Different bodies: Normality and embodiments of disability and gender

english

2019

volume 70, issue 1

disability   embodiment   pedagogy   phenomenology

Zveza društev pedagoških delavcev Slovenije

This article is devoted to the challenge of human diversity being perceived as difference, eventually resulting in othering and social oppression. We introduce Luan, a young disabled woman, and her gendered disabling experience in terms of embodiment, which we argue is a form of socially situated knowledge. Our intention is to shed light on a society-critical approach to gender and disability in order to counter recent developments in educational studies towards individualisation and away from socialisation as a central pedagogical moment. Luan's experience is presented in a phenomenological reading to gain an understanding of embodiments of normality and difference and to simultaneously question how far they emerge from external oppression and/or internalised desires of conforming to social norms. We conclude that for a critical and empowering pedagogy of gender and disability, both individual and societal factors have to be taken into consideration, and we accordingly introduce pedagogical perspectives of empowerment.

10.03.2022