The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability (Studies in Feminist Philosophy)

About this book

Elizabeth Barnes argues compellingly that disability is primarily a social phenomenon--a way of being a minority a way of facing social oppression but not a way of being inherently or intrinsically worse off. This is how disability is understood in the Disability Rights and Disability Pride movements; but there is a massive disconnect with the way disability is typically viewed within analytic philosophy. The idea that disability is not inherently bad or sub-optimal is one that many philosophers treat with open skepticism and sometimes even with scorn. The goal of this book is to articulate and defend a version of the view of disability that is common in the Disability Rights movement. Elizabeth Barnes argues that to be physically disabled is not to have a defective body but simply to have a minority body.