The ideas of disability and race (much like the idea of gender used in previous discussions) are socially constructed. Many of the articles read in Women's Studies 302 discusses the idea in which race and disability are not biological issues but ideas prevalent in society only because of the modern day definitions around them. Many of the authors show that when using this kind of thinking it becomes more evident that social, physical, and environment play a major role in what gets defined as a disability or race. Depending on the definitions used, it leads to very different outcomes for these individuals included or excluded in each category. These inclusions and exclusions are the implications which make it important to discuss these definitions and social thought processes. .
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During class we read the first two chapters of a book by Susan Wendell called "The Rejected Body". The first chapter we looked into was "Who is Disabled? Defining Disability"". In this chapter Wendell looks into what is considered to be a disability versus a handicap in certain parts of the world and the distinction between the two. The important part for her is that while she is pointing out these bureaucratic definitions of disability it seems in all of them there is the stigma that there is something wrong with the individual being defined. She also points out that these definitions speak of certain situations which may seem to disable a person in places such as Kenya, but may not do so in North America. .
The definition of what a disability is then comes down to context of the situation and in turn the environment that person is in. A specific example she uses to explain this would be that of an individual needing to walk five miles every day in Kenya to get clean drinking water. Wendell feels this is a likely occurrence in their environment, so someone who could not walk these five miles at one time would suffer from a disability.