Imagining Accessibility: Theorizing Disability in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction
With its emphasis on futurity, its close association with scientific plausibility, and its dedicated interrogation of contemporary ideologies, science fiction stands as a genre ripe with possibilities for disability studies. Many scholars have used the genre and its texts as platforms from which to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Ohio State University Libraries
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Disability Studies Quarterly |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/6685 |
| _version_ | 1830285416579727360 |
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| author | Matthew Holder |
| author_facet | Matthew Holder |
| author_sort | Matthew Holder |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With its emphasis on futurity, its close association with scientific plausibility, and its dedicated interrogation of contemporary ideologies, science fiction stands as a genre ripe with possibilities for disability studies. Many scholars have used the genre and its texts as platforms from which to either condemn or laud representations of disability within a field explicitly concerned with a society's future. My essay contributes to this discussion by foregrounding a science fiction text to theorize what a disabled future looks like. I take as my primary text a selection of short fiction from Uncanny Magazine, an online magazine that published a disability-themed issue Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction in 2018. The stories contained are penned exclusively by authors that identify as disabled; their visions of a disabled future, then, emerge from the contemporary experience of the disabled community. In addition to centering themselves in the discourse, these writers envision a disabled future as one that emphasizes community and frequently critiques and interrogates the costs, emotional and physical, inherent in the medical model of disability, announcing that a truly disabled future is one that features rather than erases the disabled mind and body. Running with the banner of destroying SF, these writers challenge the conventional, harmful tropes that SF has perpetuated and erects in its place an inclusive, intersectional, and disabled future. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T03:38:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bc92548d2f5e4102a6224141d8d35015 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1041-5718 2159-8371 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T03:38:56Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | The Ohio State University Libraries |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Disability Studies Quarterly |
| spelling | doaj.art-bc92548d2f5e4102a6224141d8d350152022-12-21T20:37:18ZengThe Ohio State University LibrariesDisability Studies Quarterly1041-57182159-83712020-09-0140310.18061/dsq.v40i3.66854548Imagining Accessibility: Theorizing Disability in Disabled People Destroy Science FictionMatthew Holder0Saint Louis UniversityWith its emphasis on futurity, its close association with scientific plausibility, and its dedicated interrogation of contemporary ideologies, science fiction stands as a genre ripe with possibilities for disability studies. Many scholars have used the genre and its texts as platforms from which to either condemn or laud representations of disability within a field explicitly concerned with a society's future. My essay contributes to this discussion by foregrounding a science fiction text to theorize what a disabled future looks like. I take as my primary text a selection of short fiction from Uncanny Magazine, an online magazine that published a disability-themed issue Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction in 2018. The stories contained are penned exclusively by authors that identify as disabled; their visions of a disabled future, then, emerge from the contemporary experience of the disabled community. In addition to centering themselves in the discourse, these writers envision a disabled future as one that emphasizes community and frequently critiques and interrogates the costs, emotional and physical, inherent in the medical model of disability, announcing that a truly disabled future is one that features rather than erases the disabled mind and body. Running with the banner of destroying SF, these writers challenge the conventional, harmful tropes that SF has perpetuated and erects in its place an inclusive, intersectional, and disabled future.https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/6685theoryscience fictionshort fictionsiebersschalk |
| spellingShingle | Matthew Holder Imagining Accessibility: Theorizing Disability in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction Disability Studies Quarterly theory science fiction short fiction siebers schalk |
| title | Imagining Accessibility: Theorizing Disability in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction |
| title_full | Imagining Accessibility: Theorizing Disability in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction |
| title_fullStr | Imagining Accessibility: Theorizing Disability in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Imagining Accessibility: Theorizing Disability in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction |
| title_short | Imagining Accessibility: Theorizing Disability in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction |
| title_sort | imagining accessibility theorizing disability in disabled people destroy science fiction |
| topic | theory science fiction short fiction siebers schalk |
| url | https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/6685 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT matthewholder imaginingaccessibilitytheorizingdisabilityindisabledpeopledestroysciencefiction |