Feminist Response in Disability Activism

Feminist Response in Disability Activism (FRIDA) is a grassroots non-violent direct action organization led by and for women with disabilities since October 2005. The group is based in Chicago, Illinois. When the Terri Schiavo case gained national attention after two Chicago cases had passed relatively unnoticed, the group was formed to fill what its members perceived as a need for additional provisions to be made for the rights of persons with disabilities.

Establishment

F.R.I.D.A. originally started in response to the 2005 case of a Chicago area woman with a traumatic brain injury who sued her guardian for the right not to be sterilized through a hysterectomy. The woman had repeatedly stated that she wanted to be able to become a mother.

Also in 2005, a young female Chicago area nursing home resident with profound disabilities was raped by a male worker, who later confessed to the crime. Her pregnancy was not discovered until she had reached seven months. Though the woman had the child, the baby now lives with her grandmother..

These cases followed on the heels of the very well-publicized 2005 death by starvation of Terri Schiavo, another fellow woman with a disability.

The first two cases attracted some media interest but did not garner a significant, organized outcry from the disability community, or from family groups or the medical community. To fill the gap of community response, F.R.I.D.A. was born.

F.R.I.D.A.'s goals from inception have been the following:

• to formulate and take timely response to immediate disability rights crises.
• to spearhead social momentum towards real choice, respect and self-respect of women with disabilities.
• to get the word out about issues affecting women with disabilities.
• to cultivate/coordinate partnerships in taking response actions.
• to honor the memory of Frida Kahlo, an activist and creative force who lived with multiple disabilities, by taking action for social justice in our time.

Campaigns

As of January 2007, F.R.I.D.A. had three grassroots campaigns: Open Wide, the Pad Patrol, and the Ashley X./American Medical Association (AMA) response campaign.

Open Wide is an effort to advocate for accessible hospitals, not only building accessibility but accessibility of diagnostic testing equipment and services. For example, a critical problem facing disabled women is a lack of accessible examining tables. Women with disabilities have to do without exams accessible by nondisabled women. As a result, they lack the same standard of care.

The Pad Patrol addresses the underground issue of sanitary napkin provision in nursing homes and institutions. Pads must be provided to residents who need them, under Federal Medicaid/Medicare regulations. Unfortunately, menstruating women are sometimes subjected to unnecessary and unconsented chemical suppression of their periods, or not provided with enough pads to cover their periods. Women may also not be taught how to use pads properly. Given that menstruation is considered a very private issue, it is difficult to uncover cases of outright abuse in which the victim is willing to pursue legal action against the nursing home. The Pad Patrol tries to offer help in situations of immediate need, while encouraging victims to file complaints or seek legal help.

The Ashley X/AMA campaign originated in response to the case of nine-year-old Ashley X of Washington. Ashley was reported to have a significant cognitive disability and was labeled with a developmental age of three months. Her parents initially sought home care support in caring for Ashley, but gave up and instead chose a medical intervention that they stated would make Ashley more comfortable.

Ashley's parents and doctors decided to remove her uterus and breast buds (scientific name Thelarche), in addition to having her undergo estrogen therapy to keep her at about a foot shorter than her expected height. The treatment was aimed at keeping Ashley small and easy to move, and more comfortable without large breasts.

F.R.I.D.A., along with several other major disability organizations, objected to a surgical/medical solution to the social problem of lack of qualified supports for families such as Ashley's. Thousands of people with profound cognitive disabilities, and their families, suffer from a lack of quality, well-funded home support services. In addition, F.R.I.D.A. felt that medical procedures on a person who is unable to communicate is ethically suspect without an impartial advocate. The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) declared, "... we hold as non-negotiable the principle that personal and physical autonomy of all people with disabilities be regarded as sacrosanct".

F.R.I.D.A., along with Not Dead Yet and ADAPT, led a protest at the AMA in January 2007 to demand that the medical community dialogue with the disability community on the case of Ashley X. In addition, F.R.I.D.A. demanded that the AMA issue a statement condemning the ethics of the case, as well as a statement supporting the Community Service Act (CSA), which would provide for a nationwide system for community-based supports for people with disabilities.

In May 2007, the Washington state protection and advocacy agency, Disability Rights Washington, found that Ashley's civil rights were violated because a court order was not obtained for her sterilization. Her parents had not sought the court order because their legal counsel advised that the sterilization was a secondary effect of the "treatment."

In June 2007, F.R.I.D.A., Not Dead Yet, and ADAPT members protested at the AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago to ask that the AMA dialogue on disability concerns.

In September 2007, 400 ADAPT advocates surrounded the AMA headquarters building in Chicago to again demand dialogue on disability concerns, particularly support for the Community Choice Act.

In October 2007, the AMA issued a release stating that it now supports the Community Choice Act.

F.R.I.D.A. continues to work on its campaigns locally in Chicago and to network throughout the world on feminist disability rights concerns.

Frida Kahlo, namesake of the group

The book Gendering Disabilities . presents this essay: “Disability, Gender, and National Identity in the Painting of Freda Kahlo” particular to disabled bodies and no disabled bodies and ones sense of womanhood specific to identity as constructed by, or reflected by, society and politics.

Utilizing three famous works by Freda Kahlo, The Two Freda’s (1939); Henry Ford Hospital (1932); Self Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States (1932), Robin Adele Greeley articulates the struggles of Freda Kahlo in body through her bodies of work. Kahlo’s body, ravish by polio, a spine disorder, a horrific bus accident, over 30 surgeries, and a miscarriage transcend time and space in her self portraits; in which her use of unique and powerful symbols, along with Greely’s insight, provide a provocative argument to the interconnection of art, womanliness; feminism, what it is to be able bodied, capitalism, socialism., and the body politic.

The Two Freda’s (1939) by Freda Kahlo, Greely argues, that Kahlo's self portrait “The Two Freda’s” is “a sly commentary on the assuming humility of everyday Mexican life and the ridiculousness of heroic masculinity.” Further more, Greely states, “The split Fredas of Kahlo's painting …. conjures up the image of Kahlo’s disabled imperfect body as a metaphor for contemporary Mexican identity succumbs to the perennial “victim” status all too often accorded Kahlo, Mexico, and its citizens by so-called First World scholarship.”

Henry Ford Hospital (1932) by Freda Kahlo, in this painting, Greely suggests, is about “a women’s ability to survive the life-threatening process of childbirth. Kahlo underscores this [with] symbol[s] of various aspects of sexuality and childbirth….{in which] Fordism has taken control not only of the production of cars but also the production of babies such that the risks of childbearing and assembly-line factory conditions seem not all that far apart.” Greely states that with this image, Kahlo “emphasizes …. the complete alienation, physical and cultural wreckage that such machine cultures produce.”

Self Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States (1932) by Freda Kahlo, Greely also argues that Kahlo’s paintings specifically speaks to a woman's identity in relationship to society, and [dis]ability, stating she feels this painting is “Kahlo's critique of the confluence of Mexican nationalism, technology, femininity, and disability.” Greely continues that Kahlo integrates “functions of capitalism’s control of technology.” in her art, reflecting her [dis]ability. Greely suggests that Kahlo's message is one of “see[ing] technology as a function of social, political, and economic power – as something in itself sometimes helpful but frequently indifferent to the plight of the weak and far too often s repressive tool in the hands of the powerful.”

Supplement Material

The following books are recommended to broaden your understanding on disabilities and women. In the book Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act, has a story called “Sovereignty.” The story is about a mother trying to obtain a professional interpreter in a hospital for her daughter, Zoe, who is deaf. The doctor in the story wants to do a medical history of Zoe and requests the mother to interpret. The mother and Zoe decline the doctor’s request and insist to wait for the professional interpreter to answer the questions.

Examining Sovereignty shows the doctor (the able-bodied or dominate force) ignoring Zoe’s and her mother’s request for the interpreter. The doctor demonstrates that some able-bodies try to determine the fate of those who have a disability. In the end, the interpreter did arrive to assist the daughter later in the story .

In another book Gendering Disability, suggests the role that disability activism can play in equalizing the privilege granted on the basis of race and gender.

The book also suggests that women with a disability are at a higher risk of having a "lower employment, education, and income levels, fewer opportunities for vocational training, and lower receipt of disability-income benefits."

External links

• F.R.I.D.A Homepage
• F.R.I.D.A. blog
• Not Dead Yet
• ADAPT