Dis/Embody

First, the confession – despite being an avid blog reader, a general blogging advocate, and a frequent blog-researcher, I’ve never managed to maintain a personal blog.

There a number of factors at play here. First, I’m a perfectionist about writing- everything goes through several drafts – and that style didn’t seem to fit with blogging. Secondly, I’m just kind of shy. And, of course, there’s the usual issue of blogging as a time commitment that people often find they can’t squeeze in. Why start if I can’t keep it up?

But as I’ve become more comfortable with having myself out there – on Facebook, on Twitter, whatever – I’ve been thinking about giving blogging a real try. Sometimes you just need more than 140 characters. Like my other online outlets, I suspect that this blog will address both my personal and academic interests, but it will be weighted to the latter. I plan to use this space to share things I find interesting, and to work through some ideas and connections between media, feminist and disability theory, technology, and so on.

The title of this blog is a bit of a pun. While early rhetoric of the internet and online social communities celebrated a space without bodies (no one knows you’re a dog!), it is clear that gender, race, class, sexuality and nationality all come into play in our online interactions and presentation. The internet is not a disembodied space. My focus is on disability as a form of embodiment and identity that can impede access to technology, and as an underexplored identity online. Dis/Embody pulls together these interests in disability, online identity, internet technology and embodied experience.

So there it is. I’m gonna blog.