Premium Essay

Disability Nancy Mairs

Submitted By
Words 947
Pages 4
Everyone has experienced a stereotype directed towards them once in their life whether it be based on race, gender, status, physical ability or appearance. People who use stereotypes fail to realize the impact it could have on the receiver of the statements. In most cases, stereotypes are not accurate and marginalize people, making them feel distanced from society. The essays “Disability” by Nancy Mairs and “Fatso” by Cheryl Peck both deal with women who have been pushed to edges of normal society due to their stereotypical identities. “Disability” is about a woman who has trouble walking and uses a wheelchair, due to being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The author is disappointed by how she is seen as physically dependent on people and …show more content…
Mairs’ essay uses a purposeful and collaborative tone in her essay to illustrate her mission of normalising people who lack some physical abilities. She proposes, “achieving this integration, for disabled and able-bodied people alike, requires that we insert disability into our field of vision: quietly, naturally, in the small and common scenes of our ordinary lives” (Mairs 218). Mairs sounds hopeful and wants to work together with the readers to assimilate the disabled into what is seen as ordinary. The author of “Disability” does not set herself apart from the readers, she makes comparisons with the reader to get close with them by stating, “I worry about smoker’s breath, so I buy mouthwash...I drive a car, talk on the telephone...eat pizza” (Mairs 217). All of these statements prove that Mairs is really like any reader and she is normal. Peck on the other hand, uses a tone that displays sarcasm and annoyance which does not help her create bonds with the reader. Peck professes, “I have never been called crude names, like ‘fatso’ or ‘lard-bucket’...I have never assumed an admirer would never pay any attention to me because I’m fat. I have never mishandled a sexual situation because I have been trained to think of myself as asexual” (Peck 223). By repeating “never” throughout the piece, the author of “Fatso” sets up an aura of negativity in her piece and expresses scorn because in reality she wishes she “never” received any of the vile comments made towards her, but her “never” means the opposite in her life; she always receives comments about her weight. Mairs uses a hopeful tone to invite people to her cause and in contrast Peck uses a negative tone to express her

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Disability Nancy Mairs Summary

...In an article titled 'HERS: "Disability"', author Nancy Mairs fights for the integration and recognition of disabled people in the media. Mairs discusses the hardships faced mentally when one is physically disabled and how to fix this. She states, "it will be a good bit easier psychologically if you are accustomed to seeing disability as a normal characteristic, one that complicates but does not ruin human existence," (para. 6). Mairs argues that, having a physical disability herself, she feels extremely underrepresented and wishes for those already affected by their diseases and those soon to join them to be aware that although it is a new lifestyle, they are still people. To make her point, Mairs proposes, "to depict disabled people in the...

Words: 252 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Response To Nancy Mairs 'Disability'

...with disabilities are not necessarily disabled. In the essay, “Disability”, by Nancy Mairs, the author demonstrates how people with disabilities are treated differently by the media. Some disabilities are more extreme than others and some people have the same type of disabilities but some are more severe for one person than it is for the next person. People with disabilities do not want sympathy from the public; they just want a fair chance in life. They have not done anything for people to snatch away their dreams and rights to a respectful and fulfilling life. The media treats people with disabilities like they are contagious, chronically ill, and unworthy. To begin with, people with disabilities are treated like they are contagious. Many times people do not want to be around them. The media seems to have a fear that if they start letting one person with a disability on their show, more will want to share the spot light. Mairs stated, “Take it from me, physical disability looms pretty large in one’s life.”...

Words: 649 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Nancy Mairs Disability Analysis

...essays about disability, written by people who are physically disabled, epitomize the triumph of the writer’s duty: to create a powerful impression of the ever-present hardships, passions, and enduring conflicts of the soul in the present and future; to not write of humanity’s false truths, but to help man endure, prevail, and restore pride in itself. All of these pieces of writing share the same general subject matter, but what connects them even further is an intricate and skilled composition of language. This is evident in their diction and syntax; they articulate particular messages and achieve certain aims in a way much more deep and complex than simply stating it. The authors’ messages are evident in not only the content of their...

Words: 1353 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

'Rhetorical Analysis Of Disability' By Nancy Mairs

...The article, “Disability”, written by Nancy Mairs and later published in the New York Times is a short story on how Nancy believes that she, and many other like her, are not represented fairly to the world through the eyes of the media. Mairs is a forty-three year old woman with multiple sclerosis who has been continually searching media for others like her, but has yet to find a match. Through the use of pathos and repetition Mairs successfully argues that the media does not accurately recognize people like her with disabilities. Mairs uses repetition in her article alongside pathos in order to get her point across. While talking about how although her disability takes up a large part of her life, it does not consume it all she states, “I menstruate, so I have to buy tampons. I worry about smoker’s breath, so I buy mouthwash. I smear my wrinkling skin with lotions. I...

Words: 404 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

On Being Cripple

...Mairs, Nancy. "On Being Cripple". The Norton Reader. Ed. Linda       Peterson and John C. Breteon. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008. 59-68       In this well written essay, Nancy Mairs, a feminist writer who has multiple sclerosis, defines the terms in which she will interact with the world. She will name herself--a cripple--and not be named by others.         She will choose a word that represents her reality. Nancy Mairs, talks about her disease "multiple sclerosis", she is well aware of her disadvantage,  although she did not choose the disease the disease chose her.  Mairs still has an positive attitude about life, despite all her limitaions she continues to make a good thing out of a bad situation.  Mairs is aware she is not the only person who had this type of disease will experience some sort of mental and physical breakdown.           Mairs has a goal, she would like to continue with her daily actiivies,  as far as teaching, writing, raising children, speaking publicly about MS  and depression.          The author grabs my attention, in a positive way, knowing we are all human, with some type of disease , by way of mental or physical no matter what the problem is , we could all fall into a depression state at any given time for any given reason.  But if we continue to keep positive thoughts we could all relate to Mairs.        Mairs describes the diagnosis early on, the kind of person she was before...

Words: 299 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Disability

...Nancy Mairs is a writer afflicted with multiple sclerosis. In her essay, "Disability", she explains how the media fails to accurately portray individuals living with a debilitating disease. This causes people with a handicap to feel inadequate, isolated, and lonely. Consequently, the media's lack of depiction hinders the able-bodied person's ability to understand, interact, and accept disability as normal. Mairs wants disability to be portrayed in everyday life that way others can be aware of those who have handicaps and realize that they are just like everyone else. Mairs succeeds to get her point across by drawing in the reader with her strong diction as well as using personal experiences and humor in support of her statements. Mairs shocks the reader when she refers to herself as "crippled". Our culture shuns the use of this word when describing someone that is disabled because it is known to be disrespectful. Yet she chose this word, as offensive as it may be, as a strong acknowledgement of her condition and as a message to those who want to use her disability to define her. She uses this dysphemism to describe her reality and to say that pity is the very last thing that she wants from anyone. What she wants is to feel like she belongs by representation. Not only does Mairs use shocking words but shocking examples. She states how she "hasn't noticed any women like me on television" (13). This makes the reader feel her isolation and her need to find a positive...

Words: 735 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Nancy Mairs Crippled Analysis

...Crippled, a word most people wouldn’t dare to use when speaking to or describing a person with a disability; yet, it’s the word that Nancy Mairs uses to describe herself. In the passage, Nancy Mairs, victim of multiple sclerosis, explains why she describes herself as crippled, as well as why she refuses to be called anything besides crippled. In the passage Mairs explains that though for many, crippled is an offensive word, it is the only word she uses to describe herself. For Mair, to be crippled is to accurately describe her condition, having lost the full use of her limbs. This definition, in her opinion, fits her condition precisely and is straightforward; therefore she has no issue using it. If anything, she finds that using the word...

Words: 397 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Nancy Mairs Research Paper

...Could you imagine having a disease that helped diminish your bones at such a young age? Well Nancy Mairs did. Growing up Mairs was disabled from Multiply Sclerosis, but having this disability didn’t hold Mairs back. In fact it only made her stronger, that’s why she describes herself as “crippled;” And it didn’t faze her one bit, Mairs found ways to live a normal life. Even though society didn’t see it as normal, that’s why Mairs uses specific word choices, such as “crippled” to present herself to society as a whole. So she can be seen as a normal human being, regardless of her physical abilities. “Crippled” is Mairs way of describing herself, because it’s a “straightforward” word that causes people to “wince.” By using this word, Mairs...

Words: 314 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Paper

...made him his savior and accepted him at the center of his life, and now he goes from city to city talking about God and how he has created his own identity for himself with the help of God. The speaker told us about how through all of those things that have happened in his past have caused him to become a strong person, but how anyone can make their own identity regardless of their background or the actions that they have done in the past. In the essay “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs talks about being crippled and what it is like. She says “I made the choice” of whether to be called handicapped, disabled, crippled, or another term used for physically disabled people. (Mairs, 231) She goes onto to talk about how she doesn’t let her disability bother her as much, and how she has become the person she is today. When people let their disabilities or other problems affect them it changes the way they think, and the way they act towards other people, hence creating a poor identity for themselves. Mairs tells about how she has created her own...

Words: 682 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Model Of Disability

...Disability is an issue that has faced mankind throughout the course of history, but continues to be pushed to the side. Society tries its best to avoid disabled people all together, or if that is impossible looks down on their lesser life with pity. First hand accounts of this treatment is seen in disabled authors Kenny Fries, Nancy Mairs, and Harriet McBryde-Johnson. Fries brings to light the need for society to look at disability through the social model. This model focuses on the physical and attitudinal societal barriers that exclude disabled people from the community. The disabled experience does not just stem from the physical impairment itself, but society's reaction to it as well. Mairs discusses the barrier created by society's rejection...

Words: 1554 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Nancy Mairs On Being A Cripple Summary

...In Nancy Mairs’ “On Being a Cripple” she lends us to the extensive view of the life of a person living with MS, and the day to day basis on how her life has changed. According the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common disabling neurological disease of young adults. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neuroinflammatory disease that affects myelin , a substance that makes up the membrane (called the myelin sheath) that wraps around nerve fibers (axons). Mrs. Mairs’ life has been changed to the point where her daily life is impacted by her disease, but not to the point where she allows the disease to define her life. She still tries to do daily activities and has adjusted her disability. She herself doesn’t say that her life is nothing but worry-free. but she does say that if anyone should be well adjusted to having MS, it’d be her. Her essay brings up a lot of points about being disabled, from the linguistics of identifying disabled people to how...

Words: 1553 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Nancy Mairs On Being A Cripple Analysis

...Being a cripple sounds horrible to most able-bodied people, but not to Nancy Mairs, author of “On Being a Cripple.” Being an able-bodied person once herself, she grew up to have multiple sclerosis, an incurable disease that attacks the nervous system, making some of, if not all, the affected person’s limbs become useless, making them “crippled.” Mairs is however glad that she has this disease, as it allows her to see life more clearly. This belief can be extended to other people with same or different disabilities. In most cases, Mairs would be right in assuming that having a disability would allow a person to see life clearly. One such case would be the one of Eleanor Longden. Longden battled through the disorder known as schizophrenia....

Words: 488 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

On Being A Cripple Analysis

...Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs the authors describe what it is like to have Multiple Sclerosis or MS. Multiple Sclerosis is a nervous system disease that is incurable. Although they are discussing the same subject the authors display different attitudes towards it. Soyster seems to with an attitude of longing for the past while Mairs approaches the subject with a more positive attitude about her disability. Both of the writers use diction, appeals to pathos, and allusion to effectively describe their lives with this disease. The use of diction in these essays plays an instrumental role in establishing the tone and ideas that the authors present. Both the writers...

Words: 816 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Santa Ana Winds

...Mr. Macomber English 3 AP Syllabus 1.5 English 3 AP Course Overview Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and texts in order to establish greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. C16 Students examine rhetoric in essays, images, movies, novels, and speeches. They frequently confer about their writing by conferencing in class. C 14 Feedback is given both before and after students revise their work to help them develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence. Rhetorical structures, graphic organizers, and work on repetition, transitions, and emphasis are addressed. I comment on individual drafts, and I write memos to the class in a blog about whole-class concerns such as specificity of quotations, parallelism, and transitions. C13 Simultaneously, students review the simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence classifications. We examine word order, length, and surprising constructions. Loose and periodic sentences are introduced. We examine sample sentences and discuss how change affects tone, purpose, and credibility of the author/speaker. In addition, feedback on producing sentence structure variety...

Words: 2702 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Health Information System

...27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 AUPHA/HAP Editorial Board Sandra Potthoff, Ph.D., Chair University of Minnesota Simone Cummings, Ph.D. Washington University Sherril B. Gelmon, Dr.P.H., FACHE Portland State University Thomas E. Getzen, Ph.D. Temple University Barry Greene, Ph.D. University of Iowa Richard S. Kurz, Ph.D. Saint Louis University Sarah B. Laditka, Ph.D. University of South Carolina Tim McBride, Ph.D. St. Louis University Stephen S. Mick, Ph.D. Virginia Commonwealth University Michael A. Morrisey, Ph.D. University of Alabama—Birmingham Dawn Oetjen, Ph.D. University of Central Florida Peter C. Olden, Ph.D. University of Scranton Lydia M. Reed AUPHA Sharon B. Schweikhart, Ph.D. The Ohio State University Nancy H. Shanks, Ph.D. Metropolitan State College of Denver * [-2], (2 Lines: 2 59.41 ——— ——— Normal * PgEnds [-2], (2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 [-3], (3) Lines: 115 to 168 * 487.0pt PgVar ——— ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: Eject [-3], (3) AUPHA Health Administration Press 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Your board, staff, or clients may also benefit from this book’s insight. For more information on quantity discounts, contact the Health...

Words: 123678 - Pages: 495