Disability Matters: Resistance and Resilience in Anne Finger’s Past Due: A Story of Disability, Pregnancy and Birth (PDSD)

Disability is a matter that affects a significant number of people. At the same time, disabled people suffered more on the matter of their disability. Disabled people want the present state of life to be lived based on social justice, human rights, and equality. Beyond medical definitions, disability encompasses a social dimension where discrimination, ableism, and inaccessibility create significant obstacles. Particularly, the social oppression and institutional context affects disabled women to express their disability in the matters of gender-based violence, motherhood and self-determination. This paper intends to contribute more for disabled individuals who are facing innumerous challenges in society. These barriers are highlighted especially by disabled women writers extensively in/through their writing. This paper follows textual analysis methodology. It focuses on American disability writer Anne Finger who voices for the voiceless people. This paper tries to analyse Finger’s memoir Past Due: A Story of Disability, Pregnancy and Birth (PDSD). She rebels against the normative culture and professional doctor who doubts Finger’s fertility, childbirth, and baby-minding capabilities because of her disability. The present study explores how resistance and resilience intertwine in Anne Finger’s memoir. Finger counters the ableism that permeates the representation of disabled bodies, most importantly regarding disabled women and maternity. Perhaps that is why Finger’s work is a hymn to disability and becoming, a story that enables disabled women to advance their rights and renegotiate roles.

Keywords: Resilience, Resistance, Disabled Women, Motherhood, Ableism

From Special to Normal: Challenging Stereotypes Against Disability in Jaishree Misra’sAncient Promises