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Encounters with Strangers: feminism and disability
JENNY MORRIS (Ed.), 1996
London, The Women's Press 230, pp. L8.99
ISBN 0 7043 4400 9
The theme of this book is encapsulated in Lois Keith's chapter on `Encounters with Strangers' when she says of her own encounters with strangers that `it brought home so forcibly the difference between how I wanted to see myself, as a now visibly different but still a competent and private person and how others saw me and would continue to see me' (p. 70). She adds that `disabled people have to work continually against destructive forces which see us as powerless, passive and unattractive' and that `doing disability all day long can be an exhausting process' (pp. 70-71). This selection of papers by a wide range of disabled women shows the personal as political and provides a wealth of first-hand experience.
Sally French shares her research into the lived experiences of women who reflect back on their time in a residential school for children with visual disabilities. Sally herself shared this experience and presents a most sensitive, powerful account of how the effects of...