The View From Down Here: Life as a Young Disabled Woman

Lucy Webster is about thirty. She's a British journalist and activist. And, she has cerebral palsy. This book talks about ... well read the subtitle. 

Webster requires personal assistants (carers) to do everyday tasks. Kim Nielsen in A Disability History of the United States reminds us, however, that we are not the proverbial man on an island. 

The independence trope is more myth than reality.  We all depend on people in a variety of ways:

That all people are created equal and interdependent; that all life on this planet exists interdependently; that the future of all people requires that they live with respect for one another and for this earth.

(my original link to this quote is now broken) 

Webster argues that non-disabled people (or those so labeled) are a big part of the problem. She speaks of the "social model," ableist assumptions and practices that burden disabled people. Ableism privileges certain bodies and ways of living that conform to a perceived norm. 

Sexism gives her a two-fer to handle, including certain things that code "feminine" that she is allegedly not able to do. For instance, Lucy has a chapter on dating and motherhood. She argues the disabled would make good mothers, including in the ways that matter such as emotional connections to children.   

Her experiences as a middle-class (seems that way) white woman with a disability shows the importance of "intersectionality." Webster carefully defines "ableism" while not doing the same with this term. You can figure it out in context.* 

I discussed the term when talking about critical race theory, which was one of my first extended essays on a teaching website:

It is a term created by Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap.  So, for instance, Vice President Kamala Harris is both a woman and of mixed racial heritage.  No one is one thing, and each aspect makes for a complicated whole.

She argues that there is something specific about being a female disabled person, including a special type of infantilization/sexlessness. People feel it is acceptable to touch her when a man touching some other adult woman would clearly be seen as appropriate.  

Disabled women have specific needs and concerns that men do not have. A disabled man might have his own issues, especially with the macho assumptions of manhood. 

OTOH, people caring for men is acceptable. A woman is "supposed to" be a caring individual. Webster notes most personal assistants are women, which furthers the discriminatory practices often found in the caring industry.

Webster struggled in mainstream schooling, finding friendship and a sense of community once she was in college. Her fellow students in regular school did not accept her, causing a lot of loneliness. Students can be assholes. But she ultimately blames the teachers for not providing an adequate rewarding environment.  

Meeting another disabled person her own age in high school was a key moment. OTOH, she notes two children who she mothered as a teenager gave her much pleasure. Wonderful, supporting parents helped. It does not seem that she has any siblings.  

Webster eventually worked for the BBC. She moved on to freelancing, in part to have more time to work on her book and be an activist. 

She was around twenty-eight when she wrote the book (2023). So, it is all "to be continued," including her decision not to date. 

The book is a well-written personal account that is appropriate for teenagers. For instance, she talks about drinking but is less explicit about the details of sex (after all, her parents are reading the book). I think some readers might feel she is somewhat privileged -- not everyone goes to college and has a job at the BBC. 

A few Britishisms are used but Americans won't have an issue overall with the text. 

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* Webster grants that she is not a stand-in for all types of disabled women, including those with different disabilities, who are LGBTQ, and so forth. She is speaking about herself. 

Nielsen's book notes that "disability" is a subjective term. Pre-colonial Native American communities, for instance, often would treat "disability" as an inability to fit in. A deaf person who is a useful member of a tribe would not be considered dis-abled.