Being seen : one deafblind woman's fight to end ableism

Title:

Author:

Sjunneson, Elsa, 1985- author.

ISBN:

9781982152376

Edition:

First Tiller Press hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

xi, 273 pages ; 24 cm.

Contents:

The Building Blocks of Blindness: Hi, I'm Elsa -- We Need to Talk about Helen: Breaking Gibson's Mythology -- Language Acquisition Through the Sound Barrier and Other Deafblind Mysteries -- My Body and Other Histories -- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Identify Ableism: A Lesson in Radiation Poisoning -- Your Vision of Blindness is Impaired: The Monolith of Blindness in Media -- How I Learned to Drive, Play With Swords, And Other Things You Shouldn't Do At Home -- Yes, Virginia, Even Blind Men Can Be Assholes: The Intersection of Disability and Gender -- The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Surviving Ableist Violence Through the Lens of Horror -- Cripping My Dance Card: Required Reading for People Who Want to Date Me (But my Relatives Should Close the Book) -- Coming Out of the Closet: But Only If It's ADA Compliant -- There Are No Blind Moms on TV: Disability & Parenthood Stigma -- I Am Not a Teaching Tool: Medicalizing the Disabled Body -- Welcome to the Cyberpunk Future, It's In My Ears: Disability and Science Fiction -- We Have Always Thrived in the Castle: Defying Ableism to Become Yourself -- Cane in One Hand, Protest Sign in the Other: A View of Police Brutality and Disability -- Hindsight is 20/20, Except if You're Me and then it's [REDACTED].

Personal Subject:

Sjunneson, Elsa, 1985-

Subject Term:

Deafblind people -- United States -- Biography.

Deafblind women -- United States -- Biography.

People with disabilities.

People with disabilities in mass media.

Discrimination against people with disabilities.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Summary:

"A deafblind writer and professor explores how the misrepresentation of disability in books, movies, and TV harms both the disabled community and everyone else." --

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	921 SJUNNESON	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	921 SJUNNESON	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A Deafblind writer and professor explores how the misrepresentation of disability in books, movies, and TV harms both the disabled community and everyone else.

As a Deafblind woman with partial vision in one eye and bilateral hearing aids, Elsa Sjunneson lives at the crossroads of blindness and sight, hearing and deafness--much to the confusion of the world around her. While she cannot see well enough to operate without a guide dog or cane, she can see enough to know when someone is reacting to the visible signs of her blindness and can hear when they're whispering behind her back. And she certainly knows how wrong our one-size-fits-all definitions of disability can be.

As a media studies professor, she's also seen the full range of blind and deaf portrayals on film, and here she deconstructs their impact, following common tropes through horror, romance, and everything in between. Part memoir, part cultural criticism, part history of the Deafblind experience, Being Seen explores how our cultural concept of disability is more myth than fact, and the damage it does to us all.

Author Notes

Elsa Sjunneson, seven-time Hugo Award finalist, is a Deafblind speculative fiction writer living in Seattle, Washington. She has been published in CNN Opinion, The Boston Globe , Metro UK , and Tor . Her work has been praised as "eloquence and activism" in lockstep and can be found all over the internet. Elsa writes and edits speculative fiction and nonfiction. She has been a finalist for the Best Fan Writer and Best Semiprozine Hugo Awards, a winner of the D. Franklin Defying Doomsday Award, and a finalist for the Best Game Writing Nebula Award. As an activist for disability rights, she has worked with New Jersey 11th for Change and the New York Disability Pride Parade. And as an educator and public speaker she has presented work at the University of Chicago and The Henry Art Gallery, and taught workshops with Clarion West, Writing the Other, and various Science Fiction conventions.

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

A combination of personal memoir and shrewd examination of the ways in which society and media shape our perceptions of disability. Sjunneson, who identifies as Deafblind, boldly explores her life in the context of living in an ableist society. For most of her life, she tried to hide her disabilities. Her parents raised her as nondisabled, placing her in mainstream classrooms without the use of accommodations or "special needs" services. Based on the feedback she received from those around her at the time, this route seemed the easier path to take. As Sjunneson explains, society wants "us to conform to a standard that makes sense to them." She adds, "the education of a Deafblind child is often about how best to conform to the world." As the author describes her life experiences, she is clearly and rightfully angry. "I have become an expert at lying for abled comfort, and it is exhausting," she writes. "I've been trying to unlearn it." Over time, Sjunneson has come to realize that her upbringing caused her to miss opportunities to interact with communities with similar identities. In attempting to navigate life independently, she has felt put on display and has endured an onslaught of abuse. She is frequently treated as helpless and has been discouraged from engaging in many activities, including having children. Sjunneson blames media tropes for much of society's perception of those who are disabled and spends much of the book investigating the depiction of disabled individuals in film and literature. As the author stresses, she does not want to be pitied or viewed by anyone as an inspiration. "If you are inspired to do anything by this book," she writes, "it should be the work of dismantling the ableist system we live in." A much-needed wake-up call for the nondisabled world. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

In this sharp and thought-provoking memoir, Sjunneson, who describes herself as Deafblind and queer, shares anecdotes and insights about growing up in an ableist world. She cites biased depictions of disabled people in books, movies, and TV shows and recounts such experiences as listening to people say things like "it fell on deaf ears" and being grabbed by a woman who insists, "Jesus loves you. He'll heal your sight if you accept him as your personal savior." After she miscarries, she is horrified when a doctor offers to sterilize her. Tearing into the history of eugenics in the U.S., she writes that Alexander Graham Bell didn't think the deaf should bear children. Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act, only 25 percent of the New York City subway system is accessible. At 36, she has endured two pandemics: AIDS, which killed her father, and COVID-19. Sjunneson notes that anyone can become disabled or sick in an instant. She asks why insurance doesn't cover hearing aids, and why some places make customers with guide dogs feel unwelcome. An award-winning writer and a powerful activist, Sjunneson challenges conventional wisdom on everything from sex (yes, Deafblind people have it) to blindness (it doesn't usually cause complete darkness). As she writes, "nondisabled people, buckle up."

Author's Note	p. xi
1 The Building Blocks of Blindness: Hi, I'm Elsa.	p. 1
2 We Need to Talk About Helen: Breaking Gibson's Mythology	p. 27
3 Language Acquisition Through the Sound Barrier and Other Deafblind Mysteries	p. 40
4 My Body and Other Histories	p. 52
5 How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Identity Ableism: A Lesson in Radiation Poisoning	p. 73
6 Your Vision of Blindness Is Impaired: The Monolith of Blindness in Media	p. 96
7 How I Learned to Drive, Play with Swords, and Other Things You Shouldn't Do at Home	p. 109
8 Yes, Virginia, Even Blind Men Can Be Assholes: The Intersection of Disability and Gender	p. 128
9 The Call Is Coming from Inside the House: Surviving Ableist Violence Through the Lens of Horror	p. 142
10 Cripping My Dance Card: Required Reading for People Who Want to Date Me (But My Relatives Should Skip to Chapter 11)	p. 158
11 Coming Out of the Closet: But Only If It's ADA Compliant	p. 182
12 There Are No Blind Moms on TV: Disability and Parenthood Stigma	p. 183
13 I Am Not a Teaching Tool: Medicalizing the Disabled Body	p. 198
14 Welcome to the Cyberpunk Future, It's in My Ears: Disability and Science Fiction	p. 210
15 We Have Always Thrived in the Castle: Defying Ableism to Become Yourself	p. 225
16 Cane in One Hand, Protest Sign in the Other: A View of Police Brutality and Disability	p. 241
17 Hindsight Is 20/20, Except If You're Me and Then It's [REDACTED]	p. 256
Acknowledgments	p. 271

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Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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