"Space to Dream": Queer Speculative Disability Narratives & Their Liberatory Value

Glossary

Able-bodied - Able-bodied means someone who is not disabled. This can mean socially and/or physically. Part of being able-bodied is being able to navigate space naturally--because space is designed for able-bodied people. In the context of this project, whether or not a character is able-bodied is dependent on the rules of the world, and how easy or difficult it is for them to navigate the space of their world.

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.

Amputee - A person who has had a limb amputated.

Asexual vs. Aromantic - An asexual person is a person who does not experience sexual attraction. An aromantic person is a person who does not experience romantic feelings or attraction. Sometimes an asexual person is also aromantic, or vice versa, but not always. Also, asexual and/or aromnatic people may still choose to pursue romantic and/or sexual relationships. There are many reasons why an asexual and/or aromantic person may desire that kind of connection. Cameron Esposito’s interview with Angela Chen is a great resource for more information on asexuality and aromanticism!

Asian - A person of Asian descent or who is a part of the Asian diaspora.

Bisexual - A person who is attracted to multiple genders. Often a bisexual person is attracted to cisgender men, cisgender women, and people of other genders.

Black - A person of African and/or Caribbean descent, or who is a part of the African and/or Carribean diaspora. Some people from this diaspora claim the term Black, while others do not. 

Blind - Any person who does not or cannot rely on visual input in order to navigate the world.

Chronic Illness - An illness that is long-lasting and for which there is often no cure. Sometimes a chronic illness is also terminal, but not always. Some examples of chronic illnesses are diabetes, ALS, asthma, fibromyalgia, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, or cancer. 

Chronic Pain - Any person whose bodymind experiences consistent pain that is not a result of a temporary injury. This pain can be physical, neurological, etc. 

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. 

Fat - Any person who experiences fatphobia (systemic oppression based on the perceived size of one’s body). Check out Your Fat Friend’s essay for more thoughts on defining fat. 

Gay - This term is sometimes used as an umbrella term in the LGTBQIA+ community to refer to anyone who experiences any not-straight attraction. In this project, however, I am specifying the term to mean men who are exclusively attracted to other men. 

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. 

Intersex - An umbrella term for anyone who exhibits sex characteristics outside of the perceived “boy/girl” binary. Read more here.

Latinx/Latine - A person of Latin American descent or who is a part of the Latin American diaspora. Some people prefer the term Latinx, while others prefer Latine. The people who prefer the latter tend to prefer it because it follows the linguistic rules of Spanish, whereas Latiix does not.

Lesbian - In this project, I am defining this term as a woman who is exclusively attracted to / interested in other women. That being said, there are some people who do not identify as a woman who still identify as lesbians. This is most often, but not always, AFAB nonbinary people who are exclusively interested in dating women.

LGBTQIA+ - Stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (or Questioning), Intersex, Asexual. The + stands for all of the other members of the queer community. This is the most common acronym for the queer community, but it does not include every non-hetero sexuality or orientation!

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.

Mental illness - Any psychological disorder that impacts the way that a person thinks and moves through the world. This can include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, or borderline personality disorder (BPD), among others. 

Mobility Aid User - This term refers to a person who uses a device to aid in their physical movement. This can be a cane, a wheelchair, crutches, etc. This term includes people who use mobility aids daily, as well as those who only use them occasionally. 

Multiracial - A person who identifies with two or more racial identities.

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, ADHD, OCD, and intellectual disabilities. Some definitions of neurodivergent also include people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, or bipolar disorder, but other definitions do not. For the sake of this project, I have separated mental illness from neurodivergent, but there are some characters and/or narratives who could be considered both neurodivergent and mentally ill

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.

POC - Short for Person of Color or People of Color. An umbrella term for any person who is not white.

Polyamorous - Someone who desires multiple romantic and/or sexual connections simultaneously.

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. 

Terminal Illness / Degenerative Disease - Any person who has an illness that will either result in their death, or will result in their degeneration. The disease has no cure, or cannot be cured in that individual.

Transfeminine & Transmasculine - A transgender and/or non-binary or gender non-conforming person who identifies with femininity or feminine gender expression or masculinity and/or masculine gender expression. Some people that identify as transfeminine and/or transmasculine also identify as binary transgender (ie a transgender woman or transgender man), but others identify as nonbinary, gender non-conforming, 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 spectrum 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!

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