I have one question for you.
Feministe. Feministing. Shakesville. Bitch. Kate Harding, Jezebel and Broadsheet.
Every big feminist-inclined blogger who has shown such urgency and import about Stupak and abortion-within-healthcare-reform. Every feminist blogger who has used their standing, their wide audience, to urge people to do something to change this bad thing that is going to happen to people like us.
You’ve been there for all the women with functional reproductive capacity.
Because this is just as urgent an issue. And just as timely: it is being considered in the current health-care reform package. This one. This same one with Stupak (or analog). This same one you are fighting to improve for the sake of women.
Where have you been for years on the Community Choice Act?
We are talking about policy that is cheaper than subsidizing the cost of placing someone in a modern institution (nursing home, “senior living,” “care home” and the like), that allows women to have independence, autonomy, and self-determination. We are talking about a policy that gives women control over their bodies and the direction of their lives.
Just like access to affordable abortion.
We are talking about policy that lets disabled and elderly people live out in their own communities, with home services that allow them to get by on their own.
We are talking about fighting modern institutionalization, which is alive and well and still just as horrific as the stories from those old abandoned state buildings you’ve all heard about.
We are talking about saving people from being corralled, shepherded, and treated like livestock. Saving people from abusive situations, from sexual assault, from neglect and starvation.
This affects women.
Why aren’t you there with them?
Why don’t I see this addressed with nearly the same frequency or urgency? Nearly the same sense of importance, immediacy?
Because it is quite immediate to quite a lot of people. People who do not have the power you hold in our political system. (Oh, you may hold less than your male-identified young, abled, financially-privileged counterparts. But you still hold a great amount of power compared to many who are not in such a position.) People who need allies to fight with them. Let me spell that for you: N-E-E-D. They cannot see progress for as long as their younger, more abled peers continue to ignore them.
This is your chance to do something that makes an enormous difference.
If you aren’t familiar with this issue, I suggest you make yourself familiar with it. Learn about ADAPT. Read about the CCA and the arguments for it. Look into your local Independent Living center and see about opportunities for volunteering. Whether it’s high-minded political activism or low-status work doing the caring and cleaning and cooking.
Read up about disability activism, and read up about today’s institutions. Force yourself to confront reality.
And, maybe, use that platform you’ve got to share your new knowledge with others.
We need you.
Nia
| Sunday, December 20, 2009 | 2:30 pmI’m not American and all the information I get about the US healthcare reform is through feminist blogs, mostly Shakesville. I had no idea about this issue you’re telling now. Thanks a lot for this post. I’ll spread this information as much as I can!
Tera
| Monday, December 21, 2009 | 12:59 amYes. THIS.
Jessica
| Monday, December 21, 2009 | 10:14 amI had no idea about this issue and appreciate you telling me, but the tone to about every post you have bashing pre-existing feminists sites that don’t bring enough attention to disability is getting abrasive. You will not persuade people to be more involved by constantly hinting at them being assholes who obviously don’t care. I am no longer subscribing to your feed because every time I read one of your posts instead of wanting to help more, I get annoyed. Disability rights are extremely important, and feminists need to jump behind and educated the masses on all sorts of marginalized female groups. But you have to also understand that to some of us who are just starting to really question abelism in our culture and want to help, your constant ‘yall never do enough and don’t really care’ posts don’t help to persuade for the better.
NTE
| Monday, December 21, 2009 | 10:39 amHear hear. If you’re going to say you’re on my side, that you’ve got my interests at heart, and that you’re battling for my rights, I’d really like it if you realized that I have other health care rights that are being trampled, and I’d like your help there too.
amandaw
| Monday, December 21, 2009 | 7:47 pmJessica, you can find an answer to your comment here.
three rivers fog » Why am I so damn mean?
| Monday, December 21, 2009 | 8:05 pm[...] background: my previous post and this comment to [...]
Anna
| Monday, December 21, 2009 | 8:35 pmJessica, I’m not sure how familiar you are with what’s called the “tone argument”. Basically, it can be summed up like this: “I would pay more attention to your issues if you were nicer about presenting them to me.”
It puts a lot of onus on someone who’s being oppressed to be “nice and kind and gentle” when talking about their oppression. It’s telling people who are angry that the can’t express their anger because it might offend someone.
In Not Enough Spoons on the Planet, inalasahl talks about the tone argument in relation to discussions about race. There’s a lot of background going into that post about an ongoing discussion about race and racism in science-fiction/fantasy, but I think that it will make sense without the background.
I know it’s off-putting to feel people are being yelled at, and it can make others feel very uncomfortable. However, this is coming from a place of quiet but intense rage. Being told that one must be nicer – in one’s own space! – if one wishes to be heard is just not acceptable in feminist-centered discourse.
Amanda
| Monday, December 21, 2009 | 10:19 pmWow, I can’t even work out what is supposed to be “mean” about this in the first place. Then again I get the same crap a lot in my own comments.
OuyangDan
| Tuesday, December 22, 2009 | 12:12 pmWow, amandaw, the “tone” argument, at you, again. Seriously, I have slacked on that fucking bingo card long enough. This has got to be a dog damned record or something. Holy shit.
liz
| Wednesday, December 23, 2009 | 10:06 amWorking on it in my real life as a board member of my local Community Services Board. We’re trying to get more medicaid waiver slots opened in Virginia so that we can provide more community-based care.
liz
| Wednesday, December 23, 2009 | 10:07 amAlso, did you know that in Virginia, you can only make 80% of the poverty level to qualify for Medicaid? That’s ridiculous and we’re working on that too.
Kassiane
| Wednesday, December 23, 2009 | 3:02 pmA-freaking-men.
Being a one-woman-revolution isn’t acceptable. So many of us are.
To the people who are throwing “I don’t like your TONE” back at the author, words just fail me. I don’t like your entitlement complex.
thetroubleis
| Wednesday, December 23, 2009 | 3:42 pmYes, this. They just didn’t care. I keep hearing about how women are getting thrown under the bus, but some of us have been hanging out down here for a while.
Muse142
| Wednesday, December 23, 2009 | 9:04 pmTHANK YOU for this.
Jessie
| Wednesday, December 23, 2009 | 11:39 pmTHANK YOU. I read Feministe, I admit, but I kind of wince every time they mention only the Stupak thing (yes, that IS important, but why is everything you mentioned NOT important?).
One little problem I had though… “their younger, more abled peers” sounds somewhat ageist. There are elderly people who are not disabled. There are twenty-somethings that are. And they’re here too. Well, I’m here, anyway.
of Heart and Mind
| Thursday, December 31, 2009 | 8:30 pm[...] I Have One Question for You There are a lot of other feminist issues in the HCB beyond Stupak. [...]