The Social Empowerment of Difference

Abstract

This article explores the significance of parasport culture in highlighting an emancipatory understanding of difference and enhancing social empowerment. Disability studies are used to illuminate the influence of ableist ideology on people with impairments. Rather than being suppressed, difference should be recognized and valued in parasport practices and ideologies, leading to a pluralist culture, in which farther and wider social emancipation can be grounded. Acceptance of difference is an absolute and essential precondition for parasport cultures to promote positive social change for people with disabilities.

Sliding to Reverse Ableism: An Ethnographic Exploration of (Dis)ability in Sitting Volleyball

“…A focus on the subjective experiences of diversely embodied individuals carries the potential to expose the fabrication of cultural truths on 'marginal' bodies. This has already been acknowledged regarding gender [43]; sexuality [44,45], race [46], humanness [47][48][49], and to some degree (dis)ability [5,50]. For this transgressive potential to be fully realized, postmodern sport needs to bring back what modern sport tried to keep out: the erotic pleasure of movement, a focus on the lived experience of the moving primordial body, "reasserting it as a being in its own right" [36] (p. 292).…”

“…When allowed to participate, usually in adapted versions of mainstream sports, individuals with 'less-than-able' bodies are judged for their ability to perform similarly to their 'normal' counterparts and not for their distinctive capabilities. This is why sport has failed so far to promote true empowerment for participants with impairments and trigger a long-lasting cultural shift regarding disability [4,5]. A more empowering alternative would be to respect everyone's unique embodiment and judge performance in accordance to such distinctiveness.…”

Para athlete activism: A qualitative examination of disability activism through Paralympic sport in Ireland

“…This because increasingly, representation favours more 'able-bodied' disabled athletes from more 'able-bodied' disability sports (e.g., athletics, swimming, cycling) who are less likely to directly experience forms of disablism. Silva and Howe (2018) explain how disability representation in Para sport is directional towards 'the able' because, against the hegemonic power of ableism, only highly functioning athletes will be seen as presenting elite sporting prowess. One experienced female Paralympian explained how direction of representation has developed: I don't think [low-functioning] athletes are represented well…it is kind of only the 'sexy athletes', the athletes that look kind of normal, kind of like everyone else.…”

“…As demonstrated in this study, Para sport contexts are by no-means immune to the influence of an ableist ideology. Silva and Howe (2018) urge Para sport cultures to reflect on the multiple ways they fail to challenge ableism, or worse, reinforce ableism. One way to challenge ableism in Para sport is by replicating the heterogeneity of Para sport at all levels of governance and practice (e.g., coaching, management).…”

The bodily experience of disabled athletes. A phenomenological study of powerchair football

“…Adapted sports both provide people with positive experiences of connecting with their bodies and contribute to changing their body image and schema (Aggerholm and Moltke Martiny 2017;Belo and Mendes 2017). The sporting experience, if not centred on ableist conceptions (Giese and Ruin 2018;Howe 2018), allows a form of empowerment for people with "severe impairments" (Silva and Howe 2018). This sporting experience brings psychosocial benefits: it contributes to the construction of a positive identity (Pack, Kelly and Arvinen-Barrow 2017;Schipper, Lieberman and Moody 2017) and to a multiplication of social relationships (Aggerholm and Moltke Martiny 2017;Apelmo 2016;Jeffress and Brown 2017;Marcellini, 2005).…”