NotNormativelyHuman 297
focusing on a mundane heroism which paradoxically highlights the
categorical difference between people who are disabled and those who
are not. It thus tends to reinforce the assumption held by many
"normies" that disability resides in the individual—that any problems
associated with the condition are personal, not those of the social
manifold (Couser,VulnerableSubjects37).Bergerreports amomenton
theOprah Winfrey Showwhen Winfrey asks a woman whether her
disabled partner can perform sexual functions. And when the wife
responds "yes, he can," the audience bursts into roaring applause
(Siebers30).
A good area in which to further pursue the social and cultural
ambivalences of the subjectposition ofthe "supercrip" is the large field
of disability sports. Even while it continues to be mostly marginalized,
especially in media coverage, disability sports has become
institutionalized (in the Paralympics, the Special Olympics, and similar
events) and is often showcased to send a message,namely thatdisabled
athletes can perform astounding feats. Fjerstad's brief narrative
(mentioned above) has a related message, namely that athletic
excellence in the field of disability sports (in his case, wheelchair
racing) provides people, both the disabled and the able-bodied, with
support and inspiration. Disability sports commands its share of
attentioninU.S.cultureandsociety.Oneexampleofitsoccasionalhigh
profile in themediais the2005sports documentaryMurderballabouta
group of paraplegic men (not veterans) playing wheelchair rugby. On
their own testimony, they are not in this game "going for a hug, we're
going for a gold medal" while their sometimes brutal sport is giving
meaning to their lives (Holden n. pag.). In its report on the athletes, the
New York Times, by calling them "warriors," "gladiators," or "heroes,"
subscribes, perhaps inadvertently, to the ideology of the "supercrip,"
even as it remains critical about the cultural "meaning" of such sports
and its filmic representation as being "in perfect sync with the survival-
of-the-fittestvaluesofthetimes"(Holdenn.pag.).
In order to contextualize this problem, it may be helpful to reflect
briefly on an argument presented by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson and
EllenSamuels.Ihavesaidabovethattheconceptualcoreof"disability,"
however understood, contains elements of profiling, of the visible and
the diagnostic. Drawing on the discourses of LGBT Studies, Garland-
Thomson and Samuels have suggested that many identity scripts