No Time Like the Future

You’re probably all familiar with Michael J. Fox, of Marty McFly fame. More than his acting, he’s been known lately for his activism and his foundation, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, whose goal is to help find a cure for Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 1991, at age 30.

My mom has been a fan of his since his Spin City days. She’s read a few of his books, and was really pushing this one on me, trying to get me to read it and review it here.

“It’s kind of written in the style you use for your blog articles…”

Okay, sounds cool.

“… only, you know, funnier and better, obviously.”

… Obviously.

Anyways, I read it, and now here is my review!

Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation

Unless disability and animal justice are incorporated into our other movements for liberation, ableism and anthropocentrism will be left unchallenged, available for use by systems of domination and oppression.

Sunaura Taylor is an American painter, writer and activist, both in the fields of disability and of animal rights. She was born with arthrogryposis, a disability that affects her articulations (and doesn’t keep her from being a painter, writer and activist, quite the contrary!)

In this book, she shows us readers the parallels between speciesism and ableism, the similarities to be found between humans who consider animals to be worthless and able-bodied people who consider disabled people the same way. She argues that the two movements, animal liberation and disability rights, are intrinsically connected and have to move forward together. One cannot ignore the other to make its own advances, and vice versa.

While I am also an animal lover (to a lesser extent than her though—for one thing, I’m not a vegan) as well as disabled, I was not entirely sold on the idea that the two movements are, in the way she describes it, one and the same. However, I did enjoy the book (although it was difficult to read at times, as someone who does not enjoy seeing or reading about animal suffering) and learned many interesting things. Would I recommend it to others? If you’re interested in the topics, go ahead, but I won’t say it’s an essential read.

Harry Potter and the Non-Existent Disabilities, Part II

As I previously mentioned in this article, one of the things that disappointed me the most in the Harry Potter series was the absence of any disabled characters, and the absence even of any mention such people—disabled wizards—might exist.

In the books themselves, I didn’t mind that lack so much. After all, they were children’s books (at the start at least), and I’d rather there not be a disabled character than there being a token one just to look inclusive. But when JKR started expanding her whole headcanon in interviews and on Pottermore (sorry, I will never consider any of that canon), I would have liked to see her address that possibility.

Turns out she did. And I totally blocked it out after having read it the first time (probably when it was first published in 2015) because it is such a Bad Take, I preferred to stick with my own headcanon when it came to disabilities in the wizarding world.

So let us explore why I consider this such a Bad Take.

Harry Potter and the Non-Existent Disabilities

If you know me even a little, you know I am a huge Pottergeek. I have read the books at least half a dozen times each (often in more than one language), watched all the movies as many, if not more, times, written over a hundred fanfictions, participated in various online HP communities pretty much constantly since my teenage years…

Since I have become disabled, though, a question has arisen in my mind: how do disabled people get around Hogwarts? I mean, the castle has 142 staircases! Now, to be clear, I’m not upset that JKR didn’t include an obviously physically disabled character in the stories, I’m just wondering how such a character could manage in the magical world of Harry Potter.

After all, isn’t that what fandom and fanfiction are for?