The Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity at The University of Kansas seeks to engage and empower students to act in ways that promote intersectional feminist change and challenge patriarchal norms.
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he/him & she/her
e"Feminismisnotsimplyastruggletoendmalechauvinismoramovementto tnsurethatwomenhaveequalrightswithmen;itisacommitmenttoeradicate sheideologyofdominationthatpermeatesWesterncultureonvariouslevels— sex,race,andclass,tonameafewandacommitmenttoreorganizing iocietysothattheself-developmentofpeoplecantakeprecedenceover mperialism,economicexpansion,andmaterialdesires."
Our understanding offeminism isbased in intersectionality, a conceptdeveloped byBlackfeminists Kimberlé Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins. This means we aim to challenge patriarchy as it intersects with other systems of oppression, including racism, cissexism,heterosexism, ableism, and capitalism.
Webelieve people of all gender identities and expressionsdeserve the right to safety andbodily autonomy.
We intentionally center women and femmes as well as non-binary and trans people, especially those who are marginalized by multiple systems of oppression.
At the same time, we believe — as Black feminist bell hooks asserts — FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYBODY and we work to create welcoming spaces for people of all gender identities and expressions
In conjunction with the 2022-2023 KU Common Book Program, which featured Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong, the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity and our campus supporters invited members of our community to submit pages for inclusion in DISABILITY JUSTICE IS A FEMINIST ISSUE, a collaborative zine project. The zine's contributors were encouraged to explore the intersecting themes of disability justice, ableism, gender, and feminism.
To borrow Wong's description of Disability Visibility, this zine creates space for disabled people to come together; it is a "collection of individual [pages] that becomes something entirely unique as a whole."
Simply put,thisprinciplesaysthat we aremanythings,andtheyallimpactus. We are not only disabled, we are also each coming from a specific experience of race, class, sexuality,age,religiousbackground,geographicallocation,immigration status, and more. Depending on context, we all have areas where we experience privilege, as well as areasof oppression. Theterm“intersectionality”wasfirstintroducedbyfeminist theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe the experiences of Black women, who experience bothracismandsexisminspecificways.Wegratefullyembracethenuancethat this principle brings to our lived experiences, and the ways it shapes the perspectives we offer.
When wetalkaboutableism,racism, sexism&transmisogyny,colonization,police violence, etc., we are not looking to academics and experts to tell us what’s what — we are lifting up,listeningto,reading, following,andhighlightingtheperspectivesof those who are most impacted by the systems we fight against. By centering the leadership of thosemostimpacted, wekeepourselves groundedinreal-worldproblemsand findcreative strategies for resistance.
Capitalismdependsonwealthaccumulationforsome(thewhiterulingclass),at the expense of others, and encourages competition as a means of survival. The nature of our disabled bodymindsmeansthatweresistconformingto“normative”levelsof productivity in a capitalist culture, and our labor is often invisible to a system thatdefines labor byable-bodied,whitesupremacist,gendernormativestandards.Ourworthisnot dependent on what and how much we can produce.
Disabilityjusticecanonlygrow intoitspotentialasamovementbyaligningitself with racial justice, reproductive justice, queer and trans liberation, prison abolition, environmentaljustice,anti-policeterror,Deafactivism,fatliberation, and other movements working for justice and liberation. This means challenging white disability communitiesaroundracismandchallengingothermovementstoconfrontableism.Through cross-movement solidarity, we create a united front.
Eachperson isfullofhistoryandlife experience.Eachpersonhasaninternalexperience composed of our own thoughts, sensations, emotions, sexual fantasies, perceptions, and quirks.Disabledpeoplearewholepeople.
Welearn topaceourselves,individuallyandcollectively,tobesustained long-term. We value the teachings of our bodies and experiences, and use them as a critical guide and referencepointtohelpusmoveawayfromurgencyandintoadeep,slow,transformative, unstoppable wave of justice and liberation.
Wevalueandhonortheinsightsandparticipationofallofourcommunity members, even and especially those who are most often left out of political conversations. We are buildingamovementthatbreaks downisolationbetweenpeoplewithphysical impairments, people who are sick or chronically ill, psych survivors and people withmental health disabilities,neurodiversepeople,peoplewithintellectualordevelopmentaldisabilities, Deaf people, Blind people, people with environmental injuries and chemical sensitivities,andallotherswho experienceableismandisolationthatundermines our collective liberation.
Before themassivecolonialprojectof WesternEuropeanexpansion,weunderstood the nature of interdependence within our communities. We see the liberation of all living systemsand thelandasintegraltothe liberationofourowncommunities, as we all share one planet. We work to meet each other’s needs as we build toward liberation, without always reachingforstatesolutionswhichinevitablyextendstatecontrol further into our lives.
AsBlackandbrownandqueercrips,webringfexibilityandcreativenuancetoour engagement with each other. We create and explore ways of doing things that go beyond ablebodiedandneurotypicalnorms.Accessneedsaren’tshameful—weallfunction differently depending on context and environment. Access needs can be articulated and met privately,throughacollective,orincommunity,dependinguponanindividual’s needs, desires, and the capacity of the group. We can share responsibility for ouraccess needs, wecan askthatourneedsbemetwithoutcompromisingourintegrity,wecanbalance autonomy while being in community, we can be unafraid of our vulnerabilities,knowing our strengthsarerespected.
Wemove togetheraspeoplewithmixedabilities,multiracial,multi-gendered,mixed class, across the sexual spectrum, with a vision that leaves no bodymind behind This is disabilityjustice.Wehonor thelongstandinglegaciesofresilienceandresistance which are the inheritance of all of us whose bodies and minds will not conform. Disabilityjusticeisnotyetabroadbasedpopularmovement.Disabilityjustice is a vision and practice of what is yet-to-be, a map that we create with our ancestors and our great-grandchildrenonward,in thewidthanddepthofourmultiplicities and histories, a movement towards a world in which every body and mind is known as beautiful.
Brynn Fitzsimmons
they/them
35 MILLIGRAMS
OF PRESCRIPTION DECADENCE
Jenna Essenmacher
they/them & she/her & he/him
CHRONIC FUCKERY
Asher Uhlmann
they/them FORGET
Hermann Chaffin
all pronouns
SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE THIS?
Salem Sanfilippo Solindas
he & him
PTSD AND HER PILLS
Monty Protest
he/him & she/her
FUCK YOUR CONDESCENDING TONE
Carolina Lima Leal
she/her & they/them
MAD WOMAN
Megan Williams
she/her
aremyhandssupposedtofeellikethis?
there'sagrowingweaknessinmyhands. myjointsachelikethey'remucholderthanI am.
Itrynottomakeconclusions, tofindproblemswheretheyarenot, butI'mbreakingceramic, wristsheldstiffwithmetalbars, andIcannothelpbutwonder.
aremyhandssupposedtofeellikethis?
butthisisnotmyfirst. Ihavespentcountlessnightsstruck bythestillnessfoundonlyintombsand thosewhofearthem. Ihaveworriedmyfingerprintssmooth.
andIcontinue.
deepdivesonWebMD, relentlesslypesteringmymothers, withtoo-confidentclaimsaboutwhata symptommeans.
Iamfearfultomycore. especiallywhenIshouldn'tbe.
aremyhandssupposedtofeellikethis?
whatgivesmepauseisHer: thebrilliantbluelightthatboreme. Iknowthemeaningofstruggle–fromexperience,butnotmyown. mychildhoodwasoneofcolour: silverneedles,redsharpscontainers,anda rainbowofpills.
Isawhershaking andIknewImightbecomeher. andwhatscaresmeaboutthat isnotthepainitself, buttheknowledge thatIhave never mether, neverfullyknownmymother, becauseIhavenotyetfeltit.
thenumbnessisnotyetpinsandneedles, andmyfeetdonothingbutcarryme. butthepinchinginmymedianisawarning: Ihaveneverappreciatedherstrength, becauseIamallowedtobeweak.
aremyhandssupposedtofeellikethis?
Ihaveknownsinceforever thatmybodymayonedayrejectme. I'vespentfulldaysinagony, grippedbyparanoia thatIhavedoomedmyselftoaquicker collapse.
andagain,IseeHer. doctorsdon'tsolvepuzzleslikeus. despitetheirfailureshepersists, happyinawayweneverexpected, andwhenIlooktomyself, IfearIwillendupdifferent. thatI'llcollapsewithmybody. thatIhavejustafewyearsofstrengthleft.
aremyhandssupposedtofeellikethis?
Much Madness is divinest Sense -
In this, as all, prevail - Assent
you are sane -
Demur - you’re straightway dangerousAnd handled with a Chain -
Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity's
KU Common Book
Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Faculty Staff Council on Disability Inclusion
Spencer Museum of Art
The Commons
