TJ Brady

This week's articles discussed the challenges women deal with regarding PMS, and the challenges of people with disabilities.  

The first article "PMS as a culture Bound Syndrome" discussed the rise in attention PMS received during the last 30 years.  In the 1970's there was little written about PMS, but know, it has been extensively covered and has moved into the pop culture sphere as well.  PMS is tough to define because it varies from person to person, with different effects and different intensities.  It even takes place at different times for some women.  Some symptoms of PMS are headaches, irritability, depression, hostility, crying spells, nausea, vomiting, and acne.  The media has taken these symptoms and cast PMS in a negative light.  Some examples of this were shown in the cards and stickers that were available in a super market.  Examples such as, "It's not PMS, I'm Psychotic", and "A woman with PMS and ESP is a bitch who knows everything." give PMS a negative connotation.  One reason why PMS blew up into a cultural icon is because in England, two female murderers were given probation because they testified that they had PMS, which affected them.  The author argues that PMS is a Culture Bound Syndrome, which means that the symptoms are categorized as a dysfunction or disease in some societies but not in others.  The author says that this occurred because of the feminism backlash that occurred in America during the feminism movement.  The media also fails to emphasize the positive aspects of PMS.  The presence of PMS signifies good health and the ability to bear children which should both be praised.  This shows that PMS shouldn't be looked down upon, if anything it should have a positive connotation because it shows a woman is able to give life to another person.  

The Second Article discussed Women With Disabilities and how one women in particular, the author, death with being a woman with a disability.  One quote that really caught my attention was, "People with disabilities are the audience, not the speakers".  The author mentioned this quote because when she was at an auditorium or somewhere where a speech could take place, she saw the general admission seating was handicap accessible, but the stage was not.  I thought about this and thought it was ridiculous.  Sub-conciously our society decided that people with disabilities would only be receiving lectures, not giving them.  Disabilities are called the hidden minority because they are overlooked unless someone with a disability points them out.  Another interesting thing mentioned in the article is how women's rights are fought for by women, while disability rights are fought for by the mothers of the people with disabilities.  I can attest to this because my brother and I both have some learning challenges and our mother was and always is very vocal about us and fights for us.  I can clearly remember during elementary and middle school my mother would have to talk with each teacher and fight for the accommodations we would need.  The most disheartening thing about this article was the myths about disabilities.  People with physical disabilities were said to be asexual and incapable of functioning sexually.  This is just a shallow attempt by society to dehumanize these people.  These myths were easily the saddest part about the articles.  

The final article discussed a study about men participating in sports while they had physical disabilities.  People with physical disabilities experience an assumed lack of individual autonomy.  People think that they are helpless and dependent on others.  Disabled persons show this isn't true through sports and physical activity.  The study examined men who participated in sport, examining why they did it and what the effects were.  People with disabilities participate in sport as a way to compensate for their supposed deficiencies.  The people showed their skills  in sports  and would put the viewers in awe.  Another reason they work out and play sports is to get more self-confidence in their physical appearance.  One quote showed this perfectly, "I want to be able to roll outside with a tank top on…and not have my stomach sticking out.  If I was not doing sports I would probably…be a lot heavier and I…would not have the gumption to …really want to lose weight…If I was not doing sports, I would be a fat tub of goo right now."  I think this quote is great because this could easily be said by someone without a disability, which proves to certain people that although they have disabilities, these people are going through the same struggles we all are, and can have the same successes we all have.  I experienced this personally because for 5 years I ran basketball and baseball clinics for kids with Autism in my hometown.  Some of the skill and strength these kids had was ridiculous and would be completely underestimated by other people.  Although they had challenges they still wanted to have fun just like everyone else and be a normal kid, which is what I think this article was about.