This week the article on Disability,
Embodiment and Ableism discussed tyrannies of perfection and the idea that
impairment or disability is equated with biological inferiority, as well as the
non-disabled gaze and how it invalidates impaired bodies. Truth and perfection
are only recognized in normality.
In few other realms is perfection personified like in the
world of fashion. While there are different ideas of perfection when it comes
to beauty, the runway has tended to include a certain type of woman: tall,
slender, and able-bodied.
New York Fashion Week tried to change that this year when it
included its first disabled model on the runway. Dr. Danielle Sheypuk, a
psychologist, was Ms. Wheelchair New York 2012 and made her fashion show debut in
the Carrie Hammer show.
Hammer told the Huffington
Post that she “made the decision to cast role models not runway models.”
Do you think this comment adds to or takes away from casting
her in the show?
Sheypuk is not the only disabled model who has made her
debut in the world of fashion recently. Diesel
cast Jillian Mercado, a style blogger
who uses a wheelchair, in one of its latest campaigns with a message of “We
are connected.”
Will this campaign help people stray away from politics of
difference and encourage people to recognize the equal value of different ways
of being?
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