GimpGirl grows up: Women with disabilities rethinking, redefining, and reclaiming community

Abstract

In this article, we undertake a reflective narrative inquiry into the GimpGirl Community (GGC), an online group of women with disabilities. We explore 12 years of GGC activity through community archives and auto-biographic narratives of GGC organizers, to understand how these women actively created a safe and open space for like-minded individuals, how community members used diverse online technologies for community building and social interaction, and how these online tools allow some members to experiment with their notions of self and identity outside dominant discourses. Our at UNIVERSITE DE MONTREAL on June 19, 2015 nms.sagepub.com Downloaded from 1162 new media & society 13 (7) analysis of the lived experiences of GGC members reveals how they challenge the boundary between 'abled' and 'disabled,' and enact agency beyond their marginalization as women and as individuals with disabilities.

Competing narratives in framing disability in the UK media: a comparative analysis of journalistic representations of facial disfigurement versus practices of self-representations online

“…According to Cole et al (2011Cole et al ( , 1175, the ability to decide how to present themselves online may allow women with disabilities to surpass the myths of 'normativity', thus crafting their own identity by distancing themselves from conventional narratives of medicalisation or rehabilitation. A blog can also function as a means of selfreflection and a way to experiment with different identities (Arsel and Zhao 2013).…”

“…This study aims to explore the logic of the Web in the context of disability-related issues. Online platforms can offer new and sometimes more positive ways to depict disability (Cole et al 2011;Gonzalez-Polledo and Tarr 2016;Thoreau 2006). However, the question of whether the forms of self-representation offered by the virtual world are creating a new paradigm to re-interpret disability deserves more critical analysis.…”

What is an online community? A new definition based around commitment, connection, reciprocity, interaction, agency, and consequences

“…Barab et al, 2003). Strong communities can provide spaces for addressing life's challenges (Cole, 2011) and are often sought in education in which there have been sustained attempts to develop collaborative learning (e.g. McConnell, 2000;Stahl, 2006) and to develop ideal speech situations (e.g.…”

What is an online community? A new definition based around commitment, connection, reciprocity, interaction, agency, and consequences

“…Palloff and Pratt, 2013) or among more informal groups in which there is a sense of shared interests and concerns (e.g. Cole et al, 2011;Leyton Escobar et al, 2014). Strong communities find ways of over-coming constraints on participation, show awareness of asymmetries in the process of interaction and high levels of reciprocity.…”