Overview

For psychotherapist, painter, feminist, filmmaker, writer, and disability activist Harilyn Rousso, hearing well intentioned people tell her, You're so inspirational! is patronizing, not complimentary. In her empowering and at times confrontational memoir, Dont Call Me Inspirational, Rousso who has cerebral palsy, describes overcoming the prejudice against disabilitynot overcoming disability. She addresses the often absurd and ignorant attitudes of strangers, friends, and family. Rousso also examines her own prejudice toward her disabled body, and portrays the healing effects of intimacy and creativity, as well as her involvement with the disability rights community. She intimately reveals herself with honesty and humour and measures her personal growth as she goes from passing to embracing and claiming her disability as a source of pride, positive identity, and rebellion. A collage of images about her life, rather than a formal portrait, Dont Call Me Inspirational celebrates Roussos wise, witty, productive, outrageous life, disability and all. Harilyn Rousso is a disability activist, feminist, psychotherapist, writer, and painter. She is the President of Disabilities Unlimited Consulting Services, founder of the Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls, co-editor of Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education and author of Disabled, Female, and Proud! She lives in New York City.

Full Product Details

Author:   Harilyn Rousso
Publisher:   Temple University Press,U.S.
Imprint:   Temple University Press,U.S.
Dimensions:   Width: 13.30cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.363kg
ISBN:  

9781439909362

ISBN 10:   1439909369
Pages:   224
Publication Date:   18 January 2013
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

Contents Preface Acknowledgments I  Close Encounters with the Clueless 1 Who’s Harilyn? 2 Birth, Mine 3 Close Encounters with the Clueless 4 The Beggar and the Cripple 5 The Stare 6 Always the Other 7 Why I am Not Inspirational 8 Home II On Leaving Home 9 Wedding Day, 1933 10 Dancing 11 Exploding Beans 12 My Sister 13 Adolescent Conversation 14 On Leaving Home 15 Hideous Shoes 16 Driving High 17 Eli 18 My Father, Myself 19 Driving away from Home III On Not Looking in the Mirror 20 Walk Straight! 21 On Not Looking in the Mirror 22 Facing My Face 23 Meditations on Speech and Silence 24 Daring Digits 25 Right-Hand Painting 26 Being Only One: Some Meditations on Solitude IV What's a Woman? 27 What’s a Woman? 28 He Was the One 29 Blank Page 30 Buying the Wedding Dress 31 First Date 32 First Night 33 Mixed Couple 34 Sylvester 35 Faces of Eve 36 Tough Bird 37 Hand in Hand V Why Claim Disability? 38 Finding My Way 39 Keeping the Distance 40 That “Inspirational” Label 41 Token of Approval 42 Disabled Women’s Community 43 The Story of Betty, Revisited 44 Listening to Myself 45 Activist Sisters 46 Toilet Troubles 47 My Mentoring Project 48 Why Claim Disability? 49 Broken Silences 50 Eulogy for My Nondisabled Self 51 Eulogy for My Freakish Self 52 Ode to My Disabled Self

Reviews

I've known Harilyn Rousso as a powerful activist and gifted artist, but with this revelatory book, she becomes something even more rare: a storyteller who conveys her uniqueness, and so helps us to discover our own. This book is irresistible to read, honest, insightful and universal. -Gloria Steinem<br><br>

I've known Harilyn Rousso as a powerful activist and gifted artist, but with this revelatory book, she becomes something even more rare: a storyteller who conveys her uniqueness, and so helps us to discover our own. This book is irresistible to read, honest, insightful and universal. Gloria Steinem

I've known Harilyn Rousso as a powerful activist and gifted artist, but with this revelatory book, she becomes something even more rare: a storyteller who conveys her uniqueness, and so helps us to discover our own. This book is irresistible to read, honest, insightful and universal. Gloria Steinem An inspirational affirmation of the unique worth of every individual. Kirkus Reviews, December 15th 2012 Rousso is an activist, artist, educator, social worker, psychotherapist, writer, painter and advocate who has worked in the disability rights field. The book follows her journey from 'passing'pretending that she didnt have cerebral palsyto embracing her disability. In the late 70s, she began exploring her disability identity, and she writes with honesty and power. Jewish Woman, Winter 2012 This collection of 52 short essays and meditative fragments is aptly described by the author, a psychotherapist, disabilities activist, and artist, as 'a collage or a series of images' rather than a more formal memoir... When she writes of the psychotherapy institute where she was training asking her to leave, believing that a person with her disability would 'distress [her] psychotherapy clients, causing them to fleeor at least to ask for another, more normal therapist,' she, and her reader, recognize the prejudice she has faced... [Rousso's] painful honesty is affecting. Publishers Weekly, December 2012

Author Information

Harilyn Rousso is a disability activist, feminist, psychotherapist, writer, and painter. She is the President of Disabilities Unlimited Consulting Services, founder of the Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls, coeditor of Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education and author of Disabled, Female and Proud!

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