Abstract
This paper illuminates the potential of diversely embodied sporting cultures to challenge ableism, the ideology of ability. Ableism constructs the able body as conditional to a life worth living, thus devaluing all those perceived as ‘dis’-abled. This hegemonic ideology develops into a ‘logic of practice’ through a cultural appropriation of body’s lived complexity, by reducing it to symbolic dichotomies (able/disabled). The path to challenge ableism is then to restore body’s complexity, by turning attention toward its lived embodied existence. Drawing upon an ethnographic study of a sitting volleyball (SV) community, we condense multiple data sources into a sensuous creative non-fiction vignette to translate the physical embodied culture of the sport. In exploring SV physicality through the ethnographic vignette, it is our intention to activate the readers’ own embodiment when interpreting and co-creating this text. By placing the reader in the lived reality of playing SV, we hope that the potential of this physical culture to destabilize engrained ableist premises becomes apparent. Ultimately, our goal is to promote a shift from ableism towards an appreciation and celebration of differently able bodies. This cultural shift is crucial for long lasting social empowerment for people with disabilities.
Highlights
Modern sport originated from the desire to cultivate human perfection and physical, psychological, and moral excellence through the training and disciplining of the body [1]
Are sitting and volleyball truly incompatible? What happens if a new normalcy is instituted? If instead of standing on two feet, we explore movement sitting down? After the initial resistance for fear of being associated with disability or being labeled as disabled, the simple willingness to take part in sitting volleyball (SV) community already challenges one fundamental ableist assumption: that impairment equals unproductivity, passivity, dependency, sadness
As we have illuminated through the vignette in this paper, diversely embodied sporting cultures like SV offer an opportunity for all of us to question ableist logic
Summary
Modern sport originated from the desire to cultivate human perfection and physical, psychological, and moral excellence through the training and disciplining of the body [1]. Bodies are judged for their ability to perform to their ‘normal’ counterparts and not for their distinctive capabilities This is why sport has failed so far to promote true empowerment for participants with impairments and trigger a long-lasting cultural shift regarding disability [4,5]. Before we turn to the ethnographic vignette, we outline the theoretical foundations of our research, exploring the premises and genealogy of ableism as presented within the field of disability studies Marginal physical cultures, such as SV, provide a fertile ground for this investigation and Bourdieu’s theory of practice [12,13] assists in understanding how ableism becomes embodied in cultural practices. Following the discussion of the theoretical lens employed, we recreate the culture of SV through the ethnographic vignette before offering analytical insights into how this distinctive sporting practice can help destabilize ableism
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