AS WE ARE: Identity Narratives of Blind & Visually Impaired Men INTENTIONS Primary Aims: (1) highlight how iden77es are diversely constructed and nego7ated at the cross-points of self, body and society; and (2) unearth the commonali7es and discrepancies between dominant construc7ons and representa7ons and everyday embodied reali7es (3) explore how embodied reali7es are shaped by the lack or loss of sight. Some Objec2ves & Contribu2ons: (1) Highlight the rela7onship between impairment and disability & the significance of this rela7onship to the construc7on of iden7ty in its many fac7ons (2) Unearth different (non-dominant) ways of knowing and experiencing oneself, others & the world (3) Diversify & nuance cri7cal disability studies & gender studies (4) Add to disability narra7ve research
‘Disability makes me feel invisible’ -AA
(1) What does it mean to be a man with a disability when masculinity and disability are socially constructed and represented as opposites? (2) How are these meanings understood and experienced in the absence of sight as a dominant modality through which individuals acquire and exchange informa7on about others and the world?
CLAIMING THE SELF IN THE BODY
RATIONALE The self is something we have and do. It is described as both an aesthe7c construct (Crites, 1986) and a narra7ve component of iden7ty (Polkinghorne, 1991). Iden77es like gender and disability are socially constructed using biological building blocks and the physical, aesthe7c body is their blueprint (Oyewumi, 2005, p. 11). The social dis7nc7ons and oppressions that flow from this are func7ons of the differences between bodies that are enacted and enforced through visual, material and discursive processes. Disability is culturally represented and socially recognized as a departure from a valued standard of self (Garland-Thomson, 2001), a standard that is both implicitly able-bodied and masculine in it invoking the quali7es of agency, autonomy, produc7vity and achievement. Disability is thus one iden7ty fac7on that directly disrupts the primacy of masculinity and its enduring associa7on with strong capable bodies, morality and power (Garland-Thomson, 2002).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
PARTICIPANTS 18 men; ages 25-65 from the U.S. who iden7fy as blind or visually impaired, whose sight loss is congenital or adven77ous, and who are of diverse race, class and sexual orienta7on.
‘When you’re disabled you're not a person, you're less then’ -CK
Tara Fannon, School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI Galway
Personal narra7ves generate a composite picture by bridging gaps between interior worlds, individuals lives and outside posi7onali7es and processes (Coffey and Atkinson, 1996; Maines et al., 2012; Riessman, 2003). Personal narra7ves enact change by containing experiences marginalized by mainstream discourse (Obasogie, 2013) and by containing experiences that are ordinary and familiar to most people (Siebers, 2004). The Listening Guide (Brown et al., 1991; Doucet and Mauthner, 2008) a mul7-layered interpre7ve method developed to accompany a voice-centered rela7onal approach is used. Half the interviews have been taken through the first of three successsive readings. Two key broad-based themes have emerged. (1) 'visibility as agency’ and (2) 'anonymity versus invisibility’. Visibility refers to being seen (func7onal) for disability; singled out and set apart or aside based on bodily diversity and percep7ons of difference. Invisibility refers to not being seen (symbolic) because of disability; being overlooked, dismissed or devalued based also on bodily diversity and percep7ons of indifference.
t.fannon3@nuigalway.ie