Beauty
AND The
temporarily Abled A transformed definition and experience of beauty is a collective project, one that builds a more coherent world for us all.
Katie Daizel Much of my working life is spent rearranging physical space so that the people I support can get around. Where someone else might see a beautiful quirky restaurant with a great view of the lake, I see two stairs that bar access to wheelchair users. Concrete physical barriers to access abound but they are nowhere near as insidious as the cultural and societal barriers that bar or limit access. Beauty is one cultural norm that while inspiring and uniting us also leaves so many people staring at additional barriers when it comes to everything from employment to relationships.
linkbcit.ca
Trying to define, understand, possess, and achieve beauty has preoccupied humanity for millennia. Fairy tales and folklore celebrate and revere beauty. Philosophers strive to define what is beautiful. Looking at how beauty functions in these two realms is a way of making visible some of those cultural and societal barriers that perpetuate a limiting view of beauty.
28
How many fairy tales begin with: “once upon a time, a young, beautiful princess�? The beauty is an essential part of what makes her the protagonist and indeed, it is who she is. While the beauty may be temporarily occluded by disability, or subterfuge, beauty will be restored. In fairy tales the antagonist of the beautiful young princess is the beautiful older villain, think the stepmother in Cinderella. Fairy tales uphold but also complicate a conventional understanding of beauty.
