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Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure
In Brilliant Imperfection Eli Clare uses memoir, history, and critical analysis to explore cure—the deeply held belief that body-minds considered broken need to be fixed.
Cure serves many purposes. It saves lives, manipulates lives, and prioritizes some lives over others. It provides comfort, makes profits, justifies violence, and promises resolution to body-mind loss. Clare grapples with this knot of contradictions, maintaining that neither an anti-cure politics nor a pro-cure worldview can account for the messy, complex relationships we have with our body-minds.
The stories he tells range widely, stretching from disability stereotypes to weight loss surgery, gender transition to skin lightening creams. At each turn, Clare weaves race, disability, sexuality, class, and gender together, insisting on the nonnegotiable value of body-mind difference. Into this mix, he adds environmental politics, thinking about ecosystem loss and restoration as a way of delving more deeply into cure.
Ultimately Brilliant Imperfection reveals cure to be an ideology grounded in the twin notions of normal and natural, slippery and powerful, necessary and damaging all at the same time.
Cure serves many purposes. It saves lives, manipulates lives, and prioritizes some lives over others. It provides comfort, makes profits, justifies violence, and promises resolution to body-mind loss. Clare grapples with this knot of contradictions, maintaining that neither an anti-cure politics nor a pro-cure worldview can account for the messy, complex relationships we have with our body-minds.
The stories he tells range widely, stretching from disability stereotypes to weight loss surgery, gender transition to skin lightening creams. At each turn, Clare weaves race, disability, sexuality, class, and gender together, insisting on the nonnegotiable value of body-mind difference. Into this mix, he adds environmental politics, thinking about ecosystem loss and restoration as a way of delving more deeply into cure.
Ultimately Brilliant Imperfection reveals cure to be an ideology grounded in the twin notions of normal and natural, slippery and powerful, necessary and damaging all at the same time.
218 pages, Paperback
Published February 3, 2017
148 people are currently reading
4179 people want to read
About the author
Eli Clare
21 books297 followersWhite, disabled, and genderqueer, Eli Clare lives near Lake Champlain in occupied Abenaki territory (also known as Vermont) where he writes and proudly claims a penchant for rabble-rousing. He has written two books of essays, the award-winning Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure and Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation, and a collection of poetry, The Marrow's Telling: Words in Motion. Additionally he has been published in dozens of journals and anthologies.
Eli works as a traveling poet, storyteller, and social justice educator. Since 2008, he has spoken, taught, and consulted (both in-person and remotely) at well over 150 conferences, community events, and colleges across the United States and Canada. He currently serves on the Community Advisory Board for the Disability Project at the Transgender Law Center and is also a 2020 Disability Futures Fellow (funded by the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation). Among other pursuits, he has walked across the United States for peace, coordinated a rape prevention program, and helped organize the first ever Queerness and Disability Conference.
When he's not writing or on the road, you can find him reading, camping, riding his recumbent trike, and otherwise having fun adventures.
Eli works as a traveling poet, storyteller, and social justice educator. Since 2008, he has spoken, taught, and consulted (both in-person and remotely) at well over 150 conferences, community events, and colleges across the United States and Canada. He currently serves on the Community Advisory Board for the Disability Project at the Transgender Law Center and is also a 2020 Disability Futures Fellow (funded by the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation). Among other pursuits, he has walked across the United States for peace, coordinated a rape prevention program, and helped organize the first ever Queerness and Disability Conference.
When he's not writing or on the road, you can find him reading, camping, riding his recumbent trike, and otherwise having fun adventures.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
January 30, 2022
Take what Clare says with more than a few grains of salt, and read and think very critically. His experience is only one of many, and he certainly does not speak for the entire disability communities. He has blind spots, and he makes a truly absurd amount of false equations. Namely, comparing the desire to prevent unnecessary disability, find cures or treatment for painful physical conditions, and medicate some psychological conditions, with fatphobia and racism, painting a wish for public health as something immoral and ableist.
Clare’s anti-cure rhetoric (at least, mostly anti) sometimes seems to be a self-protective stance to cope with the chronic nature of his own condition, as well as a lack of understanding for those suffering more pain than himself. He even seems to tout his own pain as something to be glorified, not only in the context of his own life, but as something that is good and should continue to affect others in the future, even those who have not yet been born, simply because of the character and resilient it helps develop.
It is possible to recognize the growth that pain has inspired, without arguing that it should continue for others, or that actions taken to prevent it are harmful, immoral, and ableist. It is possible to not regret one’s own circumstances (as I do not regret my own chronic pain, nor the fact that I am transgender) due to how they have shaped someone, without being against creating better circumstances for others in the future. Clare struggles to realize this. Personally, I think a better world is one in which so much resilience is left entirely obsolete.
The writing itself is deeply mediocre, and reads more as a collection of disjointed, haphazard ramblings on mostly the same topic. They seem to be taken not from a google document or manuscript, or even a notebook, but from the notes app on his iPhone.
And, on a final and fairly petty note, his choice to compare “transabled” people to transgender people sucks, and is extremely offensive to pretty much everyone. Transabled people need compassion for sure, and help, but not in achieving disability or pretending to be disabled when they are not. Clearly, that’s a maladaptive urge that should not be indulged. Why in the world Clare takes a different position, as a trans and disabled man himself, is far beyond me. But, to be fair, so are most of the points in his book.
It is fairly worth reading regardless, as long as you enter into it with an understanding that he is very much “grappling with” and does not quite understand cure, nor its value to the many people who want and often need it. Reading those who you disagree with can help you in refining your own stances, and to find compassion for those who are a bit lost in their own pain.
Clare’s anti-cure rhetoric (at least, mostly anti) sometimes seems to be a self-protective stance to cope with the chronic nature of his own condition, as well as a lack of understanding for those suffering more pain than himself. He even seems to tout his own pain as something to be glorified, not only in the context of his own life, but as something that is good and should continue to affect others in the future, even those who have not yet been born, simply because of the character and resilient it helps develop.
It is possible to recognize the growth that pain has inspired, without arguing that it should continue for others, or that actions taken to prevent it are harmful, immoral, and ableist. It is possible to not regret one’s own circumstances (as I do not regret my own chronic pain, nor the fact that I am transgender) due to how they have shaped someone, without being against creating better circumstances for others in the future. Clare struggles to realize this. Personally, I think a better world is one in which so much resilience is left entirely obsolete.
The writing itself is deeply mediocre, and reads more as a collection of disjointed, haphazard ramblings on mostly the same topic. They seem to be taken not from a google document or manuscript, or even a notebook, but from the notes app on his iPhone.
And, on a final and fairly petty note, his choice to compare “transabled” people to transgender people sucks, and is extremely offensive to pretty much everyone. Transabled people need compassion for sure, and help, but not in achieving disability or pretending to be disabled when they are not. Clearly, that’s a maladaptive urge that should not be indulged. Why in the world Clare takes a different position, as a trans and disabled man himself, is far beyond me. But, to be fair, so are most of the points in his book.
It is fairly worth reading regardless, as long as you enter into it with an understanding that he is very much “grappling with” and does not quite understand cure, nor its value to the many people who want and often need it. Reading those who you disagree with can help you in refining your own stances, and to find compassion for those who are a bit lost in their own pain.
February 17, 2021
It's going to take some time for my swirling thoughts to really coalesce about this book, and I think that's part of the point. I started reading it to gain some insight into my own conflicting feelings about my own gender transition amidst my typically-staunch 'body acceptance' politics. I did not leave with answers. What I left with was a feeling that the conflict, contradiction, and complexity is worth leaning *toward*.
February 18, 2017
I rarely buy books brand new and this was one of them. I loved Exile and Pride so I couldn't wait to read this. It definitely did not disappoint. It is filled with many insights and poses even more questions- something I wish more folks would do. This book is empowering and unapologetic about disability in all of its forms. It includes many narratives from specific analyses of famous disability stories to personal stories of oppression and love to general statements on intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, species, class, and many other things that affect our "body-minds." Eli Clare gets it. And poses prompts for conversation when he's not sure. I'm so grateful for him and his work.
April 6, 2021
A pastiche of essays, and a quick read, this title just doesn't quite get there. It presents a deconstruction, and reasons why the medical industrial complex should be replaced, but as for what should be built in its place, there's no answer. Clare says as much, but spends much of the book painting a pretty picture that will be for some reason the only possible outcome of ending ableism and a host of other prejudices. He brings useful aspects from activism in justice, socially, economically, environmentally, with gender and sexuality issues. However, it never really reaches a place that is truly meaningful.
The personal stories are touching, but many of the rants just seem obsessed. Some of the views are pretty extreme, the most bothersome extreme views however are the ideas that if X was fixed, "Cured" in a way, the end result would be a rosy picture instead of a transition.
If you've never delved into disability and queer issues, give it a read. If the subject is familiar fare for you, you're not going to find anything new here, unfortunately.
The personal stories are touching, but many of the rants just seem obsessed. Some of the views are pretty extreme, the most bothersome extreme views however are the ideas that if X was fixed, "Cured" in a way, the end result would be a rosy picture instead of a transition.
If you've never delved into disability and queer issues, give it a read. If the subject is familiar fare for you, you're not going to find anything new here, unfortunately.
January 1, 2022
Im a transgender disabled man. And im disgusted by this book. I had to read this for my college politics class, which I am now dropping due to this book. His thoughts on both gender and disability baffle and anger me. Disability isnt good. Its not fun, its not better. You shouldnt glorify disability. The fact hes upset that abled people want to prevent disabilty makes no sense to me. No one wants to be disabled. Even he says there are times he doesnt like it. So why does he keep implying that being disabled is better. Dont shame people for wanting cure and treatment. My life is so much better thanks to treatment. And according to this book by bettering my life im "abandoning the deaf community" stop villianising medical science and stop shaming people who chose that path. Also, NEVER compare transgender people to transabled people. They are very different things and justifying transableism by using the transgender experience angers me to no end. If this book was only on the ethics of treatment of cure id be so behind it cause ive battled with that myself. But he crosses so many lines. Dont say this book is educational or activism. Its a memoir. This is his thoughts only. Do not take any of his veiws as fact.
July 29, 2022
This is a beautifully written book about body-minds. It’s about disability, gender identity, fatness, the ways we try to change our bodies or accept them, or both, or neither. I loved how confidently Clare wrote about uncertainty - it made me feel more ok about not being sure and about thinking, exploring and writing in to that uncertainty rather than avoiding it. There is a lot of nuanced, challenging, thought-provoking work in this book and it is well worth your time.
August 13, 2018
Eli Clare is so brilliant. It would be great if everyone read this book to help deepen and challenge our beliefs about health, medicine, and cure. I really value Eli Clare’s shared wisdom and also am so in love with this writing. I felt transformed after reading Exile and Pride and now have a special place in my heart for this book.
(SPL 2018 book bingo: author or character has a disability)
(SPL 2018 book bingo: author or character has a disability)
October 24, 2019
This was so, so, so fucking good. Clare does so much in such little space, drawing all these narratives and ways of thinking together, and it's so challenging to think about cure alongside all the tensions he highlights. He also delves into so many areas of thought to pull it all together--obviously disability studies and crip theory, but also environmental studies and history and all of it is so thoughtful and written with so much obvious care. I'm going to be chewing on this book for a long time, and definitely need a copy of my own so I can return to it as frequently as I want. It's also a book I want to share with so many other people. Just so, so good (and might be available through your local public library system--the copy I read was!)
September 9, 2022
this is...weirdly bigoted bro just praying to god i don't get crucified for pointing it out
February 13, 2025
4.7 - beautiful, haunting, urgent
March 20, 2025
Holy fuck that was good. The last line made me cry. I loved it.
March 9, 2024
it’s like an academic book but also easy to understand? crazy dawg
January 22, 2019
Clare is a genderqueer living-as-a-man person with cerebral palsy and schizophrenia who has been a disability activist and theorist and speaker for i think a long time. Clare was born in what i think is 1964, based on anecdotes about his childhood, which makes him a little older than my parents and part of the same generation as a few other older queer writers and thinkers and survivors I admire. Brilliant Imperfection is a work that-- like many other works --bends genre in some ways. It is written with extensive citations and brings up/connects many historical dots between ableism, genocide, eugenics, modern pharma companies' profit motive, and environmental destruction and alienation. At the same time, it is accessible, poetic, evocative, emotional, and a work of literature. In my opinion, Clare dances really well between stories of his own experiences as a working-class disabled child whose parents wanted his disability to disappear/who was harmed+abused by schools, institutions, doctors, and family in this context, and stories of the activism and connection he has experienced with other people, and historical analysis. There are passages where he directs his voice AT a historical figure or person with a disability who has been denied agency and sometimes life by mechanisms of medicine and state, which combine profound emotional affect with information. Clare talks about indigenous lands and the genocide that precipitated America a lot. He specifically uses and re-uses a metaphor about the restoration of tallgrass ecosystems in Wisconsin, discussing the nuances of cure: how treatment of an ecosystem's problems can happen, how it must happen, how it is imperfect, how it resists the history of death and genocide against the Dakota people and animals of the prairie , how it cannot revive the dead. Anecdotes about people with disability whose agency is taken from them (Carrie Buck, sterilized in 1925, Molly Daly, taken from her family and incarcerated for decades, beaten inside a locked facility, hidden from her family in the 1950s, a young girl named Ashley with a rare form of cerebral palsy whose parents had doctors perform a hysterectomy and mastectomy on her at the age of 6 and dose her with estrogen so that she would never reach puberty) also contribute to his thesis: that disability and race and gender and order/disorder, man/nature, are artificial and harmful paradigms and their enforcement consistently results in violence, and "cures" to various conditions consistently rely on these paradigms to determine who can live and die. Clare recognizes the ways bodies (he says "body-minds" a lot, which I love) need things that western medicine has sometimes invented, but we cannot live when they are administered using their current structures, which emphasize profits and which prioritize individual bodies over communities, order over life, white heteropatriarchal normalcy over balance and diversity, intelligence without love or recognition over feeling, over empathy, over safety. I LOVE Clare after reading this and can't wait to consume his other works. He is wise, prolific, talented; he describes sliding down his butt over a mountainside and seeing the fungi and small animals that live there and uses this to explain how his specific life experience enables him to look at things with complexity that other people may not reach alone. He communicates so well the need we have for each other and for sustaining systems that resist past violence.
July 31, 2025
Alright took me a minute to leave me review on this book because I had to calm down from how ENRAGED this book made me.
Read for a sociology class which is BIZARRE. First off, I respect that Clare is quite literally “grappling” with a lot of ideas in his head as a disabled and deeply traumatized person. If you read this book as a sort of diary and a stream of consciousness, this could be an interesting case study. HOWEVER, this book should NOT be read as some sort of scholarly work or a compelling and reasonable argument. The ideas in this book were so so offensive and wrong.
First of all, Clare’s hatred of cure goes way too far. We desperately need to get rid of the stigma and discrimination that disabled people face and I think the history of how medicalization has been used for discrimination is very interesting and important to learn about. Glorifying disability does not advance this cause and Clare creates a false dichotomy where people cannot be helped without “unchoosing” disability and treating disabled people as faulty. Clare treats cure and treatment as if it is in and of itself discrimination and evil. Treatment saves lives and saves people from lifetimes of immense pain. Clare almost completely ignores the real struggle that so many disabled people face separate from discrimination. Talking about treatment generally as akin to racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia is ridiculous.
Secondly, the praise of transablism in this book shocked me. I didn’t even know that was a thing before reading this book but how are we normalizing self harm as some sort of disability activism??? And comparing this to the struggle and discrimination that transgender people face is once again so offensive and wild that it’s coming from a trans person.
I hope Clare is able to sort through his thoughts and find a level of comfortability with his life that he can recognize how bigoted a lot of his thinking is.
Read for a sociology class which is BIZARRE. First off, I respect that Clare is quite literally “grappling” with a lot of ideas in his head as a disabled and deeply traumatized person. If you read this book as a sort of diary and a stream of consciousness, this could be an interesting case study. HOWEVER, this book should NOT be read as some sort of scholarly work or a compelling and reasonable argument. The ideas in this book were so so offensive and wrong.
First of all, Clare’s hatred of cure goes way too far. We desperately need to get rid of the stigma and discrimination that disabled people face and I think the history of how medicalization has been used for discrimination is very interesting and important to learn about. Glorifying disability does not advance this cause and Clare creates a false dichotomy where people cannot be helped without “unchoosing” disability and treating disabled people as faulty. Clare treats cure and treatment as if it is in and of itself discrimination and evil. Treatment saves lives and saves people from lifetimes of immense pain. Clare almost completely ignores the real struggle that so many disabled people face separate from discrimination. Talking about treatment generally as akin to racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia is ridiculous.
Secondly, the praise of transablism in this book shocked me. I didn’t even know that was a thing before reading this book but how are we normalizing self harm as some sort of disability activism??? And comparing this to the struggle and discrimination that transgender people face is once again so offensive and wild that it’s coming from a trans person.
I hope Clare is able to sort through his thoughts and find a level of comfortability with his life that he can recognize how bigoted a lot of his thinking is.
December 6, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed and admired this book although not quite as much as Exile & Pride. I love Clare’s beautiful accessible writing, and the way he elegantly captures the complexity and contradictions of cure and our desire for it. On one hand he considers the way cure devalues and/or seeks to eliminate disability, difference and diversity; on the other, cure can represent the prevention of death or reaching towards less suffering (eg. treating cancer or chronic pain) or an aligning of our identities and envisioned bodie-minds with how our body-minds are currently experienced or perceived by others (eg. gender alignment technologies).
It gave me food for thought as a psychiatric survivor who has rejected biomedical treatment and who has struggled at times to support loved ones who have made different decisions than me around treatment.
I don’t know that I agree with Clare on everything - he’s pretty quick to dismiss the idea that Ashley the “Pillow Angel” ‘s parents acted out of love (I think it’s very likely they did even though I don’t necessarily agree with their decision about the procedures they choose for her). I know this case is close to home for Clare but I would have liked it and medical assistance in dying (which he touches on dismissively in the final chapter) to be discussed with the same nuance he gives to, for example, weight loss surgery.
But all that said, it was still a carefully crafted and passionate book, and with the exception of these instances I’ve mentioned I was totally sold on the captivating ways he refuses to fix identity or make a definitive decision about cure. Instead, Clare offers sustained consideration that still feels open to possibility at the book’s conclusion.
It gave me food for thought as a psychiatric survivor who has rejected biomedical treatment and who has struggled at times to support loved ones who have made different decisions than me around treatment.
I don’t know that I agree with Clare on everything - he’s pretty quick to dismiss the idea that Ashley the “Pillow Angel” ‘s parents acted out of love (I think it’s very likely they did even though I don’t necessarily agree with their decision about the procedures they choose for her). I know this case is close to home for Clare but I would have liked it and medical assistance in dying (which he touches on dismissively in the final chapter) to be discussed with the same nuance he gives to, for example, weight loss surgery.
But all that said, it was still a carefully crafted and passionate book, and with the exception of these instances I’ve mentioned I was totally sold on the captivating ways he refuses to fix identity or make a definitive decision about cure. Instead, Clare offers sustained consideration that still feels open to possibility at the book’s conclusion.
December 9, 2018
“Strangers offer me Christian prayers, orcrystals and vitamins, always with the same intent - to touch me, to fix me, to mend my Cerebral Palsy, if only I would comply. They cry over me, wrap their arms around my shoulders, kiss my cheeks, . After five decades of these kinds of interactions, I still don’t know how to rebuff their pity, tell them the simple truth that I am not broken.”
As a disabled person, I appreciate the way Eli Claire gave voice to the frustrations I face when people look at us and however unintentionally, regard us as defective and broken, as people who need fixing.
However, having acknowledged the good job Claire did with bringing across the live experiences of disabled persons, I am also mindful that the views expressed by him are more often than not tilted towards extremist views that lie on the anti-cure end of the spectrum of cure politics. Personally, I am more moderate and think we need to find that fine balance between pro-cure and anti-cure. This is a polarising and complex issue that people feel passionate about and can argue about forever. Brilliant Imperfection gives us one way of looking at the issue. However, I’d caution that it is not the only opinion of the disabled population. It’s good to keep this in mind and take the reading of this book with an open mind.
As a disabled person, I appreciate the way Eli Claire gave voice to the frustrations I face when people look at us and however unintentionally, regard us as defective and broken, as people who need fixing.
However, having acknowledged the good job Claire did with bringing across the live experiences of disabled persons, I am also mindful that the views expressed by him are more often than not tilted towards extremist views that lie on the anti-cure end of the spectrum of cure politics. Personally, I am more moderate and think we need to find that fine balance between pro-cure and anti-cure. This is a polarising and complex issue that people feel passionate about and can argue about forever. Brilliant Imperfection gives us one way of looking at the issue. However, I’d caution that it is not the only opinion of the disabled population. It’s good to keep this in mind and take the reading of this book with an open mind.
July 26, 2020
needed to be savored
October 26, 2022
read for my creative writing class !! got me to think alottt
August 15, 2021
Read for class. Appreciated this book a lot and the insights and different thinking. It is non fiction that also feels poetic and is mainly based on the authors experience
Learned about: disability
Learned about: disability
March 13, 2024
Probably one of the most important books I’ll ever read
November 8, 2023
I thought this book was both very informative and very accessible. I learned a lot and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in disability and cure.
February 15, 2021
This was one of those rare books that could benefit both someone who knows previously little about disability theory and someone who has a lot of lived experience or academic study. Framing around the complicated, looming figure of the "cure" was such a helpful, insightful structure, and I really appreciated Clare bringing in intersectional lens on "cure," too.
March 6, 2024
this book is beautiful poetic devastating overwhelming all at once
January 31, 2017
*ARC provided by Netgalley and the Publisher for an honest review*
This books is not a book that you read for to pass he time but neither is it an academic text steeped in technical jargon that leaves you feeling exhausted after the first few pages.
The subject matter dealt with is so important and yet it is something that most people don't contemplate, cure. This is a word that, to most, is only given a positive connotation but in thisthe book Eli Clare gives us a different perspective from which to judge this ideology.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, it was both a pleasure to read and an enlightening experience. I think that a book like this definitely has a heartbeat needs to be heard, especially with the turmoil that the world has found itself in. If we didn't put such emphasis on the benefits of 'cure' and instead saw the benefits of imperfections perhaps society would have a better mindset.
Eli Clare has a style of writing that is engaging and keeps you captivated, you feel like he is talking to you and you can practically feel his emotions jumping off the page. He also uses historical accounts and some of his own stories which gives the reader a nice change in tone and stops you from losing focus.(Not that it would be easy to lose focus in any case.)
This is definitely a 5 star book and I am glad that I read it
This books is not a book that you read for to pass he time but neither is it an academic text steeped in technical jargon that leaves you feeling exhausted after the first few pages.
The subject matter dealt with is so important and yet it is something that most people don't contemplate, cure. This is a word that, to most, is only given a positive connotation but in thisthe book Eli Clare gives us a different perspective from which to judge this ideology.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, it was both a pleasure to read and an enlightening experience. I think that a book like this definitely has a heartbeat needs to be heard, especially with the turmoil that the world has found itself in. If we didn't put such emphasis on the benefits of 'cure' and instead saw the benefits of imperfections perhaps society would have a better mindset.
Eli Clare has a style of writing that is engaging and keeps you captivated, you feel like he is talking to you and you can practically feel his emotions jumping off the page. He also uses historical accounts and some of his own stories which gives the reader a nice change in tone and stops you from losing focus.(Not that it would be easy to lose focus in any case.)
This is definitely a 5 star book and I am glad that I read it
November 17, 2022
I think this book has compelling perspectives regarding the problem with cure. Where I struggled was the co-opting of Black experiences and movements as a white author. There needs to be more acknowledgment of whiteness in this book , more acknowledgment of race intersecting with disability. (Example, he would often write BIPOC disabled /nondisabled & disabled white people to describe a certain experience). I ended up struggling to finish the second half for this reason. Whiteness is always perceived first, and I know way too many disabled white people that use this as a reason to avoid acknowledging properly how their whiteness allows them to operate in the world.
Overall, I’m not mad I read it, I learned some things, but it’s disappointing that this isn’t something I would recommend to folks to learn about disability justice due to this lack of ownership.
Overall, I’m not mad I read it, I learned some things, but it’s disappointing that this isn’t something I would recommend to folks to learn about disability justice due to this lack of ownership.
February 25, 2019
Beautifully written, as you might expect, but I'm disappointed with the lack of deep engagement of race and Indigeneity. Both are present but are never satisfactorily unpacked in the examples he gives. His treatment of case studies is certainly intimate and intense and done with a measure of care, though. Also, I don't want "rebellion" around trans communities' failures to dismantle the DSM, I want trans communities to center the Mad voices already present within them, to take us seriously, to believe us, and give us choice about how we want the revolution to proceed. Certainly, dismantling the DSM could be part of it, for some of us, but how can trans communities even begin to dream of attacking the DSM when they're rife with sanism/ableism, as it is?
September 4, 2018
Marvelous book length essay on the notion of "cure" and how difficult the concept is. Basically I took away from the book that charities often raise money based on looking for a "cure" for certain diseases and conditions. The author argues that usually cures are far in the distance and what might be more needed is things like access to affordable health insurance, to educated professionals, access to being included in the world - in education, in social settings, in the job market. Ability to afford the needed assistive devices etc. These are things that people with disabilities wrestle with daily and "cure" is usually not even in the distant future. Very thought-provoking.
September 16, 2020
This book is brilliant and wonderful, according to both of the people who live in this house (one cis diabetic, one GNC disabled). The writing is polished and wonderful, and Clare tackles the complexity and nuances of this conversation with considerable grace.
I say this a lot, and I'm going to say it again:
If you think this book is "for disabled people" and you're not disabled so it's not for you, you're wrong. This book is written to challenge ableism and all of the assumptions about and projections on to disabled people, so as a non-disabled person, you have the most to learn from reading it. Highly recommended.
I say this a lot, and I'm going to say it again:
If you think this book is "for disabled people" and you're not disabled so it's not for you, you're wrong. This book is written to challenge ableism and all of the assumptions about and projections on to disabled people, so as a non-disabled person, you have the most to learn from reading it. Highly recommended.
August 13, 2018
very beautiful, sometimes too academic for my liking, but mostly it comes from the gut and has challenging, perplexing things to say. cn: all kinds of violence and abuse of power, including child sexual abuse. but there's a detailed, nuanced trigger warning at the beginning of the book.
January 24, 2018
One of the best books I have ever read.
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