Almost Passing: A Performance Analysis of Personal Narratives of Physically Disabled Femininity

This study explores the relationship between gender norms and able-bodied biases through a performance analysis of seven physically disabled women's open-ended personal narratives. Each participant has been medically diagnosed as physically disabled while appearing to fit the social categories of White, thin, young, and athletic. Findings map the ongoing cultural interpretations of their bodies as both atypical and familiar so that they almost (but do not quite) pass for "normal'' in their daily lives. Consequently, the women enjoy social and professional acceptance as long as they reiterate normative cultural expectations for personal performances of femininity and do not require physical accommodations deemed disruptive and disproportionate to perceived ability. The study concludes that responses to almost-passing feminine bodies illustrate how their marginalization or acceptance is entangled in gendered cultural norms and related to their capacity to disrupt or reinforce existing power relations.