COMPULSORY ABLEISM IN THE RHETORICAL SITUATION: THE IMPERFECTION OF EXIGENCY IN THE CASE AGAINST PERFECTION

In many contexts I think of myself as able-bodied. But, disability is best determined relationally in particular contexts, and in certain instances my body does not fit the compulsory conditions of universal able-bodiedness. Disability and able-bodiedness change in given circumstances and across time. As the often-repeated statement in Disability Studies proclaims, we will all become disabled if we live long enough. Contra to the treatment of the disabled, those with idealized bodies, capabilities, and social capital is the theoretical category of the normate. Lloyd Bitzer’s “The Rhetorical Situation” participates in constructing compulsory able-bodiedness. The dyadic exchange Bitzer and Vatz inaugurate provides a particularly useful canvas for the conversation of disability and rhetoric with attention given to situatedness of rhetoric and the audience, meaning-making versus observation of recalcitrant fact, and a pragmatic or normative framework. A rhetorical model of disability may not be ideal for every description of disability, however, rhetorical analysis can be additive to the predominant medical and social models. Understandings of disability and the rhetorical situation benefit from analysis that includes a discussion of im/perfection, time, and fluidity. A proliferation of different, fluid, understandings of disability is required to avoid normalizing one model at the expense of all others. In his compact book, The Case Against Perfection, Michael Sandel firmly advances ethical objections against biological enhancement; Sandel normalizes ableism and denigrates disability in a number of places throughout his text.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Schultz, James E.

• Disability Studies

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/57164

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/57164