‘Movements of the Uncontrollable Body Part One’
— Joyce Chong
To let a thing be what it is / to call a thing by its rightful name / to say disability is a reclaiming of the body / an action of the body and a disruption to so-called normal / to say disability is to claim agency in our personhood / to disassemble the machine of normal
The inaugural issue of Monstering Magazine, a journal for and by disabled women and nonbinary people, came out recently and it’s full of amazing work. This piece by Bronwyn Valentine in particular stood out to me. One part definition, one part recollection and observation, this piece dissects and examines the state of disability. What it is to the self, to family, what it is in public spaces. The relationship with the body as a constant source of chaos, of unexpected existence. There’s something unpretentious and direct about the language in this piece that draws you in. It’s almost cyclical, starkly honest and wholly immersive.
what my mom was ashamed of and what I am also ashamed of is that we understand enoughness in terms of how we are or are not normal / that the body is a continual failure of normal
This poem visualizes disability as an entity. It is the ‘uncontrollable body’, it is both a physical, mental and emotional entity. It is the way the body is seen to exist in open spaces, the ripples that a body leaves in social spaces. The uncontrollable body is more than just biology, the dichotomy we’ve created of physical existence as “is” and “is not”, a compiled series of on/off switches and yes/no boxes. The uncontrollable body is a continuation, the unstoppably dynamic state of flux, flitting subtly between states of being; in and out of these arbitrary walls denoting “normal”, as if some bodies do not move, do not exist in states of fluctuation. As if any body is not an uncontrollable body.
but whoever said that disability must by definition be corrected was wrong / I tell you that liberation comes when we recognize the body of disability as inherently a good body / still deserving of the full state of humanness and worthy of adoration