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Dissonant Disabilities

Women with Chronic Illnesses Explore Their Lives

Edited by ,

Women’s Press
Subjects
Addictions, Health, and Mental Health / Anti-Oppressive Practice / Disability Studies / Gender / Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies / Health and Wellness / Health Studies / Social Work
270 pages
6 x 9 inches
March 2008
Print ISBN: 9780889614642


Overview

This much-needed collection of original articles invites the reader to examine the key issues in the lives of women with chronic illnesses. The authors explore how society reacts to women with chronic illness and how women living with chronic illness cope with the uncertainty of their bodies in a society that desires certainty. Additionally, issues surrounding women with chronic illness in the workplace and the impact of chronic illness on women's relationships are sensitively considered.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction - Diane Driedger and Michelle Owen

Part One: Clashing Expectations
Water Wearing on a Stone: The Role of Shame in the Social Construction of Chronic Illnesses - Charlotte Caron

The Complexities of Negotiating Power under Conditions of Chronic Illness - Mary Delaney and Sandra Bell

Crazy Talk: A Dialogue between Two Young Women about Depression - Mandy Fraser and Jennifer Matwee

The Social Construction of Doubt: Women's Accounts of Uncertainty and Chronic Illness - Sheilagh Grills and Scott Grills

Part Two: Unpredictable Bodies
The Emergence of Body Image Dissatisfaction among Women in Singapore - Maho Isono

What's Eating You? A Feminist's Chronic Struggle with Anorexic Identity - Morgan Gresham

Listening to the Body: Women with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities Talk about Illness and the Body - Debra A. Swoboda

This Is Not Going to Control My Life: Young and Living with Fibromyalgia - Amy Chow

Part Three: Disturbing Work
The Personal is Pedagogical/The Pedagogical is Personal - Ruth Roach Pierson

There Always Seems to Be Excuses: A Grad Student's Narrative of Autoimmunity - Julie Devaney

A Delicate Balance: Chronic Conditions and Workspace - Nancy E. Hensen

Part Four: Shifting Relationships
Chronic Non-malignant Pain: A Queer Woman's Journey through Relationships and Healing - Corinne Stevens

Working Together: Women with Musculoskeletal Illnesses Interacting with Health Care Providers - S. Michelle Driedger, Carrie Sanders, Cindy Gallois, Maree Boyle, and Nancy Santesso

Circle of Care: Transitioning through One Woman's Experience of Breast Cancer - Barbara A. Brown

Part Five: Traversing Dissonance
Recovery and Power: Living with Bipolar Disorder - J. Karen Reynolds

Living Well (with Cancer): Lessons Learned from Dragon-Boat Racers - Terry L. Mitchell, Franci Finkelstein, Eleanor Nielsen, and Christina Yakiwchuk

Signalling Invisibility, Risking Careers? Caucusing as an SOS - Katherine Teghtsoonian and Pamela Moss

Notes from Bed: Learning from Chronic Illness - Susan Wendell

Afterword
Bibliography
Suggested Web Sites for Further Information
Biographies
Index

Diane Driedger

Diane Driedger is an Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Disability Studies at the University of Manitoba.

Dissonant Disabilities, Untold Stories

Michelle Owen

Michelle Owen is Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Coordinator of Disability Studies at the University of Winnipeg. Her primary teaching and research interests and publications are focused on gender, sexuality, family, chronic illness, and disability.

Reviews

"This is a strong and much-needed collection about issues that are significant in the lives of women living with chronic illnesses. I like the inclusion of physical, cognitive, visible, invisible, and contested illnesses."

"This collection addresses an under-researched and under-theorized academic topic, combining the perspectives of critical disability tudies and feminist studies. Most importantly, it does so from the perspective of women who themselves live with chronic illness. The scholarship is sound and well-researched, but also adds an important dimension of personal experience that underlines the value of critical identity politics."

"This collection addresses an under-researched and under-theorized academic topic, combining the perspectives of critical disability studies and feminist studies. Most importantly, it does so from the perspective of women who themselves live with chronic illness. The scholarship is sound and well-researched, but also adds an important dimension of personal experience that underlines the value of critical identity politics."
—  Pauline Greenhill, Women's and Gender Studies, University of Winnipeg

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