My research and writing has been going okay. I have little difficultly in the research portion, as I can usually find what I am looking for with this topic. I have no issue with the writing when I get down to it, my main issue has been simply motivation. I have been at a loss in regards to feeling motivated enough to push myself to complete tasks related to this project. The whole quarantine thing has really thrown everything out of whack. Not being in a school environment almost makes it feel like we aren’t in school anymore, even though we very much are, and we still have much to do.

I have not been holding well to my schedule at all. I have a hard time timing when I actually will get something started or finished, so I will simply do my best to eventually get everything I listed on the schedule done at some point or another, as long as everything regarding the project is in by the deadline. I should still be able to have everything I planned to do done, just much less spaced out than originally planned. In fact, I actually might end up with more content in some areas than originally planned simply due to more ideas about what I can talk about on the site. I will still be covering most of the topics I planned to cover at minimum, though.

I haven’t really messed around with any of the other tools besides WordPress yet, but I have heard others have had difficulty with Tableau. I know it is optional now, but I might still attempt to work with it and see what happens. I also need to figure out which timeline tool I will prefer using. Once I decide which tool I’d prefer, which won’t take me long, I’m sure I’ll have no problem figuring it out. I typically have little trouble learning to use new programs and technology, and I always know how to look things up in case I do run across a problem that I can’t figure out myself. I’ll also need to play around a little with the other tools on offer to integrate into my site. I will need to likely tone down a lot of my writing’s readability grade, as I have a tendency to go overboard with the vocabulary at time when it isn’t absolutely necessary.

Overall, I feel that I have had the most difficulty with not only my motivation regarding working on this project, but I have also had my other courses take priority at different times, preventing me from doing work on my project when I have needed to focus on those classes entirely. My other classes almost had me in a rush to get everything finished, with final assignments and exams coinciding on occasion. I currently have finished with every course with the exception of this one, so now I have much more time to work on this course. I should be able to meet my deadline with my site, with no problem.

It was not at all hard for me to find data sources related to my subject. Due to disability being something that is now classified under law, and the disabled population being considered its own demographic in many government surveys, there is a decent amount of data to be found on the disabled population in the United States.

I took a look at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to find employment data for those in the U.S. with legally documented disabilities. This set of data was started after June 2008, when the questions related to disability were added to the survey this data set comes from. The survey that provided the data is called the Current Population Survey (CPS). With the data, which is updated monthly, there is included news releases, frequently asked questions, a list of charts that the data has been interpreted into, and a list of articles regarding the way the questions in the survey were developed. The site on which the data set can be found is linked here: https://www.bls.gov/cps/demographics.htm#disability

I also looked at the Bureau of Justice Statistics to find data on violent crimes committed against people with disabilities. This uses the the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) from 2009-2015. The violent crimes recorded are nonfatal violent crimes and only nonfatal violent crimes committed against those with disabilities 12 and older are recorded under the category of violent crimes committed against disabled people. This data also contains the other demographics each victim may have fallen other, crime characteristics, the victim-offender relationship, the time of the crime, whether or not the crime was reported to the police, and how the victim used victim services agencies. The site includes highlights of how the data was interpreted by the Bureau as well. The site on which the data set can be found is linked here: https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5986

I think both of these data sources will be equally useful, so I will be find a way to include both of them in my project, in some way or another. I think that I shouldn’t have too much of a problem with the data needed to be cleaned or anything, see as it has been collected and used by the government. So, there should be little cause to have to fiddle with the data at all seeing how it has already been used for such official purposes. I feel that analyzing and visualizing data isn’t very difficult, but can be a fairly tedious task. Even if I don’t use Tableau to interpret the data myself, there are interpretations readily available at least for the Labor Statistics data. As for the Justice Statistics data, I will likely need to do my own interpretation. I will likely need to use Tableau for this, and figure out how to put the data into this program. Hopefully, the data will easily work with this program. If not, I may have to manipulate it to be able to work with such a program in order to make my own interpretation.

Conflict Theory

Conflict theory tells us that there is an oppressor and the oppressed, like how the oppressor in American racial relations is white people and the oppressed are people of color. Within the construct of ableism, the oppressed are disabled people and the oppressors are abled people. Abled people often hold the power in society, as disabled people may often need assistance to get on with their daily lives. Because abled people hold the power to assist the disabled people, they often are able to oppress disabled people. What disability rights is especially about is having the accommodations available to help make disabled people as independent and equal to abled people as they can possibly be. However, this upset the power structure, and takes away the power abled people have over disabled people. This is why there is a push against accommodations. They are proposed as giving disabled people special advantages or treatment, when really they are simply and equalizing force. Abled people are just used to disabled people being below them, and not their equals, whether they are aware of it or not. Abled people often see disabled people, depending on their disability or condition, as less than human. By seeing disabled people as less than human, it is easier for abled people to see their oppression as a kind of benevolence, akin to being responsible for a pet or an animal.

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism has do with the meanings we as a society place on different objects, concepts, images, etc. Ableism is a social construct that very much has to do with how we as a society place meanings into the concept of disability, as well as visual cues of disabilities. Disability can often be very visible, and visible disability is often associated in our society and many other cultures with “brokenness.” Disabled people are considered to be inherently “broken” because of their visible difference from the average abled person. There is also the factor that disability can be visible in behavior that differs from the average abled person, or requests for assistance that the average abled person would not make. These factors can easily have disabled people labeled as social “deviants,” and this difference in social behavior can easily lead to abled people treating disabled people very differently socially as well. More can be read on this concept here. Disability in general often inspires a variety of pity, confusion, disgust, awkwardness, etc. Pity often comes from the idea that disabled people live terrible, pitiful lives and it is abled people’s responsibility to ease their suffering. This is a point pushed heavily by charities for disabilities and other conditions that are often run by abled people. Confusion and awkwardness come from the lack of representation of disabilities, so people either haven’t seen certain disabilities before or have never had an encounter with a disabled person before. Disgust comes from the previously mentioned “broken” concept. People find this physical or mental deviation from the norm to be horrifying, and will react as such. It also comes from the idea that not being an independent, “whole” person makes you less than human.

The sweatshops of the past, as displayed by the Tenement Museum, were smaller, family-owned businesses. A small handful of people would work on making ready-made garments for a large department store, with the department store having commissioned each small sweatshop for mass production of one item. Eventually sweatshops became larger factories, slowly evolving into what we know them to be today. A peak example of modern day sweatshops are the sweatshops found in the deeply corrupt country of Bangladesh, especially their capital of Dhaka. “Dhaka is one of the poorest, densest and most populous cities in the world.” Bangladesh imports a good portion of all raw cotton imports globally for its huge textiles industry, which makes up nearly all of the country’s exports. It comes after only China in clothing exports. The minimum wage has been $0.35 an hour for a long time, until a recent increase to a still meager $0.42 an hour. There is poor infrastructure, such as poor electrical work in many of these factories. There is improper storage of chemicals like fabric dyes. Workers often risk serious injury and/or disability compared to non-factory jobs in the area. Dhaka is especially known for its building fires and collapses which have killed hundreds and even thousands of factory workers. This has been compared to the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, except that event resulted in reform, while many of these events have inspired much change.

Sweatshops of the past are very similar to sweatshops of today in terms of the poor conditions and infrastructure, frequent injury and accidents, low pay for workers, and common usage by large, affordable ready-made clothing brands. However the difference today is that sweatshops are no longer as prominent in wealthy, economically powerful countries. Sweatshops are most prominent in countries that are poorer and have much smaller economies. The developed countries still benefit from sweatshop labor, but they can afford to save their own population from the sweatshops while forcing it onto countries who can not afford the same privileges for their populations. The sweatshops of today are also often on much larger scales, with more technology than the sweatshops of the past. They can also produce larger quantities and varieties of products than the sweatshops of the past ever could.

Sweatshops hold no benefit for these workers, seeing as work outside the factories that has similar pay, at least in Bangladesh, has less hours and much less risk of injury or disability. Insatiable consumerism demands low prices and cheap goods, but the cost of that mindless materialism is the exploitation of people who are given little other option. We are responsible for how important this harmful industry has become to Bangladesh, and we are responsible for how the body count that the textile industry has collected there. It is up to us to hold these large clothing brands accountable.

Volodzko, David. “Bangladesh Is Burning And Sweatshops Are The Fuel.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 26 Mar. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/davidvolodzko/2019/03/05/bangladesh-and-the-fire-next-time/#5147c1ad2ca1.

Social issues, where to start? If there’s one thing any society will never fail to have, it’s social issues. However, that doesn’t mean that these issues should be ignored. The goal of any society should be to eliminate or lessen these issues as much as possible, for that is the true mark of advancement. Here, I’ll discuss some of the less noted, but equally important issues in our modern American society.

Ableism

Ableism is an often well-ignored issue, which is shocking considering that 12.6% of the American population is disabled. That’s almost 40 million Americans. People sometimes think that disability rights and equality are all said and done with. We have the occasional wheelchair ramps, there are elevators in most buildings, and we have lots of braille on many public restroom signs. What those people don’t realize is how hard activists have had to and still have to fight for those little pieces of accommodation. Ableism comes from the concept that disabilities are something to be “fixed” in someone, that anything and everything must be done to make them as close to “abled” as possible. There is also a lot of patronistic behavior that comes with ableism, as there is the assumption that a disability makes someone’s life a tragedy and destroys their independence. While there are struggles in day to day life with disabilities, and some assistance from others may be require, most disabled people would argue their lives are pretty worth living. Leah Smith explains this base definition pretty well.

I consider this to be an important issue considering that while I carry no physical disability, I have friends who are or have been wheelchair users. I, myself, have autism, which is considered a disability itself. There is a long historical background for this issue, from eugenics being carried out against the disabled, the protests disabled Americans have carried out in our nation’s capital, the long history of the freak show, and the fight that continues for proper accommodations, awareness, representation, and equity. I will definitely have to narrow my focus on a topic like this, for there is a lot of smaller issues that fall under the wide umbrella of ableism.

Sex Work

People often believe that sex work is a horrific occupation, full of sad, broken girls who have no other options. There is a belief that criminalizing sex work helps women, and prevents sex trafficking, when often the opposite is true. The criminalization of sex work causes much of the abuse that sex workers experience to come from the hands of law enforcement. Violence against sex workers is taken less seriously than violence committed against the average citizen. More information can be found here. Criminalizing an industry that most people consume some from of product from — because porn is sex work — does nothing but hurt the people involved in the industry. The stigmatization of sex work in general does nothing but hurt the feminist movement, despite the desire of some feminists to separate themselves from sex work. This blog, written by a now retired stripper/activist, is very helpful. Sex work advances sex positivity, which helps women everywhere. The more sex work is demonized, the more sex itself, and the feminine aspects of the sex industry, are demonized as well. Women aren’t the only sex workers as well, there are plenty of men in the industry who face similar issues, although less to do with the added factor of being female in a female-dominated industry. Sex work is real work, and by pretending it isn’t, we invalidate the people who work in it.

I consider this to be an important issue because the sex industry is very alive and thriving, yet we still choose to try to squash it down and pretend it’s this horrible, evil thing. I don’t think sex positivity can really truly happen until our society’s issue with the sex industry is addressed. There is a major historical background for the discrimination and stigmatization that sex workers face, especially when it’s commonly considered the oldest profession. I will definitely have to narrow my focus, as there are many, many issues this industry faces.

Transphobia

Transphobia is generally known as discrimination or prejudice against transgender people. Considering that the concept of being transgender is rather new to most cisgender people, otherwise known as people who identify with their assigned gender, there is a lot of stigmatization of transgender people. There is a huge risk of violence for people who are openly trans, due to the extreme transphobia in today’s society. The average life expectancy for trans women is between 30 and 35. Transphobia is killing people, whether it be through suicide or an act of violence. We often hear about the debates over bathroom laws and how young a child should be allowed to transition. It is a complex issue depending on what smaller issue you are looking at, but that is any social issue. Trans rights are incredibly important, and deserve to be addressed.

I have and have had friends who are trans, so while I have no personal insight on this issue, it’s something people in my life have struggled with. There is a major historical background for this issue, with many examples of trans people throughout history who are often erased or brushed over due to transphobia. This is not a new issue, although it is new to much of the cisgender population. I will also need to narrow my focus on this issue, as it’s something that impacts nearly every aspect of the lives of trans people.

Today we are often inundated with requests for our opinions. How many times have you been asked to take a survey by a brand in exchange for a potential reward? In a world where everyone wants our data for everything, it can feel obnoxious at times. The digital age makes it almost too easy to ask everyone what they think of everything nearly all the time. It can be very overwhelming. Even my college sends out surveys for its students to take all the time. For someone to want to take your survey, it must seem interesting while not appearing to be too difficult to respond to. People need to want to take your survey, as so many are shoved in their faces on the regular. This is unfortunate, especially considering how useful a survey is as a method of research.

With a healthy awareness for the many ways that bias can affect the results of a survey, one can retrieve some viable data. The most important aspect of a survey is how well the questions and formatting work to help prevent as much bias as possible from affecting the answers from each respondent. Surveys are especially effective when it comes to social science as well, considering how trying to run experiments to test out complex real world problems can be difficult in comparison to other more traditional sciences which may use other research methods. Within more traditional science, there are many unchanging patterns and rules which govern how the world works. In social science, it is not that simple as people are highly variable. What may be true in one scenario may not be true in the next. This is why we often need the voices of the people themselves when it comes to research in a social science.

As for the world views of the other survey respondents, I am not entirely sure if they will share a similar world view as me. I like to think that most people are progressive in this day and age, but most people are not well-informed on modern social issues, and by no fault of their own. That sort of knowledge and awareness must be sought out, as it might only be skimmed in public education. There is also the factor of ones own gender, race, and social class. These aspects can have a real impact upon ones world view, which can definitely have an impact upon a response to a survey. Gender, race, and social class all together have a very real impact on the way someone lives their day to day lives in a society that is divided along those lines. These factors create a substantial enough change in the way someone grows up and lives their life, that we have to be conscious of them when considering survey respondents. A man has a very different experience than a woman, a white person has a very different experience than a black person, and a poor person has a very different experience than a rich person. These all influence perspectives.

“Questionnaire Design.” Pew Research Center Methods. Pew Research Center. Accessed February 5, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/u-s-survey-research/questionnaire-design/.

There is no worse version of a single story than the single story we hear when it comes to Autism Awareness. Quite honestly, almost anything in the mainstream media and the majority of public knowledge is based on a single story of autism. An intensely damaging one, that can put children in harm’s way.

Most Americans have likely heard of the anti-vaccination movement that has become a new craze, based off of a false study from a now discredited physician named Andrew Wakefield. This study claimed that vaccinations directly caused autism, prompting parents to avoid life-saving vaccines that would protect their child, simply because of this intense fear of their child being on the Autism Spectrum.

It is here that I feel what Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie stated during her TED Talk about the dangers of a single story rings especially true. She said “What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story.” Now, how does this even apply?

Consider what we think about when we think of autism. Perhaps the organization Autism Speaks comes to mind? Autism Speaks practically dominates the conversation on autism and autism awareness, but what many outside of the autistic community don’t realize, is how harmful the single story that Autism Speaks gives to the public is.

Autism Speaks originally used most of it’s budget to find a supposed “cure” for autism, which they soon found to be impossible, so now they focus on research meant to find genetic markers that can be used to test for autism in fetuses so that fetuses with autism can be selectively aborted. They focus their resources around non-autistic people who happen to have autistic people in their lives in some capacity. Autism Speaks is meant only for the non-autistic, based on the resources they provide and they way they present these resources. This organization is responsible for some horrific ad campaigns that have contributed to many of the myths and stereotypes that autistic people suffer from today, including the infamous “I Am Autism” video and the “Autism Every Day.” You can watch both videos below.

Autism Speaks also does not include autistic people on their decision-making board outside of a couple of token diversity positions that hold no power. They also support harmful therapies that attempt to “correct” a child’s autism by forcing them to behave more “normally.” A common slogan among the autistic community is “Autism Speaks does not speak for me!”

Considering how this organization has dominated the narrative of Autism Awareness and the common perception of autism, it is no wonder we have movement like the anti-vaccination movement. With the color blue and the puzzle piece symbol being associated with autism due to the influence of Autism Speaks, it really shows how strong this single story of theirs is. Autistic voices are drowned out in favor of the non-autistic majority’s perspective on autism. The only way we can combat this is by exposing the public to the many, many stories of those who are actually autistic, so that our society will no longer be confined by this single story.

After all, this single story is putting real children in danger. Children who are forced to suppress autistic behaviors and masquerade as “normal” children suffer very real trauma that follows them well into adulthood. Stereotypes and myths are often what prevent autistic people from living their lives to the fullest, not their autism itself. Children die from preventable diseases when their parents choose not to vaccinate, because they are so afraid of what they believe autism to be.

I am an autistic woman, and I am sick and tired of this single story defining not only me, but many others like me. That single story is not the story of any autistic person. We need to change the narrative and let the many voices of the real stories be heard.

Works Cited

Hansen, Quincy. “Speaking of Autism…” Speaking of Autism…(blog). WordPress, April 2, 2019. https://speakingofautismcom.wordpress.com.

TEDTalks: Chimamanda Adichie–The Danger of a Single Story. YouTube. TED, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=112&v=D9Ihs241zeg&feature=emb_logo.