such a task. In this portion of her poem, Hershey states ” her job: heft my flesh / point a to point b / my job: remind her of our / respective spines and limbs.” Yet again, with this example Hershey also takes the idea of her dependent relationship as her caretaker, and displays it as a relationship of two coworkers working together to get something done. With these examples of her everyday routine of getting ready in the morning, Hershey, rather than attempting to hide her disability from her readers, is constantly reminding them and reinforcing within them, the knowledge that she does in fact have a disability. In the final portion of the poem, Hershey states “her job: what no one thinks of doing / except for self or child.” With this portion of the final stanza, Hershey portrays to readers that her disability actually does something one might not expect, it builds a relationship between two individuals, Hershey and her caretaker, and it allows them to bond. Hershey argues that through her disability, her caretaker has become closer to her in that she does these things for Hershey that one would typically only do for themselves or for their child. On top of this, Hershey argues that rather than hiding one’s disabilities or feeling negatively towards them, ones should embrace what makes them different and that by doing so they not only accept who they are, but it can also lead to them building good relationships with others.

Word count: 568