Feminist Disability Studies

Abstract

AbstractThis entry traces the development of feminist disability studies (FDS), including its mutual emergence from feminist studies and disability studies. It explores tensions between the two fields and the ways that “disability” is often elided within feminist studies and “gender” and “women” are often left out of disability studies. Pointing to connections between feminist disability studies and fields such as critical body studies, symbolic interaction, critical race and ethnic studies, and fat studies, the authors show how FDS makes possible new analytical strategies and representations. Importantly, they explore how FDS can benefit from sociology, including attention to structural constraints on lived embodiments and representations. Encompassing both early and new feminist disability studies scholarship, the authors note potential connections and disjunctures between academia and activism. They also raise questions about new trajectories in FDS, including connections to queer theory and transgender studies.