Is becoming disabled desirable? Telethon's back. Now I find, I've changed my mind and opened up the doors, Help me!

The Way We Roll

It’s the 1 to 1 show where Phil and Simon chat over the latest topics.

If you’d like to hear two liberally minded, disabled men get themselves in an academic mess, this is the show for you.

Simon mentions an academic article from the New Discourses website, that asks if radical disability studies support ‘transableism’. This is when someone who is not disabled feels that they are. They may seek surgery to get the impairment they feel they (should) have. This raises complex questions on the ethics of medicine, of identity and disability identity, of trans subjects more broadly. It gets tricky asking if impairment or disability is desirable and where does it fit if disability is a social construct?

If you’re still listening, Phil steers us to safer activist ground by asking is the telethon making a comeback? It follows the return of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon in the US, that used to be Jerry Lewis’ project and now Kevin Hart is the lead.

Finally, we ask why some people can help us and we don’t mind, even welcome it? They help us with things that we can probably do perfectly well. Where’s our pride and independence? Do some have an aura? Is it based on our relationship with them that means it’s welcome and not intrusive?
A thank you to Susan Scott-Parker for sending us articles that helped with the topics of this show.
Links:-

New Discourses Disability Studies

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We hope you enjoy it.

Chapters

1. Is becoming disabled desirable? Telethon's back. Now I find, I've changed my mind and opened up the doors, Help me! (00:00:00)

2. Trans Ableism (00:03:59)

3. Telethon (00:22:33)

4. On being helped (00:30:28)

5. Wrap Up (00:38:48)