Disability & Queerness

Gender reach­es into dis­abil­i­ty; dis­abil­i­ty wraps around class; class strains against abuse; abuse snarls into sex­u­al­i­ty; sex­u­al­i­ty folds on top of race… every­thing final­ly pil­ing into a sin­gle human body. To write about any aspect of iden­ti­ty, any aspect of the body, means writ­ing about this entire maze. This I know, and yet the ques­tion remains: where to start? Maybe with my own white skin, stub­bly red hair, left ear pierced, shoul­ders set slight­ly off cen­ter, left rid­ing high­er than right, hands tremor­ing, traced with veins, legs well-mus­cled. Or with me in the mir­ror, dress­ing to go out, knot­ting my tie, slip­ping into my blaz­er, curve of hip and breast van­ish­ing beneath my clothes. Or pos­si­bly with the mem­o­ry of how my body felt swim­ming in the riv­er, chi­nook fin­ger­lings nib­bling at my toes. There are a mil­lion ways to start, but how do I reach beneath the skin?
— Eli Clare, from the book Exile and Pride: Dis­abil­i­ty, Queer­ness, and Liberation

I do think I’ll look for that book.

Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
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