The Counterconforming Body : Defining Disability and Challenging Ableism

In The Counterconforming Body, Scott D. Landes presents a new definition of disability that introduces the idea of the "counterconforming body." This is a body that inherently challenges ableist normative standards and avoids pathologizing disability or positioning the disabled body as passive. Landes's approach recognizes the activity of the disabled body; avoids conflating disability with health status; and allows for a better measurement of disability. Importantly for social scientists and demographers who need reliable data measurements, understanding disability as counterconforming allows for better differentiation between disability, health, and functional limitations, a shift that is necessary to both more accurately count the disabled population and understand the intersections of these distinct experiences.

Landes takes on difficult issues in the disabled community. He shows that while some may argue for "disability pride" as a response to one's body, that position fails to address and provide space to live with and confront the complexity of having a body that is often uncooperative, full of pain, frequently marginalized by others, and at times incomprehensible even to the disabled person. In contrast, disability as counterconforming provides a way to recognize both the challenges and joys, the good and bad bits, associated with being disabled. Further, defining disability as the body's inherent counterconformity to ableist prescriptive physical and mental normative standards pivots our understanding of disability to an active, and potentially meaning-generating reality, that can further fuel disability advocacy and protest, and lead to more equitable disability measures that help reduce the marginalization of disabled people within an ableist society. Disability as counterconforming aligns with the principles of disability justice, with an emphasis on embracing embodied experience as a critical guide and reference, pointing us toward justice and liberation. Understanding disability as counterconforming also makes room for disabled people who do not embrace disability justice or any other disability identity related movements. Whether integrated into one's identity or not, the disabled body persists as a body that inherently counterconforms to ableism.