Blog 4 Disabilities and Gender

The connection between the essay “Integrating Disability” by Rosemary Garland Thompson and the film Frida has the sole concept of disability. In the beginning of the movie, Frida Kahlo is in a bus accident leaving her with the chance she could never walk again. Even though she was able to walk, she had to live with the disabilities the accident left her for the rest of her life. In the essay, it describes women with disabilities as unfit to reproduce, overly dependent, and unattractive. Frida had a lot of hardship in her life. She miscarried her child early in her pregnancy. Bother her and her husband had affairs but the one that threw Frida over the edge was the affair Diego had with her sister. She was unhappy when they were living in the city because there was no family around them. Frida had a unibrow making her unpleasant to look at. With Frida’s disability, she is able to push through the pain and walk but in the end her disability creates an infection in her body resulting in death. Many of Frida’s traits mirror what Garland Thompson believes people with disabilities are seen as which is comparatively similar to women.

Gender or disability is a way of signifying relationships of power. It is inherently seen by society that women and people with disabilities are weaker than men. The essay states “Sickness is gendered feminism” (Garland Thompson 81). Women are always the ones who are seen suffering and going through difficulty. When men go through the hurdles with disability or other problems, there identities are tested and come out stronger then they were before. They are more powerful and stronger which enables them to overcome their disability as an obstacle.

In the television show, Friday Night Lights, star quarterback of the Dillon Panthers football Jason Street, was hit the wrong way during the opening game for the team. From that day on Jason was paralyzed; he went from being the town idol to the cripple. He was an attractive young man with a disability and life alteration. His parents want to sue the football team for not teaching Jason the successful tools to block a hit. He does not want to get money that way; he wants to be self-sufficient. He spends a week feeling sorry for himself and starts his physical therapy, which leads to his come back into sports. He joins handicap teams to allow him to be competitive, stay active, and reconnect with athletic person he was before the accident. An aspect of a disability is the relationship between the body and the surrounding environment. When Jason was still learning the changes in his body, he had a huge support system. Not only did he have his family, but he also had his coaches, ex girlfriend, football team, and the town of Dillon, Texas helping him adjust to his new life. People still respect Jason even with his disability and he becomes very independent trying to get a job. Even though his chances of conceiving a child were one in a million, it happened. He allowed his disability not to define him.

I find that even in three very different sources the ideas of disability and gender are quite similar across the board. Women are viewed as the weaker of the two genders and with disabilities it puts them at a greater disadvantage.