NotNormativelyHuman 285
Historians have spoken of a very special "body politics" employed
by Roosevelt and his supporters. Key to this was his stratagem "not to
denyhisdisabilitybuttomodifyitsappearance"(HouckandKiewe50);
and indeed, the public handling of the identificatory dynamics of his
disability followed a cleverly orchestrated grammar of appearance and
disappearance. While his disability was widely known and equally
widely exploited as an emblem of the nation, his paralyzed legs would
always remain carefully shielded; taking pictures was forbidden, and
violators were pushed aside. Sometimes, after public speeches, women
would rush to the podium and thus shield the President from the
awkward moments when he would have to climb down. Atother times,
Roosevelt was wearing braces and lean, casually it seemed, on one of
his sons. FDR and his entourage scripted his disability as something he
hadleftbehind,somethingwhichhadeveninspiredhimtobecomemore
vigorous than before. One reporter wrote: "the women are also saying
that he appeared in splendid physical condition and that he must be a
remarkable man to have overcome his unfortunate physical disabilities
insuchacompletemanner"(qtd.inCostigliola133).
Franklin Roosevelt and his carefully crafted version of celebrity
disability can be and has been used to anchor the concept of the
"supercrip," a PWD "whose inspirational stories of courage, dedication,
andhardworkprovethatitcanbedone,thatonecandefytheoddsand
accomplish the impossible" (Berger 29). His case furthermore reminds
us one more time that the disability condition and the disability
experience are not personal but eminently collective and thus political.
Inordertoexplorethatideasomemore,Iwillnowbeturningtoagroup
of persons who are both ideologically and corporeally over-determined:
disabledveterans.
TheHero'sTwoBodies:DisabledVeterans
Disability(againlike"age")isaformofnon-normativeembodiment
that is most of the time "entangled with governmentality" (Clough and
Willse5).Whennotoutrightdisregarded,thephysicalwell-beingofthe
physicallychallenged,somewhatlesssothatofthementallychallenged,
has in the West been an object of much public solicitude, even
somethinglike"abarometerforthemoralhealthofasociety"(Albrecht
andBury600).