Ignore my Disability, Please

English: Rocks in mountains. Deutsch: Felsen im Huangshan-Gebirge. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"Nondisabled people have the right to choose when to be able-bodied. Disabled people must try to be as able-bodied as possible all the time," which Tobin Siebers lists as a myth in American culture about disability, means that social pressure exists on the disabled to keep able-bodied people from noticing their disabilities.  In other words, overdoing things that are difficult is required of the disabled so that people without disabilities don't get uncomfortable.  Where I see this in Avatar is in the scene I was talking about before.  When Quaritch gets into the big exoskeleton thing, Jake has to be elevated so that they're on the same eye level, when it would have made more sense (and been more polite, too) if Quaritch had continued to sit on the weight bench while they were talking.  Moreover, there is no kind of railing on the raised platform, which would be kind of scary even for people who aren't using a wheelchair.  So Jake has this added burden, and you can imagine where in some cases, trying to act like he is able bodied would be bad for his health, maybe even dangerous.  

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I Crash and Burn, But Get Saved in the End

The Scent of Crash and Burn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, it's kind of obvious that I am having trouble keeping up with my workload.  I really should have cut back my hours at the store, but I need the money.  At the same time, I can't afford to waste the money I spent on the course, so I went to see Dr. Toffee about my problems -- she asked us to come see her if we were thinking of dropping.  And then she did something amazing.

She GAVE me a thesis for my research paper.  Of course, she brainstormed with me for a while and asked all kinds of questions about what I saw in Avatar (incidentally, my research proposal was a mess.  I didn't re-read the instructions before I wrote it, so it didn't make much sense), before she came up with three (!) different possible claims I could make about it.  She recommended that I take the easiest one, which was "Quaritch is an ableist villain," because the draft is due on 7/9.  I can do it, I think.

I didn't know that a teacher could do that, so I was kind of shocked.  She said that I was already thinking that anyway and all she did was put it into words, and I guess that's true, but I'm feeling sort of guilty about it.  That doesn't mean I'm not going to use it, though.  So now all I have to do is write a bunch more journal entries before midnight tonight (the checkpoint deadline), and then I'll get started on the draft.  I have the weekend off at work since I have to work the 4th of July sale (doesn't that just suck?), so the timing is good.

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