Blog Number 4

            When the feminist movement and the disability movement combined it created more opportunities for everyone. People were nervous that the joining of these two movements would limit it to only women with disabilities but it did the exact opposite of that. It allowed for these two movements to broaden their horizons and talk about everything that they were being discriminated for. Their body type, gender, image, and beauty anything that people used to but them down for. In Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory written by Rosemarie Garland Thomson, she talks about the two movements and how it can really make a difference in the world. She says “The constituency for feminist disability studies is all of us, not only women with disabilities: disability is the most human of experiences touching every family and if we live long enough touching us all.”  This shows how this movement isn’t just about a specific group of people its about everyone and how we are perceived in the world. The media plays a big role in this and how people see themselves. They portray body image in a way that is unrealistic way. The classic Barbie doll is shown as a blonde extremely skinny girl with big boobs. If you made Barbie into a real person her proportions would be so ridiculous she would not look like a normal person. The Barbie gives the impression to little girls that they should look just like that when they grow up. The goal is to change the way we represent ourselves in the media and in society. Disabled people are seen as weak and with out a man how could they ever take care of themselves? The way people think of disabled people need to change. They are not dependent they are strong and just because they have a disability does not mean they need anyone or even a man to feel responsible for them.

“Women and the disabled are portrayed as helpless, dependent, weak vulnerable and incapable bodies.” In the movie Frieda, Frieda Kahlo gets into a bus accident when she is young and becomes disabled. At first they believed that she would never walk again but she overcomes this and does walk. She is an amazing painter and her disability only helped her strive to be better then she ever was before. She never let anyone tell her what to do and how to live and she never needed a man to help her when she was disabled. When Frieda does get married she still shows how she doesn’t need a man to take care of her. She is strong and outspoken and lets her artwork speak for herself. She breaks the stereotype that women with disabilities are “helpless”. Frieda plays a very important role for many women. She is stronger then anyone else in the movie and is portrayed as independent. Frieda makes her own name for herself and even when her and her husband have problems she manages to get by on her own. Throughout the whole movie she stays true to who she is and even until the end. When she is sick and dying she still manages to make her way to her own exhibition even though the doctor and her husband tell her not to. Frieda is a good representation of what a disabled women looks like. They are strong, independent and do not need to be taken care of.