‘How dare you pretend to be disabled?’ The discounting of transabled people and their claims in disability movements and studies

Abstract

Although the contours of the ‘disabled person’ category are questioned by anti-ableist activists, they remain rigid regarding transabled people (who want to become disabled). For anti-ableist activists, transabled people do not count as disabled. They are perceived to: be falsely disabled; steal resources from disabled people; and be disrespectful by denying, fetishizing, or appropriating marginalized realities. By combining critical discourse analysis, genealogy, and deconstruction, I examine these negative discourses to encourage alliances between anti-ableist activists and transabled people. Ideas developed in disability and trans studies reveal the limits of these discourses anchored in ableist and cisnormative* assumptions.

Keywords:

• transability
• body integrity identity disorder
• stigmatization
• exclusion
• disability studies and activism
• social movements

Acknowledgments

The original text was translated from the French by Catriona LeBlanc. Previous versions of this paper were presented in April 2015 at the Somatechnics Conference in Tucson and in June 2015 at the Canadian Disability Studies Association Conference in Ottawa. The author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of this article for their helpful insights and Luca Greco, Catriona LeBlanc, Bruno Laprade, Gabrielle Bouchard, and Mickael Chacha Enriquez for their attentive reading and comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This also raises the question of who speaks. Following anti-oppression theories on the importance of the subject’s position, I self-identity as a disabled, bisexual, transsexual man. The identities I claim are invisible; I am assumed to be a cissexual/cisgender (i.e. identified as male at birth), heterosexual, able-bodied man. My experiences of ‘passing’ inform my perspectives. On ‘passing’, see Rubin (1998), Wendell (2001, 28–30), Serano (2007, 176–180), and Linton ([1997] 2010, 229–230).

2. They also question the dis/abled body binary and highlight its relational character. My use of ‘unhealthy’ follows Wendell (2001) and includes environmental and chronic illnesses. My use of ‘mental disabilities’ follows Price (2011) and includes a variety of cognitive impairments and ‘emotional/mental health issues’ (depression, anxiety).

3. I use the term ‘anti-ableist activists’ rather than ‘disabled activists’ to avoid the assumption that these activists are necessarily disabled. Following authors in disability studies in North America, I use ‘ableism’ instead of ‘disablism’ to refer to the systemic violence and discrimination experienced by disabled people in societies based on able-bodied norms and structures. Although discussion of the ableism/disablism distinction is beyond the scope of this paper, I would like to thank the reviewer of this article who pointed out this cultural difference.

4. It could be said that transabled people adopt an ‘affirmation model of disability’ (Swaina and Frencha 2000) regarding their impairment and disability. I am conscious of the fact that not all disabled people have this positive image of disability, as Watson (2002) showed. Regarding the ‘wrong body’ discourse, although it is criticized in trans studies, many trans people find it useful (Rubin 1998). This is also true for transabled people (Baril 2013, 2015; Davis 2012). For transabled people’s testimonials, see documentaries (BBC 2000; Gilbert 2003), blogs such as transabled.org and biid-info.org (now defunct), and testimonials in Furth and Smith ([2000] 2002) and Stirn, Thiel, and Oddo (2009, 79–106). The objective of this article is not to explore transabled people’s discourses, as in these sources, but to respond to others’ negative discourses surrounding transability.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 756-2013-0165].