Well, most of what's going on at the moment seems to be pretty depressing - i keep hearing about avoidable deaths of disabled people, harassment, discrimination, institutional abuse, organisations of disabled people succumbing to corruption and/or incompetency, and other stuff, plus my head's not in a good state for reasons i don't really have much motivation to write about. But at least this is one piece of good news:
Doctors refuse to perform hysterectomy on girl (Times)
Teenager is refused hysterectomy (BBC)
I think the mother makes the nastiness of her views pretty clear in the BBC article. When even Scope is against something because it's so blatant a violation of disabled people's rights...
Anyway, i'm happy that Katie Thorpe hasn't set a precedent for this kind of nonconsensual body modification in the UK. I can't even be bothered to respond to the wankers commenting on the Times article...
Showing posts with label Ashley treatment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ashley treatment. Show all posts
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday, November 12, 2007
UK film project seeking disabled women (re Katie Thorpe)
Just in case any are reading this... not sure if it's limited to just women in the UK or if those in other countries can contribute too (tho i would guess the latter)...
Cherry Pop Productions - Me And My Womb
Cherry Pop Productions are a collective of multi media based disabled artists who have worked together for over five years. Led by Gemma Nash and Jo Barnes, Cherry Pop has produced vibrant photography, soundscapes, and documentaries that challenge discrimination and promote diversity.
Cherry Pop are now working on a short documentary entitled 'Me and my Womb' which will explore how disabled women feel about their wombs in response to the recent story of Katie, a 15 year old girl with Cerebral Palsy whose mother is requesting she has a hysterectomy.
'Me and my womb' will investigate the moral, legal, political and ethical issues this Katie's situation has raised and question whether we, disabled women, have the right to a womb.
They are looking for women with impairments of all ages and views to take part in this documentary. They would like contributions from all disabled women regardless of their desire to have children.
They need for you to either send them a pre-recorded video of your story or for an interview to be arranged to take place in either London, Cambridge or Manchester by February 1st 2008.
Pre-recorded video can either be done on DV tape and send via post or on a web cam and sent in an e mail. Your tapes should not exceed 15mins and tapes will only be returned if sent with a S.E.A.
Please contact Jo Barnes on Imogen.Jo@Gmail.com for more information and a contact address.
Cherry Pop Productions - Me And My Womb
Cherry Pop Productions are a collective of multi media based disabled artists who have worked together for over five years. Led by Gemma Nash and Jo Barnes, Cherry Pop has produced vibrant photography, soundscapes, and documentaries that challenge discrimination and promote diversity.
Cherry Pop are now working on a short documentary entitled 'Me and my Womb' which will explore how disabled women feel about their wombs in response to the recent story of Katie, a 15 year old girl with Cerebral Palsy whose mother is requesting she has a hysterectomy.
'Me and my womb' will investigate the moral, legal, political and ethical issues this Katie's situation has raised and question whether we, disabled women, have the right to a womb.
They are looking for women with impairments of all ages and views to take part in this documentary. They would like contributions from all disabled women regardless of their desire to have children.
They need for you to either send them a pre-recorded video of your story or for an interview to be arranged to take place in either London, Cambridge or Manchester by February 1st 2008.
Pre-recorded video can either be done on DV tape and send via post or on a web cam and sent in an e mail. Your tapes should not exceed 15mins and tapes will only be returned if sent with a S.E.A.
Please contact Jo Barnes on Imogen.Jo@Gmail.com for more information and a contact address.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Other bloggers on the Katie Thorpe case
If i find more, i will edit to add them...
FRIDA
Miss Crip Chick
Trinity
Wheelchair Dancer
BrownFemiPower
Disability Studies, Temple U
Falling Off My Pedestal
My Beautiful Wickedness
Tiny Cat Pants
Wheelchair Princess
Ryn Tale
Jemma on the Ouch blog
Liz Sayce in the Guardian (see also RebeccaGMCDP's comment, which pretty much articulates everything i wanted to say in the discussion)
Preethi Manuel in the Guardian
Mind The Gap (no direct URL for just that blog post)
Zephyr at Arthritic Young Thing
Andrea's Buzzing About
Big Noise
David at Growing Up With A Disability
The Gimp Parade
Antiprincess
FRIDA
Miss Crip Chick
Trinity
Wheelchair Dancer
BrownFemiPower
Disability Studies, Temple U
Falling Off My Pedestal
My Beautiful Wickedness
Tiny Cat Pants
Wheelchair Princess
Ryn Tale
Jemma on the Ouch blog
Liz Sayce in the Guardian (see also RebeccaGMCDP's comment, which pretty much articulates everything i wanted to say in the discussion)
Preethi Manuel in the Guardian
Mind The Gap (no direct URL for just that blog post)
Zephyr at Arthritic Young Thing
Andrea's Buzzing About
Big Noise
David at Growing Up With A Disability
The Gimp Parade
Antiprincess
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Oh fucking hell, not again.
It was bad enough that it happened once. But now it's happening again - this time to a 15 year old, and this time in the UK.
I still haven't got round to posting my respones to the Ashley X case itself. I ended up as good as leaving Barbelith after trying to articulate the disability rights position on this thread about it, and getting responses such as "I don't think Ashley is a fully human person" (and this on a community which is generally so committed to anti-discrimination on other issues that even getting vocabulary slightly wrong can lead to high-snark mass deconstruction) - feeling so overwhelmed by my need to respond, and by just how personally the horror of this case hit me, as to leave me, ironically, unable to coherently respond. (If anyone reads the thread, i was known on there as "Natty Rajah" at the time, and am currently "Hydra vs Leviathan", in case it isn't obvious).
But still, that was in the USA, and at least part of me thought "that could never happen here"...
Well, it has.
Or rather, will - and this is the crucial thing. Katie Thorpe hasn't been mutilated yet - the surgeons are still "seeking legal approval". There is still the possibility of this being not just condemned, but stopped.
The Disabled People's Movement in the UK needs to get together a response to this, and quickly, while there's still time for this to be prevented. The trouble is, i have no idea how to go about this. Try to dissuade the surgeons? Get human rights lawyers to argue against them? Somehow get Katie away from her parents (since she really deserves to be out of the clutches of "guardians" who want, essentially, to get legal approval to basically sexually abuse her - and hopefully fostered by someone who will love and accept her who she is, and have true understanding about disability)? I don't know. But i know with all my being that action is absolutely imperative...
Katie's parents are trying to justify themselves here - using exactly the same bullshit "reasoning" that Ashley's parents did.
And i don't know what the fuck the Times means by saying "Even some disabled campaigners are critical of them, saying we should focus instead on making society more accommodating to people with disabilities and offer more help to their carers" (emphasis mine)... as if it would somehow be intuitive that "disabled campaigners" would be pro this sort of thing? I don't know who the fuck those "disabled campaigners" are, but they're not any disabled campaigners i've ever met or heard of, and i'd be willing to bet money that they don't exist.
And as for this: "The parents of disabled children, however, point out that such critics are out of touch with the reality of caring for someone with severe disabilities"... for fuck's sake. Out of touch with the reality? How about the reality of being "someone with severe disabilities" (or a disabled person, to use a linguistically sensible phrase)?
Of course there's stuff behind families and "carers" of disabled people feeling burdened, ashamed, etc, to do with the ludicrous financial injustice of them having to subsist on below-unemployment-level benefits instead of getting a fair wage, and disabled people having to rely on family structures for assistance because of inability to get the assistance they (we) have the right to, so in a sense this goes back to Thatcherite economics, and that needs to be recognised. But this is about disabled people having their rights taken away from them, not about non-disabled family members having the right to make decisions about something as fundamental to a person as their bodily integrity, without the person's consent. No financial hardship gives them that right, and nothing, not even the sincere belief that what they are doing is "for her own good", can excuse a parent ordering the mutilation of their child (parallels can be drawn with what routinely happens to intersex or "gender-ambiguous" children here)...
I meant a while back to collate posts by other bloggers on Ashley X. This seems as good a place to do it as any:
Amanda at Ballastexistenz
Thirza at Fit of Pique (possibly now a defunct blog)
David at Growing Up With A Disability
William Peace at Counterpunch
Kate Olsen at The Gimp Parade
Zilari at Processing In Parts (also seemingly no longer active)
a whole load more here...
Edited to add - something really imperative - get Katie a communication aid - give her the chance to say whether she wants this done or not... on BBC Ouch here people are talking about her based on her appearancve of how "out there" she looks - too many people are assumed to be incapable of communication based on appearances, when they simply lack the technology to assist them to communicate... someone give her the chance, even if she doesn't take it...
I still haven't got round to posting my respones to the Ashley X case itself. I ended up as good as leaving Barbelith after trying to articulate the disability rights position on this thread about it, and getting responses such as "I don't think Ashley is a fully human person" (and this on a community which is generally so committed to anti-discrimination on other issues that even getting vocabulary slightly wrong can lead to high-snark mass deconstruction) - feeling so overwhelmed by my need to respond, and by just how personally the horror of this case hit me, as to leave me, ironically, unable to coherently respond. (If anyone reads the thread, i was known on there as "Natty Rajah" at the time, and am currently "Hydra vs Leviathan", in case it isn't obvious).
But still, that was in the USA, and at least part of me thought "that could never happen here"...
Well, it has.
Or rather, will - and this is the crucial thing. Katie Thorpe hasn't been mutilated yet - the surgeons are still "seeking legal approval". There is still the possibility of this being not just condemned, but stopped.
The Disabled People's Movement in the UK needs to get together a response to this, and quickly, while there's still time for this to be prevented. The trouble is, i have no idea how to go about this. Try to dissuade the surgeons? Get human rights lawyers to argue against them? Somehow get Katie away from her parents (since she really deserves to be out of the clutches of "guardians" who want, essentially, to get legal approval to basically sexually abuse her - and hopefully fostered by someone who will love and accept her who she is, and have true understanding about disability)? I don't know. But i know with all my being that action is absolutely imperative...
Katie's parents are trying to justify themselves here - using exactly the same bullshit "reasoning" that Ashley's parents did.
And i don't know what the fuck the Times means by saying "Even some disabled campaigners are critical of them, saying we should focus instead on making society more accommodating to people with disabilities and offer more help to their carers" (emphasis mine)... as if it would somehow be intuitive that "disabled campaigners" would be pro this sort of thing? I don't know who the fuck those "disabled campaigners" are, but they're not any disabled campaigners i've ever met or heard of, and i'd be willing to bet money that they don't exist.
And as for this: "The parents of disabled children, however, point out that such critics are out of touch with the reality of caring for someone with severe disabilities"... for fuck's sake. Out of touch with the reality? How about the reality of being "someone with severe disabilities" (or a disabled person, to use a linguistically sensible phrase)?
Of course there's stuff behind families and "carers" of disabled people feeling burdened, ashamed, etc, to do with the ludicrous financial injustice of them having to subsist on below-unemployment-level benefits instead of getting a fair wage, and disabled people having to rely on family structures for assistance because of inability to get the assistance they (we) have the right to, so in a sense this goes back to Thatcherite economics, and that needs to be recognised. But this is about disabled people having their rights taken away from them, not about non-disabled family members having the right to make decisions about something as fundamental to a person as their bodily integrity, without the person's consent. No financial hardship gives them that right, and nothing, not even the sincere belief that what they are doing is "for her own good", can excuse a parent ordering the mutilation of their child (parallels can be drawn with what routinely happens to intersex or "gender-ambiguous" children here)...
I meant a while back to collate posts by other bloggers on Ashley X. This seems as good a place to do it as any:
Amanda at Ballastexistenz
Thirza at Fit of Pique (possibly now a defunct blog)
David at Growing Up With A Disability
William Peace at Counterpunch
Kate Olsen at The Gimp Parade
Zilari at Processing In Parts (also seemingly no longer active)
a whole load more here...
Edited to add - something really imperative - get Katie a communication aid - give her the chance to say whether she wants this done or not... on BBC Ouch here people are talking about her based on her appearancve of how "out there" she looks - too many people are assumed to be incapable of communication based on appearances, when they simply lack the technology to assist them to communicate... someone give her the chance, even if she doesn't take it...
Sunday, July 1, 2007
The other story from a "Pillow Angel"
I have a lot more to say about the whole Ashley X story, and am planning to post in detail about it at some point fairly soon - but, quickly, i think this response by Anne McDonald is incredibly important, incredibly powerful and needs to be read as widely as possible...
Anne McDonald's website (edit: the links to her writing all now seem to be 404 errors... not sure why, i think i have seen her website and read some of her writing before... will try to see if it's online anywhere else...)
Anne McDonald's website (edit: the links to her writing all now seem to be 404 errors... not sure why, i think i have seen her website and read some of her writing before... will try to see if it's online anywhere else...)
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