Quotes About Stigma

Let me remind all of us--disabled and nondisabled--that every time we defend our intelligence, we come close to disowning intellectually disabled people. We imply that it might be okay to exclude, devalue, and institutionalize people who actually live with body-mind conditions that impact the ways they think, understand, and process information. The only way out of this trap is to move toward, not away from, intellectually disabled people, to practice active solidarity.

But in today's world, being seen as intellectually, cognitively, or developmentally disabled is dangerous because intelligence and verbal communication are entrenched markers of personhood.

the phrase "stay-at-home mom" is patronizing and faintly derogatory, like "stick-in-the-mud mom" or "sit-in-the-corner mom." Do we talk about a "chained-to-the-desk mom" or a "stuck-in-traffic mom" or a "languishing-in-meetings mom"?

His daughters had lived their early life in permanent disgrace for having, none of them, been born a boy.

One of those pretty boys we put up front to avoid being accused of only putting pretty girls up there.

A female is usually good as a daughter but often not good as a wife

A woman loses her virginity and a man loses his sanity on the first night of their intercourse.

Daughter-in-law often calls soundlessly her mother-in-law a witch and mother-in-law regularly tells silently her daughter-in-law a bitch and this happens in every house.

We skipped over the part where we just accept and respect that some women like to seem exhibitionistic and lickerish, and decided instead that everyone who is sexually liberated ought to be imitating strippers and porn stars.

There's nothing worse in the world than shameless woman—save some other woman.

But it's amazing how many people think that gay men should slink off into the shadows when it comes to having friendships with children.

Americans are broad-minded people. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive, there is something wrong with him.

What happened after this exchange, though, is just as instructive. Colleagues made fun of john because of his "homeless girlfriend." This reveals a sobering truth. "Sometimes," says john, "there's a cost associated with bridging. And sometimes, the cost can be quite high.

Most poets are mad. It doesn't qualify us for anything.

Most people don't see themselves as sitting on that bottom rung as a defense mechanism. The more they blame poor people for their poverty, the further they feel from being in the same place. Even the working poor who qualify for food, childcare and housing benefits don't see themselves as such.

Not a lot of people know it, but I don't have any qualms about saying it - there's a lot of mental illness that runs in my family.

I don't want people to think you have to look a certain way or be a certain mold to be able to be a quarterback.

Why does everyone always assume the quarterback is the leader?

I was afraid my family would lock me up and give me electroshock. I was a screaming queen.

Sometimes if you're dealing with straight interviewers they're a little more excited if you're in drag: 'Oooh! Aaaah! Eeeee!' But if you're just sitting there out of drag, they think you're just a bitter queen.

Where I come from, camp was kind of looked down upon because the drag queens that I grew up with took themselves so seriously.

For a woman to consider a financial question was shuddered over as a profanity.

We see people talking to themselves all the time. We always have. Particularly if they're homeless people or at all questionable, there's a sense of, 'That guy's crazy!' I see that now with a much more empathetic eye.

Disability doesn't make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.