I don't think anyone else has raised this point yet,
but if they have, I beg everyone's pardon:
When I initially read this story, elsewhere, it crossed my mind that persons who were born blind or went blind
might find this woman's story infuriating;
but then I remembered a conversation I once overhead in the waiting room at the local hospital:
a woman was angrily venting to her companion about something a doctor had told her.
This lady was blind, apparently as a result of some genetic disorder,
and it seemed that her daughter was now also going blind as a result of the same disorder.
The doctor had been advising her of new treatments
that might prevent her young daughter from losing 100% of her sight.
I couldn't understand why she was so angry;
initially I thought maybe she was selfishly angry because it was too late for her, herself,
to receive the treatment,
but it transpired that, in fact, the woman was angry at what she deemed was the doctor's "bias"
against persons with disabilities;
She was angry in the same way that a pro-LGBT mom
would be angry if a doctor proposed a procedure to "correct" her child's emerging homosexual orientation
She felt that the social stigma of having a disability
was something to be opposed
by militantly embracing the disability
and adopting a kind of "fuck you" attitude to the world:
much as if to say,
I can do everything sighted people can do,
and more,
and so can my kid.
So, I wonder if such a person would hear about this woman blinding herself
and would regard it as "self-improvement".
but if they have, I beg everyone's pardon:
When I initially read this story, elsewhere, it crossed my mind that persons who were born blind or went blind
might find this woman's story infuriating;
but then I remembered a conversation I once overhead in the waiting room at the local hospital:
a woman was angrily venting to her companion about something a doctor had told her.
This lady was blind, apparently as a result of some genetic disorder,
and it seemed that her daughter was now also going blind as a result of the same disorder.
The doctor had been advising her of new treatments
that might prevent her young daughter from losing 100% of her sight.
I couldn't understand why she was so angry;
initially I thought maybe she was selfishly angry because it was too late for her, herself,
to receive the treatment,
but it transpired that, in fact, the woman was angry at what she deemed was the doctor's "bias"
against persons with disabilities;
She was angry in the same way that a pro-LGBT mom
would be angry if a doctor proposed a procedure to "correct" her child's emerging homosexual orientation
She felt that the social stigma of having a disability
was something to be opposed
by militantly embracing the disability
and adopting a kind of "fuck you" attitude to the world:
much as if to say,
I can do everything sighted people can do,
and more,
and so can my kid.
So, I wonder if such a person would hear about this woman blinding herself
and would regard it as "self-improvement".
