Odd-looking and uppity

Harriet McBryde Johnson apparently spoke at some big event in Michigan earlier this fall. As usual, she reportedly had some great things to say about disability rightish stuff. But first, Sharon Emory, the writer of this article has to make clear how twisty and gimpy and short Johnson is:

Watch Harriet McBryde Johnson for a while, and she starts turning your concept of human height on its head.

The "fearless voice for equality and freedom'' -- as she was introduced last month at the 25th anniversary gala for Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service Inc. -- uses a body so molded by neuromuscular disease that it nearly folds over on itself in her motorized wheelchair. "A jumble of bones in a floppy bag of skin,'' is the way she describes it.

The 49-year-old South Carolina lawyer and author wears her brown hair parted down the middle in a braid that hangs over her left shoulder and immediately reaches her lap. Just below are her black-slipper-shod feet, which point downward from the wheelchair footrests, seemingly ready for a pirouette at any moment.

Rising barely higher than the back of her wheelchair, her body exists on a horizontal rather than vertical plane. And that kind of mind-expanding experience is just for starters.

Once she opens her mouth, which she notably has no problem doing, you're likely to get blown back in your chair if you're the sensitive type.

The rest of the article gets down to the business of crip rights -- or rather, human rights, since Johnson challenges her audience (and evidently the reporter) to think in terms of providing for everyone instead of creating special programs for the disabled:

"Why not aspire to a world where all students have a right to a free and accessible education, where everyone can have useful work at a living wage?"

Society has no idea what to do with disability beyond opting to take care of it, hide it, lock it up, let it die "or put it on a pedestal and call it inspiration,'' she says ruefully, all of which involve "setting us apart from the human community.''

Johnson always, always rocks.

But look back at that part about her opening her mouth:

Once she opens her mouth, which she notably has no problem doing, you're likely to get blown back in your chair if you're the sensitive type.

What exactly does this mean? Why is it notable that she has no problem opening her mouth? Is it a reference to ability or agency? Does it express approval or is it critical? What about Johnson's message will shock the sensitive?

The vivid description of Johnson's body and its abnormalities is the visual set-up for the news that she has something original and forceful to say. The piece is written so that her body and her message cannot be easily separated, and are, in fact, the message together.

The headline of this column reads "When special isn't good enough." And the beginning paragraphs emphasize how different, interesting, challenging -- special -- Johnson appears physically. "Opens her mouth" is a particularly physical way to say that she "speaks" and it suggests something crude about the activity because it doesn't refer to the content of her speech but instead to her body and what it is (and isn't?) capable of.

Why mention Johnson has no problem opening her mouth? The only possible reads I can imagine are references either to her physical capability of uttering words, or her outspokeness. If it's the latter, again it's a particularly crude and physical way to say she speaks her mind. Her actions are described as if her disabled body is expressing itself rather than her intellect, and that this is somehow unattractive, inappropriate -- uppity.

Toward the end of the article, it's noted that Johnson publicly debated philosopher Peter Singer:

Johnson, who specializes in disability rights law, attained what she calls "weird, semi-celebrity status" when she took on noted philosopher and Princeton University professor Peter Singer in 2001.

Basing his argument on preference-utilitarian principles, Singer made his case for allowing parents to kill severely disabled babies so that, theoretically, as many people as possible could fulfill as many of their preferred choices as possible. Having lived nearly five decades with a congenital disease, Johnson took umbrage at his line of thinking.

It's not mentioned that Johnson's semi-celebrity occured because her richly descriptive and fascinating account of this debate was a cover story for The New York Times Sunday magazine and later a chapter in her book, To Old To Die Young. Nor is Johnson's side of that debate explained, though Singer's specific philosophical approach is described. It's only noted that Johnson "took umbrage" that people like her should be allowed to be killed at birth.

Johnson's message for her speech in Michigan is abbreviated into the article's title "When special isn't good enough." This reads together with the focus on Johnson's body and the failure to show her intellect or lawyerly knowledge as products of an accomplished and perhaps radical mind. It reads as a rebuke for asking for favors -- special demands from those with special bodies.

Obviously, I don't know the intent of the reporter for this piece, but while seeming to cover the interests of disabled people she instead presents Johnson as an abnormal body that behaves in an unseemly way by opening her mouth.