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Don't Call Me Inspirational: A Disabled Feminist Talks Back

by Harilyn Rousso - £17.99  Temple University Press (2013)
paperback    ISBN 13: 9781439909379 | ISBN 10: 1439909377

"I've known Harilyn Rousso as a powerful activist and gifted artist, but with this revelatory book, she becomes something even rarer: a storyteller who conveys her uniqueness and so helps us to discover our own. Don't Call Me Inspirational is irresistible to read, honest, insightful, and universal."
(Gloria Steinem)

For psychotherapist, painter, feminist, filmmaker, writer, and disability activist Harilyn Rousso, hearing well-intentioned people tell her, "You're so inspirational!" is patronizing, not complimentary.
 
In her empowering and at times confrontational memoir, Don't Call Me Inspirational, Rousso who has cerebral palsy, describes overcoming the prejudice against disability — not overcoming disability. She addresses the often absurd and ignorant attitudes of strangers, friends, and family.
 
Rousso also examines her own prejudice toward her disabled body, and portrays the healing effects of intimacy and creativity, as well as her involvement with the disability rights community. She intimately reveals herself with honesty and humor and measures her personal growth as she goes from "passing" to embracing and claiming her disability as a source of pride, positive identity, and rebellion.
 
A collage of images about her life, rather than a formal portrait, Don't Call Me Inspirational celebrates Rousso's wise, witty, productive, outrageous life, disability and all.

(Price & availability last checked: December 2015)

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