We meet again, stereotypes

It's pretty clear that one of the central ideas of Nancy Mairs's piece "Disability," is that people with disabilities are human, physical abnormalities or not. But in suggesting that disabled people are just like able bodied people, is she suggesting that able bodied people are like how they thought of disabled people?

At one point in her essay, Mairs talks about labeling able bodied people as TAPs, or Temporarily Abled Persons. Obviously, this is an interesting label towards able bodied people, which seems to say, "You are only temporarily abled. Disability is the norm. One day you shall join us." Obviously, that's rather exaggerated. If it were true, then disability would be the norm and Mairs wouldn't even be writing this paper on behalf of a minority. But that's not the point.

The point is, in the process of classifying all able bodied people under the same label, Mairs seems to be dehumanizing the very people she claims to be the equal to. "We," the able bodied, are all just TAPs. We are just a group of mindless Great American Consumers. We are, to you (the disabled), what you are to us, albeit with a few more abilities. So what's this point you're making about us (the able bodied) dehumanizing you (the disabled)?

Come to think of it, this speaks to a larger truth. It's so easy to claim that you and everyone like you is a victim in some way, shape, or form. It's much harder to tell that you are victimizing others. I suppose it's human nature (way to make an argument against labeling everyone the same thing, Nick).

So yes, in my opinion, her argument falls short in some ways. But it was still a nice, thought provoking essay overall and it's nice to see a fresh perspective. Hopefully we get more of these in the coming semester.