The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability

by Wendell, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780415910477
• ISBN10: 0415910471
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-07-02
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Rejected Bodyargues that feminist theorizing has been skewed toward non-disabled experience, and that the knowledge of people with disabilities must be integrated into feminist ethics, discussions of bodily life, and criticism of the cognitive and social authority of medicine. Among the topics it addresses are who should be identified as disabled; whether disability is biomedical, social or both; what causes disability and what could 'cure' it; and whether scientific efforts to eliminate disabling physical conditions are morally justified. Wendell provides a remarkable look at how cultural attitudes towards the body contribute to the stigma of disability and to widespread unwillingness to accept and provide for the body's inevitable weakness.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction	1	(10)
Who Is Disabled? Defining Disability	11	(24)
The Social Construction of Disability	35	(22)
Disability as Difference	57	(28)
The Flight from the Rejected Body	85	(32)
The Cognitive and Social Authority of Medicine	117	(22)
Disability and Feminist Ethics	139	(26)
Feminism, Disability, and Transcendence of the Body	165	(16)
Notes	181	(16)
References	197