Dis St 346

January 13, 2020

Class notes

Announcements:
 Study abroad opportunity!
o “Disability, Aging, and Development in Jamaica” led by (our very own) Stephen
Meyers
o If you want information, there are two info sessions (dates on the PowerPoint)
o Two classmates have been on this study abroad this past year- Tim and Christine!
Reach out to them if you have questions/want testimonials (Christine’s email-
lew32@uw.edu)
Lecture:
 Neo-colonialism
o What is it, as opposed to colonialism?
o More covert control over other countries, through mechanisms like foreign aid,
directly trying to influence the political systems
o Can be done culturally, through the framework of human rights (stigmatize a
country until they fall into line)
o Still ‘formally’ recognizing a countries independence, while still trying to
exercise control from the Global North over non-Western countries
 Orientalism
o Stereotyped representation of Asia, referred to pretty much anything outside of
Western “civilization”
 Neo-colonial actions are justified using ‘orientalism’
 Neo-colonialism and Orientalism through a Disability lens…
o Lots of organizations that promote myths about disability in ‘backwards’
countries in order to raise money to go abroad and “FIX” these countries
 The Myth of the Hidden Disabled in Botswana (Discussion)
o What is the myth?
 The people in Botswana are so discriminatory against people with
disabilities that they send off their disabled people to the rural lands,
hidden away and forgotten about
o What purpose does the myth serve international organizations and local
policymakers?
 In order to create a charitable reason to go ‘help’
 Fundraising strategy for international organizations
  For local policymakers- to shift the blame of low quality of life for people
with disabilities OFF of the governmental systems and onto the broader
culture
 Creating a villain that isn’t the government/local policymakers
o What purpose does sending members with disabilities to the lands actually serve
families?
 Gives family members with disabilities a role, something to do
 Grandparents have more experience/patience/time to raise a child with a
disability
 For people with behavioral-related disabilities (psychiatric disabilities),
the ‘abnormal’ behaviors won’t be problematic (talking to themselves or
wandering around in rural lands vs urban areas)
o What model of disability do family members fit into?
 Social model?? Person with a disability is actually faces less barriers in a
rural area than they would in an urban setting
o WHAT ABOUT THE WESTERN SOCIETIES TOO?
 Persons with disabilities are ‘hidden’ in homeless shelters, prison systems
 US prison system is actually the largest psychiatric system as well
o Hidden from society!
o Not necessarily saying that abuse of PWD doesn’t happen… it’s just not as wide-
spread in other non-western countries as the myths make it seem
 This kind of stuff happens here too!
 The Myth of Disability as a Curse (Discussion)
o Identify 4 explanatory models of disability (starting on page 254 of Ingstad
article)
 Mopakwane- believed to originate in the parents breaking the prohibition
against having sexual intercourse whi9le the mother and newborn child are
still in confinement
 Mpho ya modimo- a gift from God! Demonstrates trust in people by giving
them such special challenges
 Witchcraft- external, blames another source of ‘witchcraft’, takes blame
off of parents and disabled child UNLESS afflicted person is very
influential or well off
 Biomedical explanations- a neutral explanatory model used to counteract
the religious/morality based models
o Rank them in order from most to least stigmatizing of PWD
 This part is kinda subjective tbh
 People can use different explanations to fend off stigma in different
situations
 These all can be believed all at the same time
 Female circumcision example to show how disability is constructed geographically
o Somalia-
  Circumcised means growing up, becoming a woman, becoming a full
fledged member of society, seen as a positive event!!
 If you aren’t circumcised, you won’t be accepted by society, seen as
‘impure’, probably won’t find marriage, and marriage is NECESSARY for
their way of life
 The condition (being uncircumcised) would be a disability
o London-
 Circumcised means you aren’t normal, reflection of Western ideas of
gender equality
 Huge barrier to accessing health care (doctors show disgust), damaging
women’s self-image and perception on their way of life
 Victimization, when really it’s just a cultural difference
 The doctors logistically wouldn’t know how to help medically
when it comes to the health implications or commonalities with
female circumcised sexual/reproductive health
 The condition (being circumcised) would be a disability
o Have to be cautious when you are categorizing disability in different context,
don’t always assume a white, paternalistic western viewpoint
 Infertility (is it a disability?)
o West (US and Europe)
 Women have a ‘biological time clock’, high pressure to have children
 Covert stigma against people (especially women) who may be infertile
 BUT if you do have children, that can become a barrier (especially for
women) in career success
o Global South (Egypt and India)
 Assumption is that the women is infertile, never really emphasis on
infertile men
 Men are expected to leave their wife if she cannot conceive a child