Intersectionality In Maternity Rolls, By Heather Kuttai

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As we have learned throughout the course, intersectionality affects our experiences within our social category. Intersectionality can either give us privilege or reduce privilege depending on which categories we fall into. Each individual’s personal experience in a situation will differ due to intersectionality.
In Heather Kuttai’s “Maternity Rolls”, we see how her experience with disability is shaped by her gender, and vice-versa. Although Kuttai does mention that being feminine was important to her prior to her accident, we see how much more important becomes afterwards (Kuttai, 2010). To Kuttai, her pregnancy is what validated her status as a feminine woman (Kuttai, 2010). She states “In other words, I felt as though my body was “showing”
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The article “When Race and Disability Intersect”, by David M. Perry discussed several instances in which people of color with disabilities were “subdued” by police with often excessive, and in some cases deadly, force. Eric Garner is the most well-known of these examples, after he died by choking from being put in a chokehold (Perry, 2014). Many excuses were given for the use of excessive force, and as Perry notes, “Representative Peter King, R-New York, for example, went on CNN to thank the grand jury for not indicting Officer Daniel Panteleo. ‘You had a 350 pound person who was resisting arrest. The police were trying to bring him down as quickly as possible,’ King said. ‘If he had not had asthma and a heart condition and was so obese, almost definitely he would not have died” (Perry, 2014). King’s quoted comment demonstrates an attempt to cover racism by blaming disability. Those traits did not “kill” Eric Garner, racism did. Along with racism and ableism, classicism is used as an excuse for Eric Garner’s death; “King’s comments have been echoed elsewhere, including by many law enforcement commentators on the site, PoliceOne.com. Their comments repeatedly invoke Garner’s health, saying things such as ‘This guy would have died going up a flight of stairs,’ ‘He died because of his pre-existing medical conditions’ and ‘His family should sue Papa John’s, ableism with classicism and fat shaming. If Garner hadn’t Dominos, Pizza Hut, Burger King, McDonald’s” (Perry, 2014). These comments combine the element of ableism with classicism and fat shaming in an attempt to hide racism. If only Garner had not been disabled, he would not have died. The assumptions that Garner was overweight because he ate fast food (associated with lower class status because of the cost and its quick availability) are fat shaming and classicism. The behavior exhibited toward Garner has been exhibited toward other black

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