I've started this thread because I am concerned about the treatment of people with disabilities, both on MN and in general society. With the cuts, the new regulations around benefits and workfare and the quite disturbing representation of people with disabilities in the media, I believe that society is becoming increasing hostile towards them.
I feel this is a feminist issue because
- Carers are disproportionately female.
- Prejudiced attitudes to disability feed into ideas about how people contribute which I think are contrary to feminist views about the kind of world we want to live.
- The arguments on MN on recent threads include the belief that people with disabilities and their carers are discriminating against mothers by wanting priority access to wheelchair spaces. Discriminating against mothers is a feminist issue, but I have never seen a regular poster from the FWR support this argument and I consider the analogy in itself to be disabilist.
- A shorthand set of terms is being used to create a stereotype around MNers who are carers or have a disability. While we are strident, crazy and angry, they are considered to be bitter, selfish and needy. I feel we need to challenge the language and the goading of posters with disabilities.
There have been threads before on here where posters have asked if the situation around carers is a feminist issue, and while it was acknowledged that it was, I think 'we' (people who are on the boards a lot - not suggesting there is a hive mind) lacked ideas on how to support them. I know people on here campaign about the cuts, but I think it would be positive if 'we' could support people on MN who have experiences with disability, because it seems to me that those posters are leaving/considering leaving, and MN will be intolerable without them.