Glossary
Able-minded - Similar to able-bodied, this term refers to anyone who is not neurodivergent. Just like how able-bodied people can navigate space without accommodation, able-minded people also can. Able-mindedness is “the socially constructed norm of mental capacity and ability that is typically posed in binary opposition to mental disability. Able-mindedness includes concepts such as rationality, reasonableness, sanity, intelligence, mental agility, self-awareness, social awareness, and control of thoughts and behaviors” (Schalk, Bodyminds 61)
AFAB and AMAB - AFAB stands for assigned female at birth and AMAB stands for assigned male at birth.
Cisgender - This is the term for someone who identifies with the gender that they were assigned at birth.
Crip - This is a term for disabled people. Historically, this was used as a slur. However, some members of the disabled community have reclaimed it, utilizing the term in a subversive and revolutionary manner. However, some disabled people do not identify with this term and still find it offensive.
Disability - Disability means any embodied experience that differs from an able-bodied person. Part of disability is a physical and/or psychological condition that impacts one’s experience of the world. This aspect is rooted in the bodymind and how a person functions as an individual. However, there is also a part of disability that is social and/or cultural. Some scholars define disability through the ways that a community of people are or are not considered when navigating space. A person is disabled when their access needs are not considered or met. Within speculative worlds, disability can and sometimes does look different than how it might in our reality. Scholar Sami Schalk advocates that “differences in bodyminds in speculative fiction must be read within the rules of reality of the text” (Schalk, Bodyminds 88). Therefore, I think about and understand disability in these stories not only through as disabilities that we recognize from our reality, but also as dependent on the world of the narrative and whether or not a person is considered disabled within that world.
Gender Non-conforming - This term is an umbrella term for any person who does not conform to typical ideas, stereotypes, or characteristics of their assigned gender at birth. This can mean anything from a cisgender woman who wears more masculine clothing to a transgender, genderfluid, nonbinary person.
Genderqueer vs. Nonbinary vs. Genderfluid vs. Agender - All of these terms mean not-cisgender, but from that they vary. Keep in mind that all of these terms are personal and an individual’s definitions or identifications with them may vary. Genderqueer typically means a person who does not prescribe to binary gender identitication. This can mean people who identify with neither binary gender, both, a mix, etc. Nonbinary typically means existing outside of the gender binary, but is not specifically defined as to how one may do so. Genderfluid refers to people whose gender identity is “fluid,” often indicating that that person may have multiple gender identities, or may present their gender in vastly different manners. Agender typically means that someone does not have any relationship to gender whatsoever.
Mad - This is a term reclaimed by mentally ill folks, particularly those who experience some form of psychosis. Similarly to crip, some still find this offensive, while others find it liberating.
Neurodivergent - This term refers to anyone who experiences a neurological or psychological experience of the world that differs from able-minded people. Some examples of neurodivergence are autism, bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia, mood disorders, intellectual disabilities, and more.
Physical Disability - This term indicates a disability that affects a person’s physical body and/or movement. This can include anything from the loss of a limb to a degenerative or terminal illness.
Queer - In this project, “queer” refers to any sexuality that is not straight or heterosexual. This includes, but is not limited to: lesbian, bisexual, gay, asexual, pansexual, women loving woman (WLW), men loving man (MLM), aromantic, demisexual, demiromantic, sexual fluidity, and others. I recognize that, for some, this term still feels like a slur. I do not want to label anyone’s identity in a way that feels incorrect for them, and I welcome feedback on how to alter terminology to be more representative. I use this word because of the ways that it feels open and fluid and welcoming to me, but I am aware that this is not true for everyone and I am happy to change it or alter it as necessary.
Sapphic - In the context of this project, sapphic refers to any narrative that involves at least one character that is a woman who experiences attraction to or desire towards another woman. This term is also sometimes used to refer to any person who is not a cisgender man who is attracted to women or other not-cis-men people. The term comes from Sappho, the famous lesbian/queer Greek poet who wrote about her relationships with and desire towards other women. This term is different from lesbian because it includes any women who are attracted to other women, regardless of any other genders that they may also be attracted to.
Speculative - This is an umbrella term for any narrative that occurs outside of our known reality. This can include fantasy, science fiction, horror, dystopian, ghost stories, paranormal, magical realism, etc.
Supercrip - This term, originally coined by Eli Clare in his book Exile and Pride, names the stereotype of disabled people who are represented as almost “superhuman” with all that they are able to overcome. Sami Schalk describes in her article “Reevaluating the Supercrip,” “Almost all discussions of supercrips focus on how these representations rely on concepts of overcoming, heroism, inspiration, and the extraordinary” (Schalk , "Reevaluating" 73). In this project, the supercrip sometimes functions as “extraordinary” as in a wheelchair user climbs a mountain (which is completely possible btw. Check out Disabled Hikers!) and other times functions as “extraordinary” as in a disabled person being able to fly.
Temporality - Temporality basically just means time, but I think of it more as the wider concept of time, rather than time itself. It can refer to existence within time, different time structures, different relationships to time, etc.
Transgender - Transgender is the term for someone who does not identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth. This includes binary trans people (trans woman, trans man), nonbinary people, demiwomen or demimen (exists somewhere on the specturm between woman/man and nonbinary), agender people, and more. Some people, especially those who are not binary transgender people, do not view themselves as trans. That is okay too!