Susan Wendell Toward a Feminist Theory of Disability

Disabled women in society are doubly marginalized; they are neither understood or accepted by mainstream heterosexual society or by feminist theorists. Indeed, according to Susan Wendell, their embodied social reality has been ignored by philosophers and feminist theorists. The main focus of Susan Wendell’s article on â€Å"Towards a Feminist Theory of Disability†is to use the power of her own experience of going from able to disabled to argue that the voice of the disabled is missing from the standard theoretical arguments that guide medical intervention, philosophical understanding and feminist perspectives. She offers the reader the novel perspective that disabled people know more about their problems and potential solutions than able†¦show more content†¦This is inwardly experienced by the disabled who may or may not have the language to speak about this aspect of society’s refusal to understand their experience and thus alienate them even further. They become â€Å"other† to society and in this sense of otherness experience a sharper alienation because they cannot share this deep rooted sense of otherness with the able bodied and often even with their close