A few words about the banner/logo

I realize some of you might be intrigued and curious about the logo that's part of my banner. And then some of you might not give a rat's ass. But since this blog is my little corner of the internet, I'm gonna talk about it anyway. ;-)

Symbols, emblems, flags are fascinating in that they can evoke feelings of pride, anger, resistance and passion.

People have known this since time immemorial and incorporated them into their movements of resistance. Women have the universal Venus symbol denoting female (sometimes with a raised fist in the middle of the circle.) LGBT people have the pink triangle and the pride flag. And people of colour have had a variety of different emblems denoting their resistance. African-Americans have the fist of black power. First Nations people here in Canada have had various emblems denoting their resistance. And of course, the national flags of many third world countries started out as emblems of resistance against the colonial powers.

In short, they're a great way of saying "fuck you" to kyriarchy and the status quo.

So shouldn't PWD have one of their own? I don't know of one, but I think it's high time we did. So I designed one completely original. I know some of you might like it others might not. Why the wheelchair symbol, you may ask. Some may see that as being a bit too narrow, since that doesn't cover people with invisible disabilities and even for people with physical disabilities, many of them don't need wheelchairs. I thought about this, but in the end I decided the wheelchair was the one to go with because of its universal recognition for disability.

Constructive criticism is welcome.

The Grand Opening

And so this is it...

The debut of my new (and for that matter first) blog. I think the banner along with the title gives you some idea what this blog will mostly be about. I am a PWD. For those that don't know, that's an acronym for 'Person With a Disability, or 'People With Disabilities', if you're referring to the general PWD community.

That's right - 'community'.

If you've found your way here, chances are there's some of you who already identify as a PWD. And many of you probably are just as aware of something I've been for a while now; that compared to other oppressed/marginalized groups like women, people of colour, LGBT people, disability is far too often not acknowledged as a factor that determines one's status in society as a result of discrimination and inequality. I'll be writing a bit more about this in greater detail, but this article by Marta Russell does a good job of explaining what I'm taking about, and the greater implications for the PWD community:

To be fair, I do see small signs of this changing, but there's still a ways to go.

But I expect I'll also be blogging about the other 'isms' racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, transphobia and sizeism, as they naturally concern me as well. Of course, there's the whole issue of intersectionality as well. I'll also be writing about other miscellaneous subjects of interest as they come up. My job is to inform and educate, but I hope I learn more in the process too.