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

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to one of my aunties‟ for a party and all the rest of the family were there… and my mum
forgot to, like, bring some medication… and my aunty‟s also a GP so she, like, wrote my
mum a prescription… and I realised my other aunty and uncle had no idea my mum was
still on anti-depressants and medication… cos my mum was making a real effort to hide
why she needed the prescription… even though my other aunty clearly had to know…
and I was like “Oh! she doesn‟t even… and that‟s her sister…” ...you know, and I think
cos my mum‟s got a thing about it… and it doesn‟t make sense, because their father was
bipolar… and I don‟t know why my mum should be almost ashamed of this, but you
know, she obviously kind of is… (l.1.939ff.)
A sense emerges from these statements that disability is often considered to be about „other
people‟ but never about „me‟ or „us‟. It is perhaps easy to understand the strenuous efforts made
by Ben‟s grandfather and Helen‟s mother to distance themselves from being identified as
disabled, both in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. When disability is thought of as
something wrong with people it can be a frightening and disturbing thought to consider that this
is a description that could be applied to oneself. In a social and economic environment based on
competitive individualism to be perceived as being flawed can bring hard consequences. Holding
it together, putting a brave face on it, masking the symptoms, might require much effort but still
be considered worth it. As Harold Garfinkel suggests, the practices of everyday life „consist of
an endless, ongoing contingent accomplishment‟ (Garfinkel, 2008:1).
When it comes to managing to get by without drawing attention to impairment, much depends on
how successfully „masks of identity‟ are worn (Strauss, 2008). Judgements made about people
and situations are always contextual in that they depend upon making „interlocked
discriminations‟ about what is going on. In conventional, everyday situations:
participants carry out required or expected sequences of acts. These are self-explanatory.
They are understood by everyone involved as flowing from the nature of the situations
and the conventional roles of participants (Strauss, 2008:49).
As long as Ben‟s grandfather successfully maintained the role of „old man‟ and Helen‟s mother
the role of „General Practitioner‟, carrying out the required and expected sequences of acts
associated with these parts, they were able to escape identification as disabled. Let the mask slip,
however, or let evidence of impairment surface obviously, and they risked the possibility of that
identity being brought into question. When impairment is marked as shameful incompetence this