Different battles, same war?Cripping youth and adulthood?

Jenny SlaterMMU/SHU

jbslater3@gmail.com

Youth

Disability

Adulthood

Independence

Whilst independence remains the goal, disabled people will not be accepted as they serve as a reminder of the potential for dependence

Hughes, 2001; Davis, 2002; Ware, 2005; Shildrick, 2009

Body as Organism

Body without Organs(BwO)

Deleuze and GuattariGibson, 2006; Gibson, Carnevale and Kind, 2012; Goodley, 2007; 2009; Shildrick, 2009; Slater, 2012

Jen as Body as Organism

Jen as Body without Organs

A Critically Young Positionality

1. Vigilant to and questioning of adulthood normativity

2. Shouting about my own grownup failures

“Thought together, queer theory, disability, and Deleuze mobilise a productive positivity that overcomes normative binaries, breaks with stable identity, and celebrates the erotics of connection” (Shildrick, 2009, 54)

Not becoming-adult

BUT

‘becoming-in-the-world-together’

(with Jen and her disabled peers)

“to reject this paradoxical liberty is one thing; not to be granted it is another” (Garland-Thompson, 2002, 24)

Freyja and the high-heeled shoes

Interviewer: So I see you’re disabled: what would you actually do here?

Freyja: I’d do what the job specification requires of me: I’d look after the children.

Interviewer: But how?

Freyja: My assistants do the physical stuff I can’t, while I did the more emotional side of it. To kids, it just isn’t a problem.

Different battles, same war?

A call to arms!

Free us all from playing grownup