Abstract
This chapter contends that rhetorical practices associated with various forms of discrimination share similar characteristics and premises. Revealed, those similarities illuminate intersections between ableism, racism, sexism, and the like. The rhetorical warrants underlying an ableist orientation also sustain and perpetuate other discriminatory perspectives. This premise directs attention to the specific locations that facilitate layering subordinated subjectivities on different people, which the author contends, offers a unique perspective on how intersecting discrimination functions. Theorists have noted that intersectionality contributes to disability theory, and critical approaches such the intervention strategy of “neuroqueering” have demonstrated this potential. This chapter adds to the discussion by showing how the shared rhetorical dimensions of intersectionalities reinforce modes of discrimination and suggesting ways to empower and ally with groups within these intersections.
Perhaps disability studies will lead to some grand unified theory of the body, pulling together the differences implied in gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, and sexual preferences. Then, rather than the marginalized being in the wheelchair or using sign language, the person with disabilities will become the ultimate example, the universal image, the modality through whose knowing the postmodern subject can theorize and act.
—Davis (1997, p. 5)
Disability functions as a multivalent trope, though it remains the mark of otherness.
—Garland-Thomson (1997, p. 9)
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Cherney, J.L. (2023). Ableism and Intersectionality: A Rhetorical Analysis. In: Jeffress, M.S., Cypher, J.M., Ferris, J., Scott-Pollock, JA. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14447-9_7
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