Hello, I am crowdsourcing a quandary that I have regarding my dissertation. I am studying contemporary Young Adult novels with black disabled protagonists and I keep waffling about whether to include Hannah Moskowitz's *Not Otherwise Specified. *The main character has an eating disorder and I feel like it reads like a disability narrative, but I am unable to find any scholarship that frames eating disorders as disabilities. I don't (necessarily) want to spend time doing the work of connecting the two, but I also don't (necessarily) want to leave this novel out of my study for that reason. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? -- Tolonda Henderson Graduate Instructor and PhD Student English Department University of Connecticut they/them/their

Hi! My personal general rule when asking if something "counts as a disability" typically revolves around the question: does this impact the daily functions of this individual in any way? Does it impact their lifestyle, access, and ability to navigate social spaces? In regards to eating disorders, I've seen them recognized as mental illnesses or at least as a diagnosis. In my opinion, eating disorders do impact daily living and can be considered a disability. Whether that individual believes it to be a disability and considers themselves disabled is another story. If a story can be read as a disability narrative through your lens of thought, I'd definitely include it whether or not a character is ever explicitly defined as disabled. Many neurodiverse folks read characters as neurodiverse-coded in stories where they see similarities they can relate to--there are lots of ways to recognize disability narratives where the character might "not seem disabled" to others. That's where text analysis comes in to support your understanding of it as a disability-coded narrative or character. Much like queer-coded characters or stories! Hope this helps gives you some food for thought and helps when looking at disability narratives! - Lindsey On Wed, Aug 3, 2022 at 2:23 PM Tolonda Henderson via SDS-Discuss < sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org> wrote: > Hello, I am crowdsourcing a quandary that I have regarding my > dissertation. I am studying contemporary Young Adult novels with black > disabled protagonists and I keep waffling about whether to include Hannah > Moskowitz's *Not Otherwise Specified. *The main character has an eating > disorder and I feel like it reads like a disability narrative, but I am > unable to find any scholarship that frames eating disorders as > disabilities. I don't (necessarily) want to spend time doing the work of > connecting the two, but I also don't (necessarily) want to leave this novel > out of my study for that reason. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? > > -- > Tolonda Henderson > Graduate Instructor and PhD Student > English Department > University of Connecticut > they/them/their > This is sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org. A members- only benefit of the > Society for Disability Studies. When you joined SDS you agreed or not to be > a List Member and specified at what address(es). Your Membership is > currently set to muszkl@uw.edu. If that has changed, please login to your > SDS Membership Profile and change your settings. > https://societyfordisabilitystudies.wildapricot.org/Sys/Login. > You may unsubscribe here: > https://lists.disstudies.org/list/sds-discuss.lists.disstudies.org#. > However, you need to change your SDS Profile to avoid being resubscribed.

Dear Tolonda and all, I did a search in Google Scholar and found a number of possibilities. I didn’t open each article, but this one seems along the lines of what you’re looking for (framing eating disorder in terms of disability, in a literary analysis)— Ally Day’s “Toward a Feminist Reading of the Disability Memoir: The Critical Necessity for Intertextuality in Marya Hornbacher’s Wasted and Madness.” https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/1591/0 Best of luck! Margaret -- Dr. Margaret Price (she/her/hers) Associate Professor, Department of English Director, Disability Studies Program The Ohio State University 421 Denney Hall Columbus, OH 43214 (614) 292-6065 https://english.osu.edu/people/price.1225 From: Lindsey Muszkiewicz via SDS-Discuss <sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org> Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 5:57 PM To: Tolonda Henderson <tolonda.henderson@uconn.edu> Cc: sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org <sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org> Subject: [SDS Members]Re: Eating Disorders as Disabilities? Hi! My personal general rule when asking if something "counts as a disability" typically revolves around the question: does this impact the daily functions of this individual in any way? Does it impact their lifestyle, access, and Hi! My personal general rule when asking if something "counts as a disability" typically revolves around the question: does this impact the daily functions of this individual in any way? Does it impact their lifestyle, access, and ability to navigate social spaces? In regards to eating disorders, I've seen them recognized as mental illnesses or at least as a diagnosis. In my opinion, eating disorders do impact daily living and can be considered a disability. Whether that individual believes it to be a disability and considers themselves disabled is another story. If a story can be read as a disability narrative through your lens of thought, I'd definitely include it whether or not a character is ever explicitly defined as disabled. Many neurodiverse folks read characters as neurodiverse-coded in stories where they see similarities they can relate to--there are lots of ways to recognize disability narratives where the character might "not seem disabled" to others. That's where text analysis comes in to support your understanding of it as a disability-coded narrative or character. Much like queer-coded characters or stories! Hope this helps gives you some food for thought and helps when looking at disability narratives! - Lindsey On Wed, Aug 3, 2022 at 2:23 PM Tolonda Henderson via SDS-Discuss <sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org<mailto:sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org>> wrote: Hello, I am crowdsourcing a quandary that I have regarding my dissertation. I am studying contemporary Young Adult novels with black disabled protagonists and I keep waffling about whether to include Hannah Moskowitz's Not Otherwise Specified. The main character has an eating disorder and I feel like it reads like a disability narrative, but I am unable to find any scholarship that frames eating disorders as disabilities. I don't (necessarily) want to spend time doing the work of connecting the two, but I also don't (necessarily) want to leave this novel out of my study for that reason. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? -- Tolonda Henderson Graduate Instructor and PhD Student English Department University of Connecticut they/them/their This is sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org<mailto:sds-discuss@lists.disstudies.org>. A members- only benefit of the Society for Disability Studies. When you joined SDS you agreed or not to be a List Member and specified at what address(es). Your Membership is currently set to muszkl@uw.edu<mailto:muszkl@uw.edu>. If that has changed, please login to your SDS Membership Profile and change your settings. https://societyfordisabilitystudies.wildapricot.org/Sys/Login<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/societyfordisabilitystudies.wildapricot.org/Sys/Login__;!!KGKeukY!26zopBL8bvw9MEDXBBKpmjg61Kkf_qNuE8Y2ILuwEdRXsTI3gk8QPAktfX1FW-GNTBrv9L_xI6GBt1hQ5MY3BKqNsO8liR1c2A$>. You may unsubscribe here: https://lists.disstudies.org/list/sds-discuss.lists.disstudies.org#<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/lists.disstudies.org/list/sds-discuss.lists.disstudies.org*__;Iw!!KGKeukY!26zopBL8bvw9MEDXBBKpmjg61Kkf_qNuE8Y2ILuwEdRXsTI3gk8QPAktfX1FW-GNTBrv9L_xI6GBt1hQ5MY3BKqNsO9VZxJ7dw$>. However, you need to change your SDS Profile to avoid being resubscribed.