Lying Down Anyhow:
Disability and the Rebel Body

Introduction:

This chapter incorporates the earlier autobiographical work Lying Down Anyhow, followed by an exploration of the influences involved in the process and their place in my identity as an activist.

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Lying Down Anyhow begins in the physicality of the body, the freedom that is, for me, the act of lying down. Yet, when I ask why lying down in public is so very hard to do, it transforms to a story about external codes and constraints, those emotional, social, political and cultural influences that shape the body’s way of being. Lying Down Anyhow is less the story of a troubled body than of its interface with the language, values and physical structures that limit the possibilities of lying down in public places…

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