On Being A Cripple By Nancy Mairsthe Other Day I Was Thinkin

On Being A Cripple By Nancy Mairsthe Other Day I Was Thinking Of Writ

On Being a Cripple -By Nancy Mairs The other day I was thinking of writing an essay on being a cripple. I was thinking hard in one of the stalls of the women’s room in my office building, as I was shoving my shirt into my jeans and tugging up my zipper. Preoccupied, I flushed, picked up my book bag, took my cane down from the hook, and unlatched the door. So many movements unbalanced me, and as I pulled the door open I fell over backward, landing fully clothed on the toilet seat with my legs splayed in front of me: the old beetle-on-its-back routine. Saturday afternoon, the building deserted, I was free to laugh aloud as I wriggled back to my feet, my voice bouncing off the yellowish tiles from all directions.

Had anyone been there with me, I’d have been still and faint and hot with chagrin. I decided that it was high time to write the essay. First, the matter of semantics. I am a cripple. I choose this word to name me.

I choose from among several possibilities, the most common of which are “handicapped” and “disabled.” I made the choice a number of years ago, without thinking, unaware of my motives for doing so. Even now, I’m not sure what those motives are, but I recognize that they are complex and not entirely flattering. People–crippled or not–wince at the word “cripple,” as they do not at “handicapped” or “disabled.” Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom the fates /gods /viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely. As a cripple, I swagger.

But, to be fair to myself, a certain amount of honesty underlies my choice. “Cripple” seems to me a clean word, straightforward and precise. It has an honorable history, having made its first appearance in the Lindisfarne Gospel in the tenth century. As a lover of words, I like the accuracy with which it describes my condition: I have lost the full use of my limbs. “Disabled,” by contrast, suggests any incapacity, physical or mental.

And I certainly don’t like “handicapped,” which implies that I have deliberately been put at a disadvantage, by whom I can’t imagine (my God is not a Handicapper General), in order to equalize chances in the great race of life. These words seem to me to be moving away from my condition, to be widening the gap between word and reality. Most remote is the recently coined euphemism “differently abled,” which partakes of the same semantic hopefulness that transformed countries from “undeveloped” to “underdeveloped,” then to “less developed,” and finally to “developing” nations. People have continued to starve in those countries during the shift. Some realities do not obey the dictates of language.

Mine is one of them. Whatever you call me, I remain crippled. But I don’t care what you call me, so long as it isn’t “differently abled,” which strikes me as pure verbal garbage designed, by its ability to describe anyone, to describe no one. I subscribe to George Orwell’s thesis that “the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” And I refuse to participate in the degeneration of the language to the extent that I deny that I have lost anything in the course of this calamitous disease; I refuse to pretend that the only differences between you and me are the various ordinary ones that distinguish any one person from another. But call me “disabled” or “handicapped” if you like.

I have long since grown accustomed to them; and if they are vague, at least they hint at the truth. Moreover, I use them myself. Society is no readier to accept crippledness than to accept death, war, sex, sweat, or wrinkles. I would never refer to another person as a cripple. It is the word I use to name only myself.

I haven’t always been crippled, a fact for which I am soundly grateful. To be whole of limb is, I know from experience, infinitely more pleasant and useful than to be crippled; and if that knowledge leaves me open to bitterness at MY loss, the physical soundness I once enjoyed (though I did not enjoy it half enough) is well worth the occasional stab of regret. Though never any good at sports, I was a normally active child and young adult. I climbed trees, played hopscotch, jumped rope, skated, swam, rode my bicycle, sailed. I despised team sports, spending some of the wretchedest afternoons of my life, sweaty and humiliated, behind a field-hockey stick and under a basketball hoop.

I tramped alone for miles along the bridle paths that webbed the woods behind the house I grew up in. I swayed through countless dim hours in the arms of one man or another under the scattered shot of light from mirrored balls, and gyrated through countless more as Tab Hunter and Johnny Mathis gave way to the Rolling Stones, Credence Clearwater Revival, Cream. I walked down the aisle. I pushed baby carriages, changed tires in the rain, marched for peace. When I was twenty-eight I started to trip and drop things.

What at first seemed my natural clumsiness soon became too pronounced to shrug off. I consulted a neurologist, who told me that I had a brain tumor. A battery of tests, increasingly disagreeable, revealed no tumor. About a year and a half later I developed a blurred spot in one eye. I had, at last, the episodes “disseminated in space and time” requisite for a diagnosis: multiple sclerosis.

I have never been sorry for the doctor’s initial misdiagnosis, however. For almost a week, until the negative results of the tests were in, I thought that I was going to die right away. Every day for the past nearly ten years, then, has been a kind of gift. I accept all gifts. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system, in which the myelin that sheathes the nerves is somehow eaten away and scar tissue forms in its place, interrupting the nerves’ signals.

During its course, which is unpredictable and uncontrollable, one may lose vision, hearing, speech, the ability to walk, control of bladder and/or bowels, strength in any or all extremities, sensitivity to touch, vibration, and/or pain, potency, coordination of movements– the list of possibilities is lengthy and, yes, horrifying. One may also lose one’s sense of humor. That’s the easiest to lose and the hardest to survive without. Like many women I know, I have always had an uneasy relationship with my body. I was not a popular child, largely, I think now, because I was peculiar: intelligent, intense, moody, shy, given to unexpected actions and inexplicable notions and emotions.

But as I entered adolescence, I believed myself unpopular because I was homely: my breasts too flat, my mouth too wide, my hips too narrow, my clothing never quite right in fit or style. I was not, in fact, particularly ugly, old photographs inform me, though I was well off the ideal; but I carried this sense of self-alienation with me into adulthood, where it regenerated in response to the depredations of MS. Even with my brace I walk with a limp so pronounced that, seeing myself on the videotape of a television program on the disabled, I couldn’t believe that anything but an inchworm could make progress humping along like that. My shoulders droop and my pelvis thrusts forward as I try to balance myself upright, throwing my frame into a bony S.

As a result of contractures, one shoulder is higher that the other and I carry one arm bent in front of me, the fingers curled into a claw. My left arm and leg have wasted into pipe-stems, and I try always to keep them covered. When I think about how my body must look to others, especially to men, to whom I have been trained to display myself, I feel ludicrous, even loathsome. At my age, however, I don’t spend much time thinking about my appearance. The burning egocentricity of adolescence, which assures one that all the world is looking all the time, has passed, thank God, and I’m generally too caught up in what I’m doing to step back, as I used to, and watch myself as though upon a stage.

I’m also too old to believe in the accuracy of self-image. I know that I’m not a hideous crone, that in fact, when I’m rested, well dressed, and well made up, I look fine. The self-loathing I feel is neither physically nor intellectually substantial. What I hate is not me but a disease. I am not a disease.

And a disease is not–at least not single-handedly–going to determine who I am, though at first it seemed to be going to. Adjusting to a chronic incurable illness, I have moved through a process similar to that outlined by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in On Death and Dying. The major difference–and it is far more significant than most people recognize– is that I can’t be sure of the outcome, as the terminally ill cancer patient can. Research studies indicate that, with proper medical care, I may achieve a “normal” life span. And in our society, with its vision of death as the ultimate evil, worse even than decrepitude, the response to such news is, “Oh well, at least you’re not going to die.” Are there worse things than dying?

I think that there may be. I think of two women I know, both with MS, both enough older than I to have served me as models. One took to her bed several years ago and has been there ever since. Although she can sit in a high-backed wheelchair, because she is incontinent she refuses to go out at all, even though incontinence pants, which are readily available at any pharmacy, could protect her from embarrassment. Instead, she stays at home and insists that her husband, a small quiet man, a retired civil servant, stay there with her except for a quick weekly foray to the supermarket.

The other woman, whose illness was diagnosed when she was eighteen, a nursing student engaged to a young doctor, finished her training, married her doctor, accompanied him to Germany when he was in the service, bore three sons and a daughter, now grown and gone. When she can, she travels with her husband; she plays bridge, embroiders, swims regularly; she works, like me, as a symptomatic-patient instructor of medical students in neurology. Guess which woman I hope to be.

Paper For Above instruction

Nancy Mairs' essay "On Being a Cripple" offers a profound reflection on identity, societal perceptions, and personal acceptance of disabilities, particularly multiple sclerosis. Her narrative begins with a humorous incident—falling in a public restroom—that underscores the sometimes humiliating reality of living with a physical disability. This moment acts as a catalyst for her broader discussion on the complex choice of self-identification and language concerning disability. Mairs consciously opts for the term "cripple," not with the intent to offend, but to embrace a word that she finds honest, precise, and historically rooted. She contrasts this with euphemistic terms like "disabled" or "handicapped," which she perceives as distancing and euphemistic, diluting the reality of her condition (Mairs, 1986).

One of the central themes in her essay is the power of language and how it shapes perceptions of disability. Mairs references George Orwell’s critique of language sloppiness, emphasizing how imprecise language fosters foolish misconceptions. Her stance is that acknowledging her impairment honestly—using terms like "cripple"—provides a foundation for authentic self-understanding and societal recognition. She recognizes society's discomfort with the word "cripple" but asserts that she only uses it for herself, implying that societal acceptance remains lagging (Mairs, 1986; Orwell, 1946).

Mairs’ personal narrative is deeply intertwined with her reflections on body image and societal attitudes. She admits to having a complicated relationship with her body, shaped by childhood, adolescence, and ongoing illness. Her physical appearance, marked by the effects of MS—limp, contractures, wasted limbs—becomes a symbol of her vulnerability and resilience. Despite feelings of loathing or ridicule about her body’s appearance to others, she emphasizes that her struggle is with her disease, not her identity as a person (Mairs, 1986).

The essay also explores her emotional journey from initial shock and fear to acceptance and resilience. Reflecting on her diagnosis, she describes the disease's unpredictable course and the emotional impact of potential losses—vision, mobility, humor. She notes that her perspective has evolved, recognizing that she can be active and fulfilled despite her limitations, inspired by women with MS who live meaningful lives (Mairs, 1986).

Ultimately, Mairs advocates for a realistic and honest acknowledgment of disabilities. She criticizes euphemisms that sanitize or erase the harsh realities of living with a chronic illness. Her acceptance and use of the word "cripple" are acts of empowerment and authenticity. Her story encourages society to confront disability directly, challenging societal taboos and fostering greater understanding and compassion. Her insights suggest that true dignity comes from honest self-recognition and societal acknowledgment of physical imperfections—not avoidance or euphemism (Mairs, 1986).

References

• Mairs, N. (1986). On Being a Cripple. The Centenary Edition. Beacon Press.
• Orwell, G. (1946). Politics and the English Language. Horizon Magazine.
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• Finkelstein, V. (2001). Attitudes and Disabled People: Issues for Discussion. Journal of Social Policy, 23(2), 159–172.
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