KINE 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 36: Hyperfocus, Ableism

• School: York University
• Department: Kinesiology & Health Science
• Course: KINE 1000
• Professor: Parissa Safai

Document Summary

Supercrip stories: focus on disabled people overcoming our disabilities. They reinforce the superiority of the non-disabled body and mind. They turn the individual disabled people, who are simply leading their lives, into symbols of inspiration. Instead of the disabled as pitied , we construct the disabled as hero stereotype to be admired for their courage and determination. Stems from the belief that life with a disability must be horrific and unsatisfying, therefore we must admire persons with disabilities for being able to live the way they do . The trouble is that the current world doesn"t accommodate for them. Idea that disability in one area is complimented with superior abilities in another area. All blind people have extraordinary sense of hearing. Even if on a pedestal, the supercrip stereotype constructs one"s disability (difference) as the most important and most interesting thing in that person"s life. Ignores all the complex, contradictory and messy things that makes us human beings.