Coaching the inner ableist: conversation between friends
Ola Henningsen, Andebu Norway
Julia Wolfson, Canberra Australia
The three A's
Ability meaning something you do or show up with, inside of you or externally.
Able-ism meaning certain abilities go against social norms and people with those abilities, or people who dont use normative abiities, are of lesser intrisnc value.
Allyship – meaning walking beside or together – an innr figure or someone in the everyday world.
Circuitry of Ableism
We view 3 levels or currents of information make up the circuitry of able-ism.
1.The oppression systems and the structures that hold discrimination in place. This is the systemic circuit we think of as the entire world we are in – all the isms that make the world eminently liveable for some, and intolerably unliveable for many, with everything in between.
2.The structural circuit we see as the things that hold up the systems of privilege, to maintain that liveable status quo. Biases, awareness gaps, simply – because we can. We can not listen. We can not feel the impact. We can walk away.
3. The third current is the personal. As a person, you think the systemic and structural aspects are you. This is a trick built into language – thinking you are only a me, reinforces a non differentiated view of your experience.
It’s the work of all of us
We sit in the tension between the cultural field we are swimming in, and an inner drive for internal autonomy. Brutal critics can feel relentless, just too big, too oppressive, too cruel.
Opening up to ablesim can make it a little easier to loosen the circuitry so we can be more fluid in navigating with awareness between the personal and the field we are immersed in, and strangely, those critics have less of a hold.
This can make us better allies with the people who live the impact of systemic and structural able-ism day in, day out without a break.
What I learned while pretending to be normal
Anna Pujol PW. Dipl; Barcelona
Presenting on Julia Wolfson’s Program: Living in an Unliveable World. 2023, ANZPOP