Running the gauntlet of humiliation: Disablement in/as Trauma

Abstract

Disablement takes place within the politics of humiliation when political, social or religiously motivated anger leaves its mark on another’s body (Consider the iconic photo of double-amputee Jeff Bauman from the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing). Once an image of disablement has served its usefulness for fanning retaliatory emotions, humiliation will still “ghost” the person living with disability. After establishing the rationale for thinking disablement within the social affect cloud of humiliation, the essay considers Bruce Shelley’s claim that “Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God." Working the gospels as training manuals for the passions, “the little path of humility” emerges as the event of resurrection for surviving, survivable bodies.