A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

In Sarah‟s words „it‟s only ever either one way or the other... there‟s sort of the timid... or
there‟s the angry...‟ (l.3:341). When media present only two options as ways of being –
passive victim or determined struggler - the disabled role is imposed in such a way that it is
made difficult for people with impairments to enjoy themselves as who they are.
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How useful a concept is „disability identity‟ as a tool to people with impairments in
making sense of their own experience?
I have argued that disability identity enables people with impairments to address the
circumstances of their lives in ways which resist the sense of personal inadequacy that
mainstream culture works to impose. Taking on a disabled identity involves a revolution of
personal perspectives, so that instead of trying to shoulder the weight of disabling structural
relations, as if the resolution of these is to be found within the self, these can be addressed
collectively.
And I suppose wished that I wasn‟t… but then, looking back, you‟re wishing not to
be… the way that you‟re being treated… that‟s what‟s at the heart of it... (l.1:262ff.)
The disabled role imposed by mainstream society suggests two ways of responding to the
experience of impairment. Both involve a rejection of self. Charles‟ words draw us into a
personal recollection of time he spent uselessly punishing himself, regretting his physical
embodiment. The other response suggested and applauded by the mainstream involves
attempting to transcend impairment. Both types of response involve self-oppression and
neither brings about social change.
Taking on a disabled identity – in the political sense I have described – involves recognising
one‟s own situation in a disabling society. It is in taking on this identity that people with
impairments place themselves in a changed relationship to the social and cultural processes
of disablement.
Is the affirmative model an adequate explanatory tool for analysis of the cultural
construction of disability?
I am what I am whether or not I have a label and… erm… it‟s basically something
that people impose upon me in different situations in different ways… erm… in my