But none of the men in the boiler room, who were cynical and skeptical about everything else, ever questioned Aldo ’ s tales of the cripples ’ nocturnal sexual carnival.
Eww.
8 Matching Annotations
- Feb 2018
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There was only one offi cially sanctioned way to suffer even the most excruciating distress: with bright, upbeat, uncomplaining, submissive endurance. A woman dying horribly of an unspecifi ed cancer was commended by Ave Maria for having written “ cheerful, newsy notes ” home from the hospital, with “ only casual references to her illness. ” In the spirit of a fashion editor, one devotional writer counseled the chronically ill to “ learn to wear [your] sickness becomingly. It can be done. It has been done. Put a blue ribbon bow on your bedjacket and smile. ”
I hope this isn't too unrelated, but all I can think about when I read this passage is the stigma surrounding people who try to get help for mental illnesses. People with sicknesses like depression, anxiety, and various others sometimes suffer from a biologically based inability to feel happy for a sustained period of time. The thinking that people suffering from illnesses shouldn't complain and be happy about their condition can make life seem impossible to someone struggling with depression.
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There was a cult of the “ shut-in ” among American Catholics in the middle years of the twentieth century, a fascination with “ cripples ” and a desire to be in some relation to them, which was thought to carry spiritual advantages. In the summer of 1939, Catholic Women ’ s World, one of the most modern and upbeat of the Catholic magazines, set up a pen-pal system so that readers going away on vacation could write to shut-ins about their trips.
This reminds me of the concept of tokenizing someone with a disability to make oneself seem caring and kind. Sometimes, people don't want to be friends with or volunteer to help people with disabilities out of genuine love or caring. Sometimes, they just do it because it makes them feel saintly.
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Pain purged and disciplined the ego, stripping it of pride and self-love; it disclosed the emptiness of the world. Without it, human beings remained pagans; in physical distress, they might fi nd their way back to the Church, and to sanctity. “ Suffering makes saints, ” one hospital chaplain told his congregation of sick people, “ of many who in health were indifferent to the practices of their holy religion. ” Pain was a ladder to heaven. The saints were unhappy unless they were in physical distress of some sort.
In my experience, people with disabilities who are cognitively aware of themselves and the world around them often develop an optimistic outlook on life because if they didn't, they'd be crushed under the overwhelming adversity they face. It's definitely not the case for everyone, but it is for most of the people I've met. Not only do they navigate life differently based on their own abilities, but they usually also face hindrance from society for being different. It's not that they're happy because they're suffering, it's just that they WOULD be suffering (or suffering more) if they didn't try to face it with optimism.
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My uncle laughed too, but he always looked over at me and shook his head.
I've grown up around people with disabilities since I was a toddler. I've always been deeply bothered by the tendency of those without disabilities to infantilize people with disabilities. Although everyone's case is different and some cognitive disabilities can severely affect a person's perception and understanding of reality, disabled people are hardly ever given the respect and credit they deserve as adults. This line seems to suggest that Uncle Sally knew exactly what was going on as the neurotypical adults joked around with him.
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et, as indispensable as this image of the Black buck was to the institution of slavery, it also posed a potential threat to the peace and sanctity of the White world. For if being a Jezebel meant that Black women were seducers, then being a buck meant that Black men were sexual predators.
There are so many examples in this paper of comparisons of black people to animals. It's like they were afraid that giving black people an ounce of humanity would get someone killed.
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With the disruption of the slave trade, the growth of the enslaved population was dependent upon the fertility of the already enslaved. This meant that some masters “ encouraged ” — by a variety of despicable means — frequent pregnancies of the enslaved women.
Reading this and the following paragraph is actually making me sick to my stomach.
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Europeans mistook seminudity for lewdness. ” Indeed, the warm climate came to be associated with “ hot constition ’ d Ladies ” possessed of a temper “ hot and lascivious. ”
It sounds like the Europeans might have been projecting their own sexual feelings onto the women. The Europeans' reaction is disgusting, but the African women's appearances must have come as a genuine shock compared to those of European women, who were forced to stay fully covered even in the summer heat.
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