What is it about disability as a subject of conversation that discomforts many? I’ve had to answer the classic “what do you study” and/or “what’s your dissertation about” question more often of late, and I’ve seen the enthusiasm drain off people’s faces when I give them a short blurb. Here’s how this usually goes:
Random Person: History huh? Cool. What part? I mean, what’s your dissertation on?
Me (short version): Well, I study American history. I’m looking into why disability charities like the March of Dimes and events like the Jerry Lewis telethon became cultural phenomenons after WWII. And I’m trying to figure that out by looking at images in the mass media like published photographs and the telethons.
Inevitably there’s a distinct pause followed by something akin to “that sounds serious” and a seeming inability or unwillingness to probe further. I know it’s not in everyone’s interest wheelhouse. And obviously my elevator speech needs some work, but right now that’s what I can manage to string together. Sometimes I flip the order around so I start off with the visual stuffs and end with the focus on disability. Either way, the nodding along most always slows or stops when I hit the magic word “disability.” My closest friend was the only person recently who actually nodded excitedly, because 1) she’s a wonderful friend that way, and 2) her field is psychology and she had a lot of great follow-up questions about how I’m framing my study.
But that leads me to ask, how can I improve the way I communicate what I do? And why is it that disability seems to be a non-starter with a lot of (able-bodied) people? People who in the next breath will jump into sticky conversations on race relations or gender roles with aplomb? I’m finding it tricky to wrap my head around, since so many people are connected in one way or another to the topic? I’d really like to hear your thoughts to help me figure this one out.
3 thoughts on “Sticking point: talking about my project”
This is a really interesting problem. I would bet that you find a correlation between WHY people stop nodding when you say the word ‘disability’ and why these charities actually grew the way they did. One of the things that I run across is the idea of “secret shame.” For me, this usually comes in the form of family shame that everyone knew Aunt Margaret was potentially violent and when she was finally committed to an asylum after a violent episode, they refused to visit her, but would give to services that may help her asylum in some way. You dig?
FWIW, I have always looked at your project as one that fundamentally deals with and questions how our society manages/responds to challenges to normativity, Disability just happens to be the lens you use to uncover those issues. (This is why I always see a kinship between our projects as this is my question as well, my lens just happens to be violence.) Perhaps focusing in the underlying questions may help you communicate it in such a way that listeners don’t get “stuck” on disability.
I definitely see that correlation you’re pointing to, and the power of “secret shame”. I like your idea about focusing on the underlying questions more–I think what’s kept me away from it is a fear that I would come off like someone with my head stuck up in the clouds, and so I lean more towards the stuffs to be intriguing. What I’m realizing more and more is that maybe I need 2 responses: one more stuffs oriented for people who’d be interested in the visual and another that digs more into the underlying questions. That way I wouldn’t be trying to cram everything in? Definitely food for thought, thanks!
I do believe shame does have something to do with. And that people don’t really know how to handle something like that. You speak of illness, disease, death, or disability and people get incredibly uncomfortable. Do you think that it is perhaps connected to our obsession with sealing ourselves off from mortality? We are obsessed with youth and health and living forever. It is difficult for many people to deal with the idea of aging and coming closer to death. Disabilities remind us that we are not invincible super men and that someday we will in fact die. And while disabilities aren’t fatal, is there perhaps an association? With the rise of these organizations and charities it allows us to feel like we’re doing good (because that’s what we should be doing), but we don’t “get our hands dirty” and have to associate with “sick” people? Also could there be an element of the tradition of shame? In the past anyone with a disability was locked away and hidden from view. In a related topic, I remember when I was doing my paper for Trails in History; when I described to people that I was examining a sodomy trail and looking at sexual violence including rape, some people got really uncomfortable and just starred at my blankly. I’m not sure if there’s a connection, but there does seem to be some echoes between the two.