Disability & Music
by Guest Contributor Bianca I. Laureano
I can’t remember where I was or whom I was with when I heard and realized that we are all temporarily able-bodied. I’m sure it was this decade, perhaps 2003, because I really had not thought about my privilege as an able-bodied person until I began my graduate work and met Angel, a woman in my cohort who was focusing on women of Color with disabilities. I also didn’t think about it until I lost one of my abilities.
Being trained as a scholar specializing in intersectional theory and thought, disability was a “difference” rarely mentioned and discussed unless Angel brought it up. We can see the continued absence and exclusion of people with disabilities in popular culture. Yet, if they are present, we mostly see how people with disabilities are considered anything but “normal,” and usually there is a level of wanting to find a “cure” to become “normal.”
What would images that view disability as a social construction look like? How can those of us who are educators incorporate discussions of disability into our teaching? Where are resources for us? How can we use popular culture when we teach about disability?
In response to these questions, my small cohort of friends and scholars working within an intersectional framework started to share resources. I’ve spoken with Angel about the song “Blind Mary” by Gnarls Barkley and how there are positive aspects of the song and some problematic areas, yet it is one of the better teaching tools involving music we have to show how disability is a social construction.
Last week Angel shared two YouTube videos with us that focused on disability in Zimbabwe and Lebanon. Her friend who runs the website Krip Hop Nation where you can find information about hip-hop artists with disabilities around the world, shared with her these videos. The videos center respect and acceptance of all bodies and the messages in the videos are powerful.
The first clip is part of a documentary in progress about an Afro-fusion band from Zimbabwe named Liyana. The documentary’s working title is “iThemba: My Hope,” directed by Roger Ross Williams. Liyana are touring in the United States and their full touring schedule can be viewed here. Unfortunately, this film does not have full translation. Here is a clip from the film called Liyana: The Band.
The second film is a music video directed by Rania Rafei and is part of the Sprout Touring Film Festival which focuses on films about developmental disabilities.
This video is called Difference Is Normal, which uses hip hop to share the collective testimonies of youth in the Arab world. There is a discussion of the youth led filming and writing of lyrics for the film at the Sprout Touring Film Festival site. Today, their work has expanded as war has lead to more people living with disabilities. The video includes English translation.
How do you see these films being utilized to expand our understanding of difference? In what ways can we implement an intersectional framework to discuss able-bodied privilege through popular culture?
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
TeakLipstickFiend wrote:
How true that “we are all temporarily able-bodied”.
Here is an Australian band I heard about when I was there last, Rudely Interrupted, who have a”range of both physical and intellectual disabilities (Blindness, Deafness, Aspergers, Autism and Down Syndrome)”:
http://www.rudelyinterrupted.com/index.php
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 10:13 am ¶
hexy wrote:
Have you heard of this group before?
http://www.rudelyinterrupted.com/index.php
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 10:52 am ¶
hexy wrote:
Oh. Never mind. Snap.
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 10:52 am ¶
Restructure! wrote:
Except for those who were born with a disability, right?
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 10:56 am ¶
mia wrote:
These are great!
I absolutely do not want to sidetrack discussion here, but I’m trying to help get the word out about a petition protesting the Motion Picture Academy’s plans to give Jerry Lewis a Humanitarian Award, because of his use of pity as a fundraising strategy, and the open dismissiveness and hostility he has shown toward people with disabilities who insist on being seen as something more than charity cases.
It’s at: http://www.petitiononline.com/jlno2009/
If this was an inappropriate comment, feel free to delete. My intention is not to spam.
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 12:07 pm ¶
Ali wrote:
Restructure!,
Perhaps a better wording would be at most we are all temporarily able-bodied.
Thanks for sharing this, Bianca.
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 2:17 pm ¶
bianca wrote:
@ TeakLipstickFiend & hexy Thank you for the links. It’s always exciting to find resources such as these to share.
@ Restructure! Yes, when I use the term “able-bodied” I do not solely think of physical abilities or disabilities. Disabilities can be put in many sub-categories, one of which some call “invisible” disabilities. I’ve heard some folks consider some learning disabilities “invisible” along with some medical and mental health conditions. You are correct that there are many people who are born with their disabilities, for others they are not. People who are born with any disability can also experience losing other abilities as well (think of someone who has an “invisible” disability who may lose a physical one). I’ve heard only a handful of commentary regarding the “passing” of people who have “invisible” disabilities as able-bodied, and some see this as a form of able-bodied privilege.
When I teach about disability and ability students usually assume physical disabilities only and rarely consider others. I think it’s important (especially in times of war) to remind students, and ourselves, that disabilities can take many forms and our society does not recognize different abilities as much as it privileges specific ones.
@ mia I have not heard of this petition and will check it out. Both of these videos demonstrate exactly what you point out.
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 2:34 pm ¶
jln wrote:
“People who are born with any disability can also experience losing other abilities as well”
Yes, but I believe Restructure’s point was that “we all” don’t start out from a point of “temporarily able-bodied” – less disabled than we might be in the future, sure – but that’s not the same thing at all.
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 6:44 pm ¶
Eli wrote:
It’s a little ironic (and disappointing) to me that you talk about able bodiedness and then post a video without subtitles or a transcript. It effectively cuts out from the discussion people who might have a hearing-related disability. I know it can definitely be difficult to find subtitled or transcripted videos, but I want to point it out, as I am sure it would be appreciated by people who are Hard of Hearing or Deaf. I have a (very mild) sensory integration problem that can make it difficult for me to pick out words when people are talking. Often when I get to know someone’s voice or can see their mouths, I can understand what they are saying fairly easily, but those times when I just cannot get it make me sympathize with people who have more universal hearing problems.
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 10:26 pm ¶
Andrea Shettle, MSW wrote:
I’m an example of a person with both a relatively “visible” disability AND an “invisible” disability AND who has both been born with disabilities and then acquired another later in life.
1. I was born deaf. I guess this is invisible in SOME contexts (eg in on-line text-based interactions) but is harder to hide in real life interaction because I may have to ask the other person to repeat, or write things down, or hire a sign language interpreter etc.
2. I also was born with attention deficit disorder, though I was not actually diagnosed with this until about age 26.
3. At age 30 and then again at age 31, I experienced severe foot injuries that messed up the tendons in my right foot. Since then, it has not been the same: I can walk pretty much normally (which makes it a semi invisible impairment most of the time) but can no longer run, jump, or carry heavy weights (for example, a heavy load of grocery shopping or school books in my back pack), particularly over long distances. If I’m stupid enough to try any of these things, the foot immediately re-injures itself, which leaves me hobbling for days or weeks afterwards.
Re, the petition campaign that Mia mentions: there is also a Facebook group devoted to the cause at http://www.facebook.com/groups.php#/group.php?gid=40538392681
There is also a running list of links to blog posts on the topic at
http://reunifygally.wordpress.com/bloggers-protesting-pity/
Posted 16 Jan 2009 at 7:21 pm ¶
Elanor Brachwasser wrote:
I often spend time thinking about the idea of disability as a social construction and I still haven’t figured out what I think about the idea. Disabilities are not social construction. Without any societal influences I would still panic, still struggle with physical pain, etc. But they are social construction. The days I walk with a cane I definitely notice differences in the ways I am treated; and that’s minor compared with experiences of friends who are disabled in ways that are more easily apparent.
I guess it’s kind of like the understanding that skin color/physical characteristics exist independently but race is a social construct. Everyone has physical or mental impairments to some degree; where is the disabled/nondisabled line? Am I still disabled on days when you’d never know I have physical and mental illnesses? When I take part in the able-bodied privilege of being seen as “normal” (in this case) but not in the privilege of being pain-free?
Posted 18 Jan 2009 at 3:04 am ¶