Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s new book Staring: How We Look explores the “constructive possibilities” of a forbidden activity, writes Peter Monaghan in the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription only).

People with disabilities, argues Garland-Thomson (left), a professor of women’s studies at Emory University, are not merely the objects of other people’s gazes, but also take some control of the experience of being stared at. To the extent that they do that, they change the experience for the starer, who may come away from it with greater understanding.

Garland-Thomson, who writes about disability issues from the perspective of a person with a disfigured arm, says the UN’s passage of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities signals a weakening of the societal view that disabilities are primarily medical matters.

For those living with disabilities, that statement reflects a “new way of understanding ourselves, as a community, and a minority group,” says Garland-Thomson. “And that emphasis on civil or human rights gives us a new confidence, and positive disability identity, and pride, if you will, that wasn’t available before the civil-rights era.”

Book excerpt here.

Earlier posts here and here.

(Photo from Emory University website)

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 6:17 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, books, civil rights, human rights, law, public attitudes, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.